Ringer by Lauren Oliver

SPOILER ALERT:

This is book 2 in the Replica duology. I do not have a review of Replica because I read it before starting this blog. 

Three weeks after Gemma returns home and Lyra is reunited with the father she doesn't remember, the Suits come after the Replicas. When Gemma tries to warn Lyra she is mistaken for a Replica and herded into an abandoned rural airport. Lyra travels to Pennsylvania with Caelum, the Replica who helped her survive the fire at Haven. Lyra and Caelum search for Haven's “God” to save Lyra from the prions eating away at her brain. Gemma, once she's locked up with four Replicas who look exactly like her, can't convince anyone she's not really a Replica. After befriending one of her Replicas, Calliope, she realizes just how different the Replicas are. 

When I read Replica, I read all of Gemma's story and then all of Lyra's story. So this time I decided to mix the stories up. Lauren Oliver gives us the choice as to how we read this story and it's wonderful. When you have multiple narrators, most authors switch back and forth when they want to, meaning they're controlling how you read and interpret the story. But what if you could choose who to follow and when you follow them? Would it change your reading experience? 

I started with Gemma and read the first half of her part one before reading all of Lyra's part one, finishing with Gemma's. Part two was Gemma, Lyra, Gemma, Lyra. Part three was Gemma, Lyra, Gemma. 

This is a crazy book, however you read it. Oliver weaves science (prion disease) with the dystopian (the government using clones and “orphans” for human medical testing). While Lyra, our “Replica” isn't actually a clone and her friend Gemma is one of the first, they have uniquely different experiences. Gemma fights against Calliope, one of her Replicas, while Lyra fights against the disease the Haven “Gods” gave her, just to save Gemma.