The Originals

Gr 8–10—Patrick delivers a far-fetched notion in a seamlessly palatable way. Lizzie is a clone-she and her two sisters divide the day and live as if they were one girl named Elizabeth. Their doctor mother was a genetics scientist at a lab secretly working on human-cloning research, and for moral reasons, she decided to steal the babies. In Florida, the girls were being reared as triplets when Mom suddenly uprooted them to California and created new identities for them. Lizzie, the narrator, is generally happy with her strange life until she falls for classmate Sean. Although they are nearly 17, the girls have never been able to risk dating. But Sean makes it impossible not to fall in love with him and doing so will destroy their carefully constructed lie. The implications of Lizzie and Sean's relationship lead to revelations, twists, and turns in this hard-to-put down, light sci-fi tale; the intensity builds and never lets up. Give this offering to Patrick's fans and chick-lit readers ready for something a little different.—Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ