Cat Patrick’s books are nothing but original. The best way I would describe her books are teen romance with a science fiction twist. Forgotten is about a girl whose short-term memory is erased each night and she can only “remember” events from her future. She falls in love and has to write notes at night to remind her about her boyfriend in the morning. Revived is about a girl who was one of the first subjects in a covert programme that tests a drug called Revive. She has died and been Revived five times, but in order to live a normal life and have relationships, she has to escape from the programme. Cat’s latest book, The Originals, is equally as original and gripping.
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.
The Originals is a genre-bending novel that draws you into the lives of three very different girls who share one life. Romance, science fiction, mystery, suspense, secrets and lies are all mashed-up in this very cool story. One of the things I like the most about Cat Patrick’s books is that she keeps surprising me. Just when you think she couldn’t possibly top her previous book, she does. I love the way that Cat weaves science fiction into her stories and it’s this element that really draws me to her stories.
Cat’s characters are always memorable and this is certainly the case with the Best girls. The story is narrated by Lizzie so you get to know her the most and get inside her head, but Cat really fleshes out the characters of Betsey and Ella too. Through Lizzie you get a sense of how frustrating, confusing, and unfair it is to live a third of your life. You are stuck taking the same subjects (even if you’re no good at them), if you’ve got the first or second part of the day you can never go out at night, and if two of you like two different guys you all have to decide which one you’ll date.
I’m not a huge teen romance reader but one thing I really like about Cat’s books is that the love interest isn’t some super hot guy that drips testosterone. Sean in The Originals, much like Luke in Forgotten and Matt in Revived, is an average guy who is intelligent, talented and caring. As a teenage guy reading this book I would have found Sean alot easier to live up to than many other males in teen fiction.
If you haven’t discovered Cat Patrick you don’t know what you’re missing. Read The Originals and you’ll be hooked.
