This arc was provided to me for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

2 Stars

The Similars had so much potential to be a great story but unfortunately for me, it failed to reach it. The plot revolves around Emma, who has just lost her best friend, Oliver. To make matters worse there are now six clones who join her prestigious boarding school. Emma wants nothing to do with them even Levi, the one who was cloned after her best friend. But somehow Emma gets swept up and begins discovering the truths behind the clones. And when discovering those truths, Emma begins to fall for the boy with her dead best friends face.

I really liked the concept, it gave me sci-fi feels but it just turned into a very predictable book with all the typical tropes. (hello love triangle) The characters were very bland and not very likable especially Emma. The clones had almost zero character development which made them difficult to get to know. There were moments I did enjoy the book and I found myself wanting to continue which is why I started and finished within an entire day. But those moments were rare and by the end, I had to force myself to continue.

Overall, I couldn’t say this book was for me. I wish I would have enjoyed this book more, but it was just one of those books that ended up frustrating me more than anything. Because the potential was there, it just wasn’t able to execute a satisfying ending for me.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great YA novel that focuses on the moral aspects of cloning. I love Emma and got pulled into her story. This is an interesting novel, and I highly recommend it.

I thought that the concept for The Similars had potential. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to it for me.

I think the idea of cloning is very interesting. It brings up so many ethical questions. Some of those issues were brought up in the course of the book, however I didn’t think it was handled well. Instead of actual discussions and honest questions, it was treated like so many hot button topics are these days: with the two sides yelling their opinions at each other and not having an open mind about it at all. I get enough of this in real life, I don’t really want it in my entertainment. The author also tried to draw parallels between cloning and illegal immigration that I felt was a bit of a stretch.

I didn’t really love any of the characters. The story is told through Emma’s first person POV, so I felt like I got to know her pretty well, but character development was really lacking for everyone else. Emma was likable most of the time, though. The Similars are easily the most interesting characters of the book, but only a little bit of time is spent getting to know any of them. I didn’t really get on board the romance. Even though it was obvious what was going to happen, I still felt like it just kind of happened out of the blue.

There are two reveals towards the end of the book that I felt were supposed to be twists, but they were both things I suspected pretty early on in the story. Even though they didn’t surprise me at all, I think they have potential to provide some interesting paths in the coming books.

Overall, The Similars was just not for me. Despite an intriguing premise, the lack of character development, somewhat messy writing, and forced political overtones made this a book I was just getting through, rather than enjoying. As of right now, I’m not interested in continuing the series. I am by no means the target audience for this book, though, so those that are may find this a much better read than I did.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 2 Stars

I can’t wait for the second book in this series! This is the first book I’ve enjoyed from beginning to end in a while. I started to figure out the twist at the end but not really until the last 3 chapters but that didn’t ruin it for me at all.

Emma and her school mates finds out that six of them have been cloned and that their clones will be joining them at their boarding school. Emma isn't interested, she's still trying to come to turns with her best friend Oliver's suicide. But what will she did when she finds out one of the clones has Oliver's face? And just what are the clones hiding? This book is going to be one of the bestsellers of 2019!

This book was definitely a fast pasted, hard to put down read. The concept was thoroughly interesting but the plot left me wanting more. Due to so many characters it was hard to connect with their stories, and the conflict felt rushed and too much. Despite that, I enjoyed the read and will be waiting for the next one in the series!

WOW! I loved this book. Thrilling from beginning to end, I couldn't put it down! Emma is experiencing such relatable heartbreak after losing her best friend Oliver to suicide over the summer. So imagine how much harder that is when she finds out that his clone will be attending school with her. Not to mention all the mystery and intrigue surrounding the clones as they join their originals and as you delve deeper into the school itself. I highly recommend this book!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.

Great dystopian novel! I only call it dystopian because of the cloning and technology but it had a modern day feel to it. I really enjoyed this book a lot and loved how it pretty much felt so real. In a world where cloning is against the law in some parts of the world a scientific “madman” clones some of the students of an elite school. This is the year that the student’s find out who was “cloned” and their Similars( as they have chosen to be called) start attending this prestigious school along with their counterparts.

This was interesting in that this story is kind of mirroring our society today. The Similar’s are not being accepted by a big part of the country. Political groups have prejudices and biases towards them and are trying to make it illegal for these people to be in America.

There is a budding romance in this book which is always a plus. A lot of plot twists and the ending left you wanting more. This book doesn’t even come out until 2019 so the sequel will be a long wait. This was a pretty fast read that kept you interested. An original story.

Emma is a student at the prestigious,high ranking boarding school, Darkwood. She has just returned for the new school year after a heart breaking summer. Emma is returning to school without her best friend Oliver and with anticipation of meeting the six new Darkwood students, known as the 'Similars'. These new students aren't just normal students but clones of Darkwood students.
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Emma is thrown into a school year of mystery, while trying to get to the bottom of her roommates accident to protecting the Similars from becoming research experiments of the schools headmistress!
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This story is hybrid I felt of Twilight and Monster High, although much darker at times. The writer was able to combine a mix of fantasy, romance and thriller to the best levels without the tipping of scales. I was always telling myself 'one more chapter' but as we know that doesn't always happen. I loved this author's work, and look forward to her future work. I highly recommend this, mostly to young adults but will also be enjoyed by adults alike!

This had a really concept, but it also felt like it had everything and the kitchen sink thrown into it. I found the villain and their motivation to be bizarre, and their plan was just plain convoluted. I will say that the final chapter is very effective in making the reader want a sequel.

This was a really weird book with an interesting premise but it just didn't hit that high note for me at times that I wanted it too. So many times I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and it just didn't. It was just so-so. It was good but it could have been great.

I received this book for free on Netgalley for a review. I requested it because I thought the cover was *kisses fingertips* fantastically designed, and the summary sounded like the sort of thing I'd like.

I'm struggling to write and rate this properly. I sort of skimmed reviews when I was 25% into the book, and was surprised to see most pointing out a discrepancy between the beginning and the end of the book- but having read it, I agree. The start is a solid 5 stars, and the book declines in quality around 50%, with the very end being... below average quality.



World
Set in a slightly vague future, The Similars is centered on cloning- more specifically, a group of six illegally made clones who attend an elite boarding school, five of them doing so alongside the children they were cloned from. Cloning is illegal and prohibited in the United States, and they are not well liked by many of their peers (and the families who only just learned they existed)- this sets a stage of tension.

Beyond this, the clones (who have named themselves 'The Similars') are strange. Their whole existence was unknown until a few months ago, and they were raised on a private island, with no contact to the outside world. They already don't fit in.

Technologically, I enjoyed the level the book was at. There was solid AI, self driving vehicles, hologram technology, nanobots- a lot of believable technological advancements, generally integrated well enough into the world. Of course, most of the book takes place on campus of the school, Darkwood, which is on a tech blackout. We don't experience a lot of the future tech until late in the book, which makes it slightly jarring.

Setting
Darkwood. Dark Lake. Hades' Point. Ah, YA. These are names right out of a cheesy paranormal-romance book, and my friend even suggested they might be placeholders. I kind of doubt it, but I found it a little silly.

Also, this book takes place in Vermont. As a Vermonter/super fan of the state, I will do a Vermont Review at the end of this review to let you know how vermont-true it was. Spoilers: I concluded pretty early on the author just chose it because it's rural and has a lot of trees.

Setting wise, the book takes place mostly over a school year, but we get surprisingly little description of any of it. I have little idea how any of the buildings or grounds look, or even how big Darkwood is. The book has tension and atmosphere in the beginning, but this is all plot generated- it lacks environmental feeling. A lot of the words were just first person narration and character focused, and while that was well enough, I wanted a little more to feel grounded.

Especially since, as a Vermont-kid, I really was looking forward to like, one line about Vermont weather. Not even one mention of autumn leaves, huh?

Characters
There's slightly too many characters for this book, or really, names I am meant to keep track of. There's the main character and the Similars, of course. Then there's the 'popular kids' clique, which overlaps with the kids the Similars are cloned from. This is already over ten names, which is, well, a lot.

It's be more manageable if a lot of the story didn't overlap with everyone's parents- as in, nearly doubling the amount of key named characters in the book. I understood who the main names were, but was always thrown when Mean Girl Number Two's Dad was referred to by first name, like I was meant to remember him.

The characters themselves are tricky for me. At first I didn't think anything of them, but as the book went on, I started to realize many of them were one-note, and a few were quite interchangeable. It's to make every character memorable, especially when there's over six of them to introduce, but I found even among the 'main-er' cast I couldn't really remember what separated them. Who was Sarah again? Was there anything notable about Tessa? Theodora just sort of came and went in having speaking lines, and then Maude near the end sounded just like her anyways, so...

It's for sure hard to tackle that many characters, but most of them were relatively irrelevant, so I didn't mind much. It's the very one-note-ness of the minor characters which bothers me. The mean girl Madison? Yeah, she's just exactly the same the entire book, a caricature of a rude mean girl with an evil streak. The villains all follow this pattern of being extremely evil and simple characters, with no depth or nuance. That just ain't great.

Lastly, the main character. This is a first person narrative, and one that does the whole inner voice thing well enough. I rolled my eyes at Emma at first, but I liked her enough, and she was very motivated and action-taking as a protagonist. She said what was on her mind, and was determined to learn what she needed to know. That drive is good.

Depression Talk
One thing that concerns me, however, is the portrayal of depression in this book. In the beginning I rolled my eyes but was secretly a little pleased to find Emma was extremely depressed at the beginning of the book, with suicidal thoughts. Weird sentence there, but as someone who has had depression since childhood and been suicidal plenty of times, I found some of the feelings and descriptions of Emma's pain relatable.

The first line of the book is "I don't actively want to die. Not all the time." This is a very Big Mood, as the kids say, and a great first line. The trouble I have, however, with Emma's depression is that is paints a very... anti-medication vibe.

Emma is very depressed and keeps popping 'pharma', which nulls her feelings. It's extremely odd and nonsensical to me that any sort of SSRI would ever be distributed in pill form, as dosing and long term doses are the whole thing that makes them work. Anyways, Emma does this because she is depressed, but early on she dumps them all down the drain, and honestly not that long after that, she just stops really acting or sounding deeply depressed. The suicidal thoughts and jokes are over. I guess the plot got in the way, but again, I'm rather frustrated with this picture is that Emma essentially cures her depression by suddenly stopping her medication. Yes, whatever weirdo pill she was taking was not a proper SSRI, but it was prescribed to her by a psychiatrist, so we have to assume it's equivalent, and proper medical practice.

Depression is not cured by simply stopping taking your meds. Medication is good. Stopping your medication makes you extremely nauseous and ill, and eventually will likely just send you back to where you begin again. There is this narrative you see sometimes, that medication is controlling people's minds, and that if you just get off your pills and take yoga, you'll realize this. Nope! Clinical depression is a disease like any other. You can recover from it, and get off your meds, but this is done through slowly lowering your dose, and lots of therapy. Trust me, I am excited to lower my meds, but they do not 'change how I think' or mess with me in any way- they keep me alive.

Ugh, I didn't realize how much I cared about this until I wrote it out, but it has been bothering me. I'm on the maximum possible prozac prescription, and no, it has not turned me into an empty robot. It keeps me stable and helps my mind work like it is meant to.

Plot & romance & the second half
So, I don't want to giveaway any spoilers as this is an ARC, so I'll have to keep a number of things vague.

The love interest, Levi (predictable; not a spoiler) is a hate-to-love relationship for the narrator. I was wholly indifferent to them and their chemistry. Later on I liked him due to the personal and ethics issues his life and story brings up, but I didn't see the connection with him and Emma, and I didn't like it at all when they got down to kissing.

The beginning and introduction of the plot sets up a lot of questions, and this is luckily the sort of book that actually answers them. There's mysteries and drama ahoy early on, making it a light, engaging read. I wanted answers, and I enjoyed trying to guess and figure out what was going on. The only out of place thing was the cartoonish-ness of some of the anti-clone stuff, which was surely meant to mirror civil rights things but instead felt hackey.

As we went on, however, things got weird.

Nothing was wholly out of place for the world, but some things just seemed to happen to raise questions, making parts of the book feel like a Series of Inexplicable Events. We learn some things about the Similars that are just silly- they already were silly enough, mind you, with their five languages and super smarts. It's a blessing they aren't also all inexplicably hot.

The climax was where things began to feel increasingly like a middle grade novel, or I guess a very cliche young adult movie for an unfamiliar book. The villain is cartoonishly evil, his motives bland and uninteresting. We have like two chapters of exposition in a row, and some silly dream sequence stuff. A lot of dream/unreality stuff, actually, which is pretty much always a don't in holding my attention.

The book with one cliffhanger which I am fine with, but suggests another which I abhor: the dreaded 'main character is somehow special' trope. It's far better to have a normal character caught up in things than have your main character be unique and wrapped right into everything. It makes the whole logic feel too deliberately planned and out of place.

Overall
This book was hittin' me up at five stars in the beginning. It read well, but that wellness fell apart the further I got, deteriorating in a weak climax, boring villains, and uninteresting answers. The fact it's a series doesn't help, since I can't quite imagine what the next book or two will be, and I'm not fully sure if I'm interested.

It was engaging, but it really just chipped away at me towards the end, so I'm settling with three stars.

The cover, since I mentioned it before, is wonderful. So pleasing to look at! So nice and aesthetic! I really enjoy the text and image editing that went into this.

VERMONT RATING
Oh man!!!! When I read the first paragraph and saw this was set in Vermont, I freaked out. I laughed, I cried, I was happy, I was afraid. I felt every human emotion in the world. Vermont never shows up in media, especially book genres I actually read, so I had a lot of questions.

Has the author ever been to Vermont? Is she from here? Where in Vermont is this? Does she know anything at all about Vermont, its culture, and climate?

Gonna go with a high 'nah' on that. Vermont fans, turn your eyes: due to the lack of environmental atmosphere and description, this book has nothing that makes Darkwood feel placed in Vermont, and nothing Vermont about anything at all. Characters do not dress or act properly for the winter and fall, nor do I think there's much about the summer heat. There is no mud season or leaf peeping season. There Is No Maple Syrup.

I don't even think I remember snow being mentioned once, which is insane. We usually have snow from October to April, and a lot of it.

What was funniest to me (really funny, honestly), is the accidental oddness of the demographics of Darkwood. Look, it's the future, but Vermont is insanely (97%) white. Northern Vermont is more white, and rural Vermont is the whitest. I understand the diversity, and it can be written off as this is just 'the most elite school ever' so people from all over attend, but it was really odd to note how non-white the population of 350 students was. My friend went to a school around that size (I think a little smaller), and there was maybe one PoC. My school was 2000 and there were like, six.

Vermont is very inclusive and liberal, but it just kept striking me as another very non-Vermont thing about the book. I guess the fact the school's core motto was of 'inclusion'- and the constant mentions of this- was true to the picture. I was once at a black lives matter parade where there were two black people. Vermont means well, but it's mostly just like, trees and white democrats.

Anyways, Vermont rating:

0/🌲

NOT ENOUGH VERMONT

This book was very different than everything I've read lately but I really enjoyed the story. It was
a very well done sci fi, dystopian type novel. The book starts out with our main character Emma finding out with the rest of the school that six Similars will be joining the school. The Similars are like other students however they are slightly different. They are actually clones of six current students at the school. This makes for a huge outcry because the families of the cloned students were not given notice so they are just as confused as the rest of the population. Things get worse for Emma when the last Similar happens to be the clone of her best friend, her best friend Oliver, who had just committed suicide just a few months prior. Emma wants nothing to do with the clones however she finds herself being pulled deeper and deeper into their word, and unveiling secrets about the clones as well as secrets about her school and what was actually going on with Oliver. I found the book really interesting and I liked the way that the clones were introduced. I found them very interesting. I also really liked the main character, Emma, I thought that she was a strong female lead and you don't see that to often. I think that my favourite part about this book had to be the plot. Such a creative idea. If you like sci-fi books then this one shouldn't be missed it gives a fresh take on an old genre. Very fascinating read and I'm glad I got the chance to check it out. There were lots of twists in this book that you would never see coming. Great read. The best part had to be the ending I can't wait to see what happens in the next book.

One thing this author is not short of is imagination.I don't think I have read a book quite like this before,just when I thought I knew where it was going it would take off in a different direction.I liked the main characters and the setting of the book was interesting,and it was fast paced and really entertaining.I know I am not in the intended age range but that didn't matter I don't think you have to be a young adult to enjoy this story.I thought it was great and look forward to reading more by this author .If this is their first book wow, wait until they get the hang of it, only joking this was as accomplished as anything I have read,I'm impressed.I think this book will do really well I hope it does it deserves to.Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

Let's face it, we live in a world where technological advances definitely are moving much faster than the ethical discussions around these advances. The Similars takes on one of the most controversial issues in medical ethics today, cloning. The basic premise of the book is that unbeknownst to a number of students at an exclusive boarding school, they had been cloned as children. When the news gets out that the handful of students had been cloned, the headmaster invites the cloned versions of the students to join them at the boarding school along with their "originals." However, not all is at it appears.

As for the book itself, I really enjoyed the book and found it easy to read. The writing and plot are pretty simplistic and straightforward, which is good for YA. There are definitely a few twists and turns that I didn't predict, but there were others that kind of stood out as pretty obvious.

I would recommend to anyone who is interested in a good thriller or a book that raises questions regarding cloning. For example, if human clones did exist, what rights (if any) would they have?

Overall, I found the book very enjoyable and highly recommend.

I read a pre-release version of the book for reviewing purposes. The thoughts expressed in my review are 100% mine and not impacted by the author or publisher.

"If we don't have control over our own DNA, we have no control over our destiny"

* * 
2 / 5

If I were to describe The Similars in one word it would have to be "bizarre". This book is chock-a-block full of clones, scientific plots, secret islands, suspicious car crashes, and a strong contender for the weirdest love-triangle I've ever had the pleasure to read. The idea was fun but the execution was clunky.

Emma is the daughter of a rich man and she attends the elite boarding school, Darkwood Academy. At the start of the summer her best friend, Oliver, had died, leaving her alone, grieving, and confused. Understandably, she couldn't care less about the new school year, even though this year features six (possibly illegal) clones. At least, she doesn't care until she comes face to face with Levi, who is an identical copy of her dead best friend. 

"The Similars are beautiful and lithe and fiercely confident. But they are also, somehow, inhuman"

I loved the idea. I'm a sucker for boarding-school settings and this one went the whole hog complete with an elite secret group and even more secret initiations. I liked the high-tech setting and the parallels that were drawn between immigration in the real world and the issues of clone rights in the book. I thought it was a solid idea.

I wasn't so fond of the actual book. Initially, for the first fifty or so pages, I was totally hooked. A suspicious death, some clones, school drama? Consider me intrigued. But then my interest just dwindled as most of the characters turned out to be quite flat and everyone was doubled up because of the whole original/Similar thing. Then there was the entirely predictable relationship between Emma and Levi: first she hates him because he resembles her best friend, he hates her for not wanting to be around him. You can imagine how it goes, and it's weird. The plot itself was ... odd, featuring a top-secret island, some weird experimental stuff, and lots of bad decisions. 

The Similars wasn't exactly the book I was expecting and it didn't work for me. There was more romance than I wanted (starring the main character, the dead best friend, and his clone) and the plot was disappointing. 

My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of The Similars.

Emmaline Chance attends the prestigious boarding school, Darkwood Academy. It should just be a school where the elite attend, where her family went before her. What she finds, though. is that darkness and secrets seem to linger on every side. Having just lost her best friend she already dreads returning to the school grounds but when you add the intrigue of the six new students entering into her year-- well, the idea of returning is made even less desirable.

Those six students would be strange enough for the school that does not bring transfer students in but these students are all exact DNA clones of current Darkwood students, or "Similars" as they prefer to be called.

Faced with Levi, the Similar replica of her dead best friend, Emmaline must walk into the new year but she cannot be prepared for the events that unfold. Neither can the reader, I was pulled all over the place while reading this title! I did have some ideas of what might lay ahead for Emmaline and the six Similars but Hanover kept me on my toes.

I was disappointed that this is only the first in a series (disappointed only because I am reading this as an ARC in August 2018 which tends to mean that the second installment is even further away because this title is published January 01, 2018. MAN!)

First of all, I would like to thank Netgalley for allowing me early access to this fabulous first book in The Similars series to review.

From the moment I saw the cover and read the book description, I was hooked. Poor Emmaline returns to her boarding school and has to face seeing a clone of her best friend who committed suicide over the summer. We join Emmaline, six clones and her classmates on a journey that has you questioning what is real and what is not quite as it seems.

Be prepared for wanting more! I am READY for the second book in this series and the first one isn't even officially published yet. It will be a LONG wait. Awesome book!

This book is set in the future where the debate on whether clones should be legal or illegal. In a lab mix up, six clones are created and become known as the Similars. They eventually join a school where their DNA match also attends. Emma is shocked to learn that her best friend who recently passed has a Similar named Levi. Can Emma move pass her friends tragedy or will looking at Levi everyday at school be too much for her to handle?

I would highly recommend this book. Emma is a relatable character even if you have not experienced the loss of best friend. The interactions between students who accept the Similars versus the students who want them gone are interesting. This book kept me wanting to read more and more.

Oddly enough, with the cloning aspect . . . this was a book of halves for me. The first half was insightful, poignant, and extraordinarily enjoyable. An easy four stars. But the second half was disjointed, campy, and pedestrian. Two stars. So, the math wizard that I am, decided to average those two ratings and just call it even with the three stars.

The first half. Emmeline Chance is a young woman headed back to school following the death of her best friend. A death that was an apparent suicide. Wracked with feelings of guilt, remorse, loss, and that empty forward motion that can afflict the still-living, Emma is trying to just get through this first part of returning to a new year of school.

I felt the depth of Emma's emotions, the complexity with which Hanover approached this girl's recovery process. There was a thoughtful angle by the author which serves to immediately endear the reader to Emma. She was a likable person, too—as we soon learn about her attitude to the incoming clones who have dubbed themselves the Similars. She's accepting without it seeming to be simply feeding the plot, and she questions the clones without it appearing to be out of character.

Emma's interactions with Levi and the other Similars, her other classmates, and her inner dialogue were well-written and easily displayed Emma as a fully-fleshed out and unique individual. As the introduction to the Similars themselves progressed, and the story opened up more, I found myself completely immersed in this school and the world beyond. Emma's situation and how she tries to handle it evoked so much sympathy from me that I was connected to her from the get-go. I could not read that first half fast enough.

However. The second half. As the book's plot started to come together, filling in the missing or unknown information, and the larger conflict was explained, revealing the story's villain, the plausibility of this book's plot fell apart. The second half of the book felt off and disconnect from the first. I don't know which idea served as the springboard for the entire book, but they felt separate and apart. There were moments in the second half of the book that made me feel that we were perhaps headed back in the right direction, but then something else would come up that was flat and lifeless. The villain was of a type. He wanted revenge from some past where he felt wronged, and this act and plan must've stunted his maturity and emotional growth, because he came off about as one-dimensional as you can get. He was villainous and almost let loose a maniacal, hand-wringing laugh by the time he came into the spotlight.

Deus ex machina. The technology in the first half is one thing . . . there are givens which you just accept. Like clones or the easy to follow personal electronic devices surrounding the people...no problem. Even when the mystery opens up, and what is old technology to Emma helps set the stage for just how technologically advanced her society is—all this is easy to accept. But once the villain comes on the scene, it appears to be no holds barred for highly improbable electronics. I don't want to give away anything, which limits my ability to dissect, but it just felt as if there were suddenly limitless possibilities and these were being pelted at Emma without much explanation or reaction to fully impress the reader of the gravity of the situation. Plunk, here comes another out of this world technology.

The twists and turns. The first half didn't have much by way of revealing, just pacing alone wouldn't have allowed it, and I'm thankful that the course didn't vary from giving me a stellar first half. But what I assume were twists, turns, and reveals, in the second half offered me no surprises and were predictable down to the end.

All in all, this was a fairly enjoyable book—with the understanding that the ending was predictable and the villain and his cackling monologuing did not impress me. As it stands, I have the slated sequel on my Someday list, but we'll see how it pans out before I go diving right into it. I may just still be curious enough about the overall plot to warrant a perusal. It remains to be seen.