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Monday, May 13, 2013

Perception by Lee Strauss and Elle Strauss

Perception is the first in a new YA dystopian series, set in a reasonably near future dealing with effects of climate change and scientific advances that are not always ethically motivated.

Book Description:  Seventeen year old Zoe Vanderveen is a GAP--a genetically altered person. She lives in the security of a walled city on prime water-front property along side other equally beautiful people with extended life spans.Her brother Liam is missing.

Noah Brody is a natural who lives on the outside. He leads protests against the GAPs and detests the widening chasm they've created between those who have and those who don't. He doesn't like girls like Zoe and he has good reason not to like her specifically.


An interesting look at the social schisms created by wealth and the opportunity to "buy" extended life and great genes.  I think everyone has some qualms about what science is capable of and how to make moral decisions concerning scientific advances.  

I don't believe that moral and ethical decisions must be religiously motivated, and the book does have a definite Christian perspective that  could have been a bit less emphasized.  Although it only distracts mildly from the story, it came across as a little preachy at times and morality is not an exclusively religious purview.  

An interesting plot with likable characters in Zoe and Noah.  Suspense and mystery and young romance should appeal to the age group for which it was written.  

Net Galley ARC/All Night Reads

Mystery/Dystopian/YA.  2012.  241 pages.







2 comments:

  1. Oh this sounds interesting. I haven't read a good YA book in a while and I do like dystopian settings. Must add to the list!

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  2. Iliana - Definitely a YA novel, but some thoughtful comments about the potential for abuse of science that we all think about.

    I still love my small journals that you made, Iliana!

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