ARC Review: The Originals - Cat Patrick

Title: The Originals
Author: Cat Patrick
Pub Date: May 7th, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown
Page Count: 304

A riveting new story from Cat Patrick, author of Forgotten and Revived.

17-year-olds Lizzie, Ella, and Betsey Best grew up as identical triplets... until they discovered a shocking family secret. They're actually closer than sisters, they're clones. Hiding from a government agency that would expose them, the Best family appears to consist of a single mother with one daughter named Elizabeth. Lizzie, Ella, and Betsey take turns going to school, attending social engagements, and a group mindset has always been a de facto part of life...

Then Lizzie meets Sean Kelly, a guy who seems to see into her very soul. As their relationship develops, Lizzie realizes that she's not a carbon copy of her sisters; she's an individual with unique dreams and desires, and digging deeper into her background, Lizzie begins to dismantle the delicate balance of an unusual family that only science could have created.

            I actually received an outdated ARC with a really cool cover that I haven’t ever seen in stores. I was so excited to start reading it because I felt like was kind of hyped and because at the time, it was on twitter a lot!

            When I actually started reading, I was both disappointed and surprised. I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t something that I can say that I loved. I think it was the hype and my expectations that probably ruined the book for myself so yes, I am going to blame myself for this. I theorized the book even before reading and because my idea of this book was so far different from what actually happen, I let myself down... heavily.

            The easiest thing to start with is probably the title. “The Originals” is actually a great title with the idea of a clone. As well as my initial plot idea, I had an idea that it could be this epic mission on the clones finding the original and this story had nothing to do with that. “The Original” is mentioned at times, though never met and also barely part of the storyline, though the title of the book... is The Originals.... Make sense? I didn’t get it that much, either.

What I expected was something like Escape from Witch Mountain. Does that make sense? That movie isn’t too old... right? Anyway, I expected something with clones and a lot of running from the government and what I call: the best of sci-fi. Now, obviously, this didn’t happen. What I got instead was 3 cloned sisters living one life under a tyrannical mother. One of the sister gets a hipster moment and goes “I’m an individual!” and proceeds to fall in love with a guy and ultimately spilling the secret her mother had maintained for years. After, the clones are pursued by their Mother’s old co-worker (scientist) and events occur that lead Lizzie to hate her mother.

           

            I didn’t like the MC. Lizzie was far too naive and stupid for my taste. She believed in being an individual, but at the same time, didn’t care about what the repercussions of her actions would be. For example: if she changed her look and her hair was styled differently, her other sisters would suffer because all 3 of them are supposed to be the same person. She was also very rushy into different things without thinking it through. I will admit that it’s the teenage thing to do, but I honestly expect that if you’ve got this kind of life, you should know to be cautious.

            The love interest is also this guy (named Sean) who kind of appears out of nowhere. I didn’t like him and I didn’t NOT like him. He really didn’t have much of a personality in my opinion. Being perfectly gentlemanly and well... perfect isn’t a personality trait. He was both perfect and imperfect at the same time. He was that “perfect” that made him kind of inhuman and hard to relate to. I can see why Lizzie fell for him and maybe YA characters like that kind of thing. I’m 150% for bad boys and I always root for the bad boy so someone like Sean is the complete opposite of the ideal book boyfriend for me.

As well as his love with Lizzie was too impromptu and it was kind of like instalove to me. I can see where it developed and it started as just a little infatuation, so I’m glad that if kind of grew from that. By the end of the book, it was quite a strong relationship and I found it cute, but I can’t forget that its root was an instalove. Because it’s instalove, my rating is automatically dropped one star. Usually because of instalove, I stop reading, but I didn’t want to stop.

I had hoped this story would have a lot of substance, but it totally lacked a problem. It was more like “a day in the life of a highschooler” with the addition of the highschooler having a bit of sci-fi in the story. It didn’t have the thrill or the BOOM moment that the foreshadowing seemed to be leading up to. I inferred there to be some kind of dramatic moment of “what’s going to happen next?” but it was really light and totally opposite of what I expected.

The world seemed okay. It was tolerable and real world-ish as well, it worked better than I expected. No one suspected that there were 3 clones living under 1 life. The people in the community also added to make the entire place under some illusion these clones are hiding.

Patrick has writing that is flowy and easy to breeze through because the book was so short! It flew by fast and was a very easy read, which is good. At least, it wasn’t slow and agonizing (and mind numbing). It went by really fast, but it lacked story to actually make me think. I’m not really that person who likes to read things that won’t leave me in a mourning period afterwards.

I truly think that this book is okay. I bet it would’ve been better for me if I hadn’t speculated on the plot. It didn’t have enough of a story for me and felt more like fluff. But at the same time, it’s a cute love story that would honestly do better as contemporary, rather than a sci-fi. The “sci-fi” aspect is just to make it so that Lizzie can say “I’m different from my clone sisters.” This can easily be changed to having sisters that are beautiful and smart, while Lizzie being the shadowed child.

I’d recommend it if you’re looking for something fluffier and not majorly sci-fi. Give it a try, you never know!

Cat Patrick is an author of books for teens. Her debut novel, FORGOTTEN (available now), is about a girl who can remember the future instead of the past, and was praised by NYT bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher, as a "mindbending," one-sitting read. The book is being translated into 21 languages and Paramount bought the movie rights, with True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld attached to star as the main character, London Lane.

Patrick's second (unrelated) novel, REVIVED, is about a girl who's part of a secret government program to test a drug that brings people back from the dead. REVIVED will be available in the US May 2012, and in the UK and Australia Summer 2012.

Patrick lives near Seattle with her husband and twin 3-year-olds, and is afraid of zombies, planes, and zombies on planes.

Visit her online at www.catpatrick.com.