The Originals

Starred review from April 15, 2013
Patrick (Revived) is making a niche for herself with high-concept romantic thrillers about girls whose realities are far from the norm, and her third novel may be her best yet. Lizzie is a clone, one of three 16-year-old “sisters,” raised under the strict supervision of their scientist mother. Everyone outside the house thinks Lizzie, Ella, and Betsey are the same person, Elizabeth Best, since their mother has the girls living in shifts: Ella goes to school in the morning, Lizzie takes the midday shift, and Betsy gets evenings. The girls are growing increasingly resistant to this arrangement, especially after Lizzie and Ella fall for two different boys at school. Having three girls masquerade as one certainly sets the stage for conflict, but it’s the strong bond between the three girls as they begin to assert themselves, as well as Lizzie’s tantalizing and clandestine new relationship with classmate Sean Kelly, that will keep readers riveted. Patrick doesn’t dwell on the science behind the story, but instead uses cloning as a vehicle to explore themes of identity, sisterhood, and family. Ages 12–up. Agent: Daniel Lazar, Writers House.

April 1, 2013
Can you really own your life if you have to share it with two other people? Born together from the same birth mother, 17-year-olds Lizzie, Ella and Betsey should be triplets. They are not: They are clones of a baby simply known as the Original. When their geneticist birth mother's lab came under scrutiny seven years ago, she whisked them away to start a new life in hiding. The cloned teens collectively become known as Elizabeth Best, with each girl allowed out of the house for a third of the day to spend time at school or evening classes. Set in the present day, this science-fiction thriller is narrated in the present tense by Lizzie, who begins questioning her lack of freedom, especially when it comes to dating, and happens upon an uncanny look-alike on the Internet. As she risks more trips out of the house and a clandestine relationship with Sean, Lizzie discovers that her mother has some secrets of her own. With Lizzie as ringleader, the sisters, each with distinct personalities, set out to uncover the truth about their past and pave new futures of their own. Although contrived elements of suspense keep the story from being as taut as the author's previous novel, Forgotten (2011), readers will enjoy the quick pacing and speculating on science's ethical dilemmas. Provocative. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

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July 1, 2013

Gr 8-10-Patrick delivers a far-fetched notion in a seamlessly palatable way. Lizzie is a clone-she and her two sisters divide the day and live as if they were one girl named Elizabeth. Their doctor mother was a genetics scientist at a lab secretly working on human-cloning research, and for moral reasons, she decided to steal the babies. In Florida, the girls were being reared as triplets when Mom suddenly uprooted them to California and created new identities for them. Lizzie, the narrator, is generally happy with her strange life until she falls for classmate Sean. Although they are nearly 17, the girls have never been able to risk dating. But Sean makes it impossible not to fall in love with him and doing so will destroy their carefully constructed lie. The implications of Lizzie and Sean's relationship lead to revelations, twists, and turns in this hard-to-put down, light sci-fi tale; the intensity builds and never lets up. Give this offering to Patrick's fans and chick-lit readers ready for something a little different.-Tara Kehoe, Plainsboro Public Library, NJ

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