This Mortal Coil
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4.6 • 42 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“Redefines ‘unputdownable.’” —Amie Kaufman, New York Times bestselling author of Illuminae
“I was thrilled. I was shocked.” —NPR
“Stunning twists and turns.” —BCCB (starred review)
In this gripping debut novel, seventeen-year-old Cat must use her gene-hacking skills to decode her late father’s message concealing a vaccine to a horrifying plague.
Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.
That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.
When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.
Now Cat must decide who she can trust: The soldier with secrets of his own? The father who made her promise to hide from Cartaxus at all costs? In a world where nature itself can be rewritten, how much can she even trust herself?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For two years, 17-year-old Catarina Agatta, a talented hacker, has survived on her own in the Black Hills: her scientist father, Lachlan, was taken by the powerful Cartaxus organization after the Hydra plague brought humanity to its knees. It's dangerous outside: mindless, cannibalistic humans called Lurkers roam, and those infected with the virus explode at the final stage of the disease, spreading it through the air. Only eating a victim's flesh provides temporary immunity ("This is the Hydra virus's cruelest side: It forces the healthy to eat the sick"). When Cole Franklin, a Cartaxus soldier, brings news that Lachlan is dead and Cat must decrypt a Hydra vaccine that he developed, she agrees to help. Suvada's scary, action-packed debut novel barely takes a breath, and its exploration of what makes us human goes well below the surface. Despite some familiar elements in the novel such as Cat's struggles with her father's motives, a love triangle, and her own identity Suvada's vibrantly imagined technology will spark readers' imaginations. A genuinely shocking twist sets up a planned sequel. Ages 14 up.
Customer Reviews
This Mortal Coil is brilliant science fiction!
*Review originally posted to my blog, {Books She Reads}. Portions of this review have been modified.*
This Mortal Coil is brilliant science fiction! Emily Suvada’s post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel has consistent suspense that will keep you turning the pages from beginning to end. It became pretty obvious early on that Suvada knows the workings of DNA and code in order to bring This Mortal Coil to life.
Emily Suvada has a brilliant mind, and it shines through on every page of This Mortal Coil.
Told exclusively from the point of view of Catarina, I was brought into a world that allows genetics and technology to work alongside each other. What if you could “dress up” your DNA by downloading an app? Want pink hair? done. Want scales for skin? done. Want to be six inches taller? done. Have a broken bone? a virus? a gunshot wound? it’s a simple download and your healing at an accelerated rate. Hackers are no longer limited to computers and phones, they can hack the genes of any human with a panel. All of this is explored in a world that has been drastically changed due to a prehistoric biological virus that causes those who are infected to explode. A virus that mutates faster than a vaccine can be coded.
I have so many notes on the characters and workings of this book. I love it when I read a science fiction or fantasy novel that has been so well constructed that I have pages of notes to keep it all organized. I realize now, as I am writing this, that sounds scary. It’s not. This is just one of my quirks of being a book reviewer. You don’t HAVE to keep notes in order to understand and keep up. Emily Suvada does an excellent job of explaining how everything works and provides reminders in all the right places.
My only negative is all of the information that was thrown at me in the last chunk of the book with no explanations to follow. It was expected, I knew this was a trilogy going into it but it doesn’t lessen the sting of a cliff-hanger. Good news is that book two, This Cruel Design, is out so you can binge them both (like I did) but we will still need to wait for book three, which won’t be released until sometime in late 2019 (I am assuming. fingers crossed for sooner).
If you’re in the mood for a suspenseful, post-apocalyptic science fiction with a dash of romance, you need to pick up a copy of This Mortal Coil. You might want to go ahead and pick up a copy of This Cruel Design as well, you’re going to want it.