From Amazon.com
"When something terrifically terrible happens to you, I think your brain
doesn't get it, for quite a while. You go on trying to see the world the way it was, even when common sense should tell you that everything has changed forever."
Semirah Garson is certain that nothing could ever be more horrific than what she has just lived through: a plane crash in the middle of the ocean followed by the shocking discovery that she and the other survivors are stranded on an apparently deserted island with no Target or Taco Bell in sight. But she's wrong. Because no matter how hard it is for Semi, Arnie, and Miranda to bear the sun, snakes, and fading hope of rescue, it's nothing compared to what Dr. Franklin has in store for them. It's his private island they've had the misfortune to land on. And it's his private hell they'll have to endure. Dr. Franklin is too old to test his theories of animal gene therapy on himself. He needs resilient teenage bodies that have already proven they can handle great trauma. Semi's always wondered what it might be like to breathe underwater. She just never imagined she'd know firsthand....
Veteran science fiction author Ann Halam has taken the framework of H.G. Wells's classic evolution parable The Island of Dr. Moreau and crafted an exquisitely wrought 21st-century update that plays on all our modern fears of test-tube clones and misguided medical ethics. Haunting, bold, and heartily recommended. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
From Publishers Weekly
Halam (aka adult SF and fantasy author Gwyneth Jones) delivers a nightmarish thriller of white-knuckle intensity. Semirah, the shy, self-deprecating narrator, is among a group of 50 British teen winners of a science contest who are on their way to work with conservationists in Ecuador. Disaster strikes quickly: before the first chapter ends, a plane crash (was it a foiled hijacking?) strands Semirah and two other survivors on a remote island. Slowly and surely, the author turns the screws as Semirah, in the company of smart, brave Miranda and dishonest Arnie, watches every plan founder. Arnie sneaks off on his own and, as Miranda and Semirah gradually realize the full horror of their plight, their misery and dread become almost palpable. But even the worst of their experiences seems almost idyllic when they finally find the island's inhabitants: the mad scientist Dr. Franklin and his terrified employees. Dr. Franklin can hardly wait to start performing his trans-species genetic-engineering experiments on human subjects, and Miranda and Semirah are to be his first candidates. The bogeyman had got us, Semirah realizes. Nothing could save us: but we didn't have to die screaming. The characterizations are even richer and more credible than the premise is outlandish, and Halam heightens the tension by thoroughly imagining each stage of the girls' reactions to Dr. Franklin's elaborate cruelties. Only the cathartic ending will free readers from this scary novel's inexorable pull. Ages 14-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
