Book Review- Beta

I finished reading Beta by Rachel Cohn on Thursday night for an Around the World ARC Tour.

From Goodreads:

Elysia is created in a laboratory, born as a sixteen-year-old girl, an empty vessel with no life experience to draw from. She is a Beta, an experimental model of a teenage clone. She was replicated from another teenage girl, who had to die in order for Elysia to exist.

Elysia's purpose is to serve the inhabitants of Demesne, an island paradise for the wealthiest people on earth. Everything about Demesne is bioengineered for perfection. Even the air induces a strange, euphoric high, which only the island's workers--soulless clones like Elysia--are immune to.

At first, Elysia's life is idyllic and pampered. But she soon sees that Demesne's human residents, who should want for nothing, yearn. But for what, exactly? She also comes to realize that beneath the island's flawless exterior, there is an under-current of discontent among Demesne's worker clones. She knows she is soulless and cannot feel and should not care--so why are overpowering sensations cloud-ing Elysia's mind?

If anyone discovers that Elysia isn't the unfeeling clone she must pretend to be, she will suffer a fate too terrible to imagine. When her one chance at happi-ness is ripped away with breathtaking cruelty, emotions she's always had but never understood are unleashed. As rage, terror, and desire threaten to overwhelm her, Elysia must find the will to survive.

The first in a dazzlingly original science fiction series from best-selling author Rachel Cohn, "Beta "is a haunting, unforgettable story of courage and love in a cor-rupted world.

I started off completely intrigued and interested in this book.  Right away I knew that this book was going to be a top one for me.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  The farther I got into the book, the weirder it was for and I didn't enjoy it as much.

The beginning started off great.  I loved reading about how Elysia saw the world and encountered everything for the first time.  I loved reading about how she took everything so literal and was trying to get the hang of things.  I found "Mother" to be a little creepy and that it was weird about how she was basically replacing an older child who went away to college, but I like the brother Ivan.

But then things got weird.  These Betas were basically slaves and there was going to be an insurrection.  I thought that Ivan's friends were weird and that her relationship with Tahir was too fast .  I went from being completely into the story to it just being okay.

Then at the end, something happens and I hated Ivan.  I feel that part was so unecessary and it completely turned me off to the story.  I dunno.  The beginning of the book had such promise that I wish the whole book was that way!

I gave this book a rating of 3.5/5.

Beta will be released on October 16, 2012.

This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2012 Reading Challenge 150+: 73
2012 ARC Reading Challenge: 60
2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 63

*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free for an honest review as part of the Around the World Tours.