Review: Vitro

Title: Vitro
Author: Jessica Khoury
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Pub Date: January 14, 2014
Genre: YA
Rec. Age Level: 12+
More by author: Origin

 

   
The author of Origin, Jessica Khoury, takes readers to a new locale and a new scientific experiment with her sophomore novel, Vitro.

Sophie Crue has spent most of her life living with her father in the United States, seeing her mother only a handful of times and only during exotic vacations, but before her parents divorced, they lived on a remote island in the Pacific. Her mother remained on the island after Sophie and her father set off for the States, staying behind to devote her life to making huge, life changing scientific breakthroughs.... or so Sophie always believed. 

After receiving a cryptic message from her mother, Sophie returns to the island and teams up with her childhood friend Jim, the only pilot on the island who will brave flying her to the sinister Skin Island where her mother works. Sophie doesn't believe in the mysterious fear and whispered stories that keep the islanders from venturing too near Skin Island, but she soon finds out that there's more truth that dark experiments are being performed on the island and that her mother may be at the center of everything.

Tackling big issues, like nature versus nurture, the myriad of questions associated with creation and science, and the bond between parent and child, Vitro is sure to garner praise from readers looking for depth packaged within a fast-paced story and an exotic locale.

  
Notable Quotes (aka, And so it begins...):

"I can pay you, I swear. I know it exists! My mom's worked there for years." 

"You could and over the key to the national treasury, wouldn't make a bit of difference. It's not there, I'm telling you! I'm sorry, miss, but I can't produce an island out of thin air." 

She drew a deep breath to steady herself, feeling like a torn flag whipped and battered by a hurricane. "If you can't help me, then who can? There must be someone local knows the surrounding area."

Support local and small businesses by shopping indie! Purchase this book via IndieBound using link below.