'The Originals' by Cat Patrick

Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

To the outside world, Elizabeth Best is a model student. She's a cheerleader, gets straight As and holds down an after-school job. But what the outside world doesn't know is that Elizabeth Best is actually three girls. Lizzie, Betsey and Ella are no ordinary triplets. Born as part of an illegal cloning program, the girls were forced into hiding when the program was uncovered. To avoid being taken away, the girls have lived as one girl ever since. Living a third of a life can suck. Imagine having to consult your sisters before choosing your clothes, or hairstyle, or boyfriend. So when Lizzie is forbidden from seeing Sean, the amazing guy from her English class, she and her sisters decide they've had enough. But for a chance at a full life, they'll have to risk everything they know.

One of the reasons I love Cat Patrick is because I find her so hard to explain to other people. Whenever I ‘pitch’ a Cat Patrick book, I can never do her justice in trying to explain her unique contemporary/magical-realism-esque plots that make her a sort of Isabel Allende or Alice Hoffman for the younger set. That being said, with each new book that she brings out, I’m afraid she’s starting to lose that quirky edge and magic realist spin. 

‘Forgotten’ was about a girl who remembers her future, but forgets her past. She’s an anomaly who works hard to hide her deficiency, and is just trying to grow up as a normal girl in a small town and get closer to a guy she can’t remember she likes. I loved the balance of out-of-this-world with the struggle for normalcy, and while Patrick does eventually glimpse the roots of the backwards-forwards problem, ‘Forgotten’ doesn’t hinge on a solution and actually leaves off with a fair bit of mystery and magic still swirling.

Second book, ‘Revived’ is about a secret government agency responsible for a drug that brings people back from the dead, and one girl who has lived so many different lives … until she meets the one boy who makes her want to stay in this one. I liked ‘Revived’, maybe not as much as ‘Forgotten’, but it was still a winner for me. 

Third book, ‘The Originals’, brings in yet another secret government agency (a different one, not the same from ‘Revived’) that clone-sisters Lizzie, Ella, and Betsey Best and their lab technician mother are on the run from. For much of their lives, the girls thought they were triplets – until they were woken up in the dead of night by their mother and told the truth, and forced to run. It turns out that, after their mother lost her baby daughter, she went against her company and cloned her dead baby’s DNA, creating Lizzie, Ella, and Betsey. Now teenagers, the three girls live under the guise of ‘Elizabeth’ Best and each is allotted a third of the day to play out the role. But when both Lizzie and Ella develop feelings for two very different boys, they realize how much they’re not carbon copies and are actually desperate to break away from this triumvirate. 

There were elements of ‘The Originals’ that I really loved; one being the genetic engineering that’s explored, with the ethical issues of ‘playing God’ (a role, I would say, the girls’ mother takes very seriously and tyrannically). I also appreciated that the girls’ were created, not from a place of scientific experimentation, but parental love and loss. The story about their mother losing her baby is a haunting and deeply affecting one, and will certainly make some people sympathise with her (possibly not throughout though, as the story evolves). And I appreciated the fact that all three girls are very different, and although Lizzie is our narrator, Patrick definitely lets it be known that these are three very different individuals being straight-jacketed into one personality. 

“I’m not sulky,” I snap. “I’m just … over it.”  

“Over what?” 

Immediately, I want to take back what I said, not because I didn’t mean it, but I don’t want to get into a big discussion about it. I think Mum believes that we’re content or at least satisfied with the situation. And I guess until recently, we have been. I have been…maybe because I didn’t know any better. But now I know things need to change… I just don’t know how. And without knowing, now’s not the time to open that can of catastrophe. 

And there’s a very nice, VERY complicated romance at its heart, when Lizzie falls for a boy called Sean Kelly, while her sister Ella likes a Neanderthal called David …and their mother allows the girls to date only one boy (between them) and she chooses David over Sean. Yeah, it’s deliciously, unnervingly complicated and just the sort of push that Lizzie needs to start thinking about what she wants and what she’s not willing to give up.

So, there was a lot that I liked … but at the same time, some stuff just didn’t work. It’s understandable that a book about clones would have to some how bring in a government agency (or else be set in the future or an alternate world?) and Patrick touches on the trauma that the girls have gone through, being on the run from their mother’s former employer and the fact that she broke every single, ethical rule to bring them into this world. That’s a big set-up, right there. But the thing is, Patrick doesn’t want to concentrate on the government agency angle. This is, instead, very much a book about first love, coming-of-age and breaking away from your family to stand on your own two feet … all while being a clone, albeit. I was reminded of that old writing idiom, that if there’s a shotgun on the wall in Act I then it has to be fired by Act III; except it doesn’t go off in ‘The Originals’, making for a somewhat lacklustre end. 

See, this is the problem. I loved that ‘Forgotten’ had the quirky set-up but none of the big bang stuff, involving government conspiracies and a teenager on the run. Likewise, I quite liked that ‘Revived’ was all about a girl who has grown up within the conspiracy institution. ‘The Originals’ feels like an odd mash-up of the two; government conspiracy is how the characters got to the sticky situation they’re in, but the whole story is about first love, as opposed to government menace. It left questions hanging, bought the tension and high-stakes down by a few notches and just seemed a little confused, all round.

I still love Cat Patrick, and I’m actually relieved to read the blurb of her fourth book (with Suzanne Young) coming in August 2013 and called ‘Just Like Fate’ – which sounds like it has more of that magical-realism, teen-angst mix-up that I so loved in ‘Forgotten.’ I’d still say that Cat Patrick is one author you have to read, if only to bask in the brilliance of her eclectic and unique stories … but maybe go for ‘Forgotten’ or ‘Revived’ over ‘The Originals.’

3/5

'Revived' by Cat Patrick

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

As a little girl, Daisy Appleby was killed in a school bus crash. Moments after the accident, she was brought back to life.

A secret government agency has developed a drug called Revive that can bring people back from the dead, and Daisy Appleby, a test subject, has been Revived five times in fifteen years. Daisy takes extraordinary risks, knowing that she can beat death, but each new death also means a new name, a new city, and a new life. When she meets Matt McKean, Daisy begins to question the moral implications of Revive, and as she discovers the agency’s true goals, she realizes she’s at the center of something much larger—and more sinister—than she ever imagined.

Daisy Appleby has just died . . . for the fifth time.
And now she’s coming back . . . for the fifth time.
Daisy Appleby is no more. Now she is Daisy West, and the cycle begins all over again.

Daisy’s life really only began after it ended. She was a part of the horrendous 2001 ‘bus crash on Highway 13’. You probably saw the telemovie based on the accident which killed all of the 20 Brown Academy children on board, and their driver. Except not everyone died. Fourteen children ‘survived’ the crash thanks to a drug called Revived. The children of the Highway 13 bus crash were the drug’s first real test subjects – those who did not have injuries too severe to recover from were given a dosage of Revive and were bought back to life . . .  and they have been coming back ever since.

Daisy is fifteen now and has died and Revived five times. Her latest cause of death is bee-sting, and now she has to leave her old identity in Frozen Hills behind and begin again in Nebraska, Omaha. Always accompanying Daisy are her ‘handlers’ – Mason has been with her since she was first Revived, and he is the only real father she has ever known (even before the accident she was an orphan, raised by nuns). Daisy’s newest handler is Cassie, who poses as her mother (even though they’re quite close in age).

Mason and Cassie work by the word of ‘God’ – the man behind the Revive project who keeps the test subjects hidden in plain sight, and continues their medical evaluations to track the progress of Revive. Revive is not yet available to the public – it is still a top-secret government secret . . .  and ‘God’ intends to keep it that way until further tests are carried out on the longevity of the program and its subjects.

But when Daisy arrives in Omaha, she has the sudden urge to participate and be a regular teenager. Normally she goes under the radar at new schools – she keeps in contact with her best friend (and fellow bus crash Revival survivor) Megan, but otherwise Daisy lays low and keeps her own company. But when she arrives in Omaha, Daisy wants a proper fresh start and fully intends to give herself a regular teen experience. And then she meets Audrey, and finds in her a kindred spirit and best friend. Audrey’s brother, Matt, also provides Daisy with her first real, powerful crush. Matt is beautiful and funny, and amazingly he seems to like Daisy as more than just a friend . . .

But pretty soon Daisy struggles to fit her abnormal existence into her now normal teenage life. Daisy begins questioning Revive and its moral implications – particularly when Audrey reveals a tragic secret that provokes Daisy to rally against God’s program and everything it stands for.

‘Revived’ is the new young adult stand-alone novel from Cat Patrick.

Last year I read Cat Patrick’s incredible debut novel, ‘Forgotten’. In a time when dystopian’s, zombies and vampires are ruling the YA genre, Cat Patrick wrote an amazing coming-of-age love story centred on a quirk about foretelling and future predictions. Patrick’s novel was so refreshing because the paranormal aspect was underplayed, allowing the plot’s focus to be on the love story between Luke and London – a girl who cannot remember her past but predicts her future – and the boy who is determined to be a part of both. I fell head-over-heels in love with Cat Patrick’s storytelling, and vowed to read anything else she wrote. ‘Revived’ is her second novel, and it’s just as good as her first. . .

We meet Daisy Appleby after a bee-sting kills her for the fifth time, and she is bought back to life by a drug called Revive. We follow Daisy (now Daisy West) to Omaha, where she and her Revive program handlers are settling into a new undercover life. This is nothing new for Daisy. She has been dying and coming back to life since the bus crash that originally killed her back in 2001. She has gotten so good at packing up and leaving her old life behind, that she now has it down to a fine science. . .

Maybe it’s growing up as part of an elaborate science experiment, but I can’t leave a place without conducting a postmortem. So I spend the next few hours of the drive reshashing the past three years in Frozen Hills: a mental autopsy on Daisy Appleby by newly anointed Daisy West.

But Daisy is unprepared for what her new life in Omaha has to offer. She meets and bonds with her classmate Audrey McKean, and falls into instant lust with Audrey’s brother, Matt. And when Audrey’s sad secrets are revealed, Daisy finds herself crossing lines she never dreamed she’d cross – she starts questioning God (the genius behind Revive) and asking questions about the bus crash that first killed her.

‘Revived’ is slightly different to Patrick’s debut ‘Forgotten’ – while still remaining true to the understated sci-fi that made ‘Forgotten’ so refreshing.

In ‘Forgotten’, psychic protagonist London Lane managed her visions of the future in complete secrecy – only she and her mother knew about them, and London had little interest in sharing her predictions with the world. There was no government agency involved, no lab tests or London being on the run from a conglomerate who wanted to harness her visions. ‘Revived’ is not so understated, and in this second novel Cat Patrick is following the rather more sci-fi storylines by having Daisy be a test subject in a government program. People who may have read ‘Forgotten’ and wondered how the book would have been different if Patrick had blown London’s psychic ability out of the water will enjoy ‘Revived’ for the more conspiracy-riddled storyline.

Cat Patrick asks some really interesting questions in ‘Revived’, and has created a very complex protagonist in Daisy. Revival has completely altered Daisy’s personality and persona – death has, to an extent, defined and freed her, and her entire outlook on life is informed by a certain absence of fear;

I could tell him that I’m not exactly normal when it comes to thoughts on death. I could explain that being part of a program that makes death optional is sort of like wearing a protective suit through life. That it gives me confidence that other kids don’t have. Like when I was younger and I took swimming lessons, I didn’t bawl on the side of the pool like everyone else did because I wasn’t afraid of drowning. Sure, I didn’t want to drown – I knew what it felt like – but there was no finality about it for me.
Not wanting to die is very different from being paralysed by the fear of it.

It raises the question that if you having nothing to lose, what do you have to live for? Of course Revived cannot work miracles – those beheaded or burnt in a fire could not be Revived. Likewise, the drug cannot cure cancer – anyone already dying of cancer would not be magically fixed by Revive (although tests are constantly being carried out). And even though Daisy doesn’t have the same fear of death as other people, she has had terrifying experiences with dying. She once drowned and was bought back to life, but Daisy remembers that death being particularly awful, and she is terrified of ‘reliving’ that watery demise.

Cat Patrick has definitely written a juicy moral morsel in ‘Revived’ – something for readers to chew over as they think about the benefits and drawbacks of this life-giving drug, the moral implications and potential disasters. I was reminded of Rachel Caine’s new paranormal series ‘Revivalist’, which is all about a Big-Pharma corporation who have come up with a drug to bring people back from the dead. The two books concentrate on very different aspects of revival, but both Patrick and Caine question the Big-Pharma companies who hold such God-like play in their hands. ‘Revivalist’ is much more for grown-up’s though, and has a much bigger conspiracy plot than ‘Revived’, which has a focus on Daisy and Matt’s relationship, and Daisy’s friendship with Audrey that has her questioning God and the program that has saved her five times.

For those who read and loved ‘Forgotten’, I think ‘Revived’ will be a slight disappointment in the romantic stakes. Daisy and Matt’s romance isn’t on the same, epically sweet level as London and Luke. Don’t get me wrong – Daisy and Matt have interesting hurdles to overcome and their romance is a happy respite from the conspiracy/moral focus of the plot. But the romance in ‘Revived’ is nowhere near as tempting and tantalizing as in ‘Forgotten’. It’s a bit of having your cake and eating it too . . .  for those who wished there had been a bigger focus and questioning of the sci-fi aspects in ‘Forgotten’, Cat Patrick delivers ten-fold in ‘Revived’, but she has sacrificed the romance in this second book whereas it was a real driving force in her debut.

One other small complaint I had about ‘Revived’ was wishing that Patrick hadn’t taken the easy way out and made Daisy an orphan before the bus crash. Daisy mentions a few of the Revived bus crash ‘survivors’ who had parents who had to go ‘on the run’ with their Revived children, and I thought those storylines sounded really interesting. It just seemed (initially) like a bit of a cop-out to say that Daisy was an orphan before the crash, and it was only the nuns who missed her after her reported ‘death’.

All in all, I really enjoyed ‘Revived’ and the cunning moral conundrum that Cat Patrick has written for five-times-dead protagonist, Daisy. The romance isn’t quite on-par with Luke and London of ‘Forgotten’, and for that reason some fans may count ‘Revived’ as a small disappointment. But for me, this second novel reiterated that Cat Patrick is one new YA author to look out for.

4/5

'Forgotten' by Cat Patrick

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

I remember forwards. I remember forwards, and forget backwards. My memories, bad, boring, or good, haven't happened yet. So I will remember standing in the fresh-cut grass with the black-clad figures surrounded by stone until I do it for real. I will remember the funeral until it happens - until someone dies. And after that, it will be forgotten. Here's the thing about me: I can see my future, but my past is blank. I see the future in flashes, like memories. I remember what I'll wear tomorrow, and a car crash that won't happen till this afternoon. But yesterday has evaporated from my mind - just like the boy I love. I can't see him in my future. I can't remember him from my past. But today, I love him. And I never want to forget how much.

London Lane can’t remember yesterday, but she knows what will happen tomorrow.

She can’t remember the beautiful new boy at school, but she knows she has fallen for him.

Her best friend is angry at her, but London doesn’t know why.

London’s mother is keeping secrets, but she has to rediscover them every day.

Because London forgets everything – but remembers what’s to come. Ever since she was six years old, London’s mind has reset itself at 4:33AM every day. She writes everything down, living her life note-by-note to remember.

But when a vision of a funeral intrudes on London’s mind she has to work hard to figure out who of the people she loves now, won’t be alive in her future.

‘Forgotten’ is the debut young adult novel from Cat Patrick.

Every once in a while a book comes along . . . you can be five pages or fifty into reading it, but you already know you have to pass it on. You must implore friends and family to read it – you get a visceral urge to press it into a beloved’s hands and just say, “Read it. Trust me.”

Cat Patrick’s ‘Forgotten’ is just such a book.

London Lane is somewhat psychic. Where there are holes in her past, she has sight stretching into the future – she sees herself well-travelled, pregnant, in love, out of love and living a full life. But the here and now is a different story. Her mind resets and her yesterday’s are wiped clean. So she writes notes to herself – detailing what she wore, who she talked to, if she has a Spanish quiz and what new romantic disaster her friend, Jamie, has gotten into. London Lane is a veritable Leonard Shelby – scribbling her life onto notes to fill herself in on what she will inevitably forget.

London’s memory loss is a burden, her visions an oddity. But ‘Forgotten’ is firmly grounded in reality – strange as London’s foretelling may be, Patrick does not make much of it beyond being an interesting character quirk. Initially this is a little jarring, as a reader you are inclined to curiosity about London’s Cassandra-esque visions, you want her to investigate and find answers. But when London’s vision shows her a funeral to come, there are far more pressing plot matters than the origins of her blessing/curse. And since ‘Forgotten’ is grounded in reality (with only a small flight of visionary fancy) London tackles her foretelling realistically – in the real world you’d accept the perceived craziness of your predicament and work around it, as London does. You wouldn’t make a big show and dance about being able to see the future – you’d want to b as normal as possible.

In the end I was glad Patrick didn’t turn ‘Forgotten’ into a full-blown paranormal story. Instead, the novel is an interesting exploration of grief, remembrance, guilt and fated love. The story is richer for having a character with a slight supernatural skill who tries hard not to be wholly defined by it.

At its heart, ‘Forgotten’ is a love story. The girl who can’t remember finds a boy who she falls in love with again and again every day, as though it’s the first time. Luke Henry is the charming new boy at London’s school who takes an instant shine to her loner/loyal personality. But London doesn’t see Luke in her future – so she lies to herself and breaks her own heart, trying to wipe away yesterday’s feelings for him. But, the heart wants what the heart wants – and their love grows despite London’s determined forgetting.

I wonder whether my heart keeps time even when my head doesn’t. Maybe that’s why I feel so much for Luke right now, even though I technically just me him this morning in study hall.

Luke and London’s romance is superb – it’s ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ meets ‘50 First Dates’ – and will go down as one of the greatest YA love stories of 2011. Forget vampires and fallen angels – Cat Patrick has given us epic love with a girl who forgets and the boy determined to make her remember. Sublime.

Tears upon tears splat on to the lined pages in my hands as I read about a nightmare come true. Quickly, I wipe away the saltwater so it won’t fade the ink. Because even as my chest caves in and makes me hate the chipper birds and everything else, I know that I needed to read this today, and I need to read it again tomorrow.

For me, reading is remembering.

Throughout the book I had to keep pinching myself that this is Cat Patrick’s debut novel. I needed to keep reminding myself, because ‘Forgotten’ is not the book of a novice or one-hit-wonder. It’s richly intricate and heartbreaking – London’s psyche duality aside, Patrick has managed to layer a love story and mystery atop an already complex character-explorative plot. She has so many story tendrils unfurling throughout the book, but it never felt like too much or too hectic. Everything fit beautifully – the various stories fitting like puzzles pieces and clicking with lovely finality by book’s end. And, mark my words, ‘Forgotten’ introduces Cat Patrick as an author to watch – if she’s this good in her debut I can’t wait to read what she has waiting up her sleeve.

Beautiful and beguiling, ‘Forgotten’ is a book aplenty – offering an epic love story, cunning mystery and fascinating character exposé about a girl who forgets yesterday but remembers the upcoming. ‘Forgotten’ had me devoted after one chapter. By book’s end I was ready to stand on a street corner and spruik the sucker. But more than anything I felt the need to come online and virtually implore anyone who might be perusing my blog to; “Just read it. Trust me.”

5/5