This book captured my attention right away. I was immediately intrigued by this morality study and what it meant and entailed, and then when Jessica was drawn more into it, and we started to get glimpses into Dr. Shields and her motivation behind the study, I was hooked.
There's a definite cat-and-mouse feel to the story, and you're not always sure who's the cat and who's the mouse, as there are some interesting and surprising twists.
I was engaged and intrigued through the whole book and kept picking it up to sneak in a couple pages if I found myself with a free minute in the middle of the day, because I kept thinking about the story! I understood why Jessica was drawn to Dr. Shields and continued the "study" even as more and more was asked of her. And then I was afraid for Jessica as she found herself deeper and deeper into this "study" and wondered how she would ever be able to get out of it...people like Dr. Shields do not make mistakes!
As (I assume) was their intent, I was never sure where Thomas stood, whose "side" he was on, which added another layer of suspense to the whole thing.
I thought the twists and turns were good and they kept me turning the pages, but I have to say that there were a few things that I wish had been made a little more clear. For example, while Jessica wasn't allowed to ask about the study, and we as the readers know early on what Dr. Shields' study is about with respect to Jessica's involvement, she was also conducting a "real" study with other Subjects (we know about Subject 5 and Jessica is Subject 52...we can assume there were nearly 50 other subjects), so what was the purpose of the real study? What was Ben's true role and why was he nervous when Jessica confronted him? I felt that raised questions that were never answered and may have been unnecessary.
While there were a few things like that which left me wondering (and the reason for my 4 star rating instead of 5), overall I very much enjoyed the book and thought it was a great mind-game type of thriller.
There's a definite cat-and-mouse feel to the story, and you're not always sure who's the cat and who's the mouse, as there are some interesting and surprising twists.
I was engaged and intrigued through the whole book and kept picking it up to sneak in a couple pages if I found myself with a free minute in the middle of the day, because I kept thinking about the story! I understood why Jessica was drawn to Dr. Shields and continued the "study" even as more and more was asked of her. And then I was afraid for Jessica as she found herself deeper and deeper into this "study" and wondered how she would ever be able to get out of it...people like Dr. Shields do not make mistakes!
As (I assume) was their intent, I was never sure where Thomas stood, whose "side" he was on, which added another layer of suspense to the whole thing.
I thought the twists and turns were good and they kept me turning the pages, but I have to say that there were a few things that I wish had been made a little more clear. For example, while Jessica wasn't allowed to ask about the study, and we as the readers know early on what Dr. Shields' study is about with respect to Jessica's involvement, she was also conducting a "real" study with other Subjects (we know about Subject 5 and Jessica is Subject 52...we can assume there were nearly 50 other subjects), so what was the purpose of the real study? What was Ben's true role and why was he nervous when Jessica confronted him? I felt that raised questions that were never answered and may have been unnecessary.
While there were a few things like that which left me wondering (and the reason for my 4 star rating instead of 5), overall I very much enjoyed the book and thought it was a great mind-game type of thriller.