There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

Hmmm. Not bad but not a slam dunk either. Cool, original premise a bit shortchanged by rushing the ending. Interesting but occasionally superficial.

This is a YA book and has some of the characteristics of a YA book focused on young women. But! It explores feelings and frustrations which should never be confined to a gender bias. It also deals with genetic engineering which is at the root of the drama.



Teva is a young woman going through all the fears and concerns of most 16 year old girls. This is a hypothesis since I am reasonably sure no one, that is no one knows what is going through the mind of a 16 year old girl. I say that with affection as I was lucky enough to spend part of my professional career as a high school guidance counselor and believe me when I truly feel no one, not even the teen knows what is going on in a 16 year old girls mind. The most interesting thing is that some of those “girls” are now adults that I count as friends and they survived the mysteries of that time of their life.

I was truly shocked at how much I liked this book. It is a testament to the author that she has written a book that can be thoroughly enjoyed by a literarily jaded adult and young people not just young women.

I highly recommend the book, no violence, no guns, bombs or fast cars, just a very good depiction of what kids go through even without genetic manipulation.

I loved this book! The full review will be posted soon at kaitgoodwin.com/books! Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity to connect books to their readers!

Teva doesn't grow up in the normal way. Every year, near her birthday, she unwillingly clones herself. She lives in a house full of younger Tevas, whom she address by their year (Thirteen, Fifteen, etc.), and this house full of bizarre "sisters" is challenging and involves keeping lots of secrets. The newest Teva is determined to be the last.

When I picked up More of Me I was hoping it would have a bit of a Cat Patrick vibe, and it definitely did. Kathryn Evans's book is so weird, which is a good thing because it is definitely supposed to be weird. I really enjoyed how the reader wasn't quite sure whether or not Teva's condition was real or all in her head.

More of Me by Kathryn Evans is a contemporary science fiction standalone novel that took me by surprise. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but when the synopsis says she clones herself every year, I was intrigued and wanted to check it out. This novel is about a girl struggling with deep, dark secrets that could tear apart her entire family if people find out what she is going through.

Teva is sixteen years old and struggling with things no young girl should ever have to go through. Every year Teva goes through a painful cloning process that splits her body in two. The new one having grown a year older while the younger one stays forever that age. She remembers everything that her younger selves have grown through before they separated. Unfortunately, her younger selves are only referred to as their numbers and are forced to stay on lockdown inside a creepy house because their mother knows the bad things will happen if they are forced into the light. The “new” Teva continues to go to public school as if nothing ever happened.

More of Me starts with Teva separating from Fifteen and the painful process that they both went through before skipping to six months later as Teva is beginning to feel the “new” Teva crawling under her skin. It is too early for the process to begin. At the same time, Teva is stressing out over her college prospects because she knows her mom will never let her go. When she becomes Sixteen she knows her mom will never let her out of the house. Teva doesn’t want that future. She wants to be her own person with her own future without having to step aside for the new Teva. Teva begins to panic because she doesn’t want to separate and then she begins to think that she is crazy.

Teva has to constantly put up with Fifteen her “sister” self. Fifteen hates Teva and believes she destroyed her life. Fifteen worked hard during her year, even having a boyfriend that she can’t get over and she hates that Teva gets to continue the relationship as if nothing happened, along with a best friend that they’ve passed along for quite a few cloning transitions.

I feel like I’ve given a lot away in my own wrap up but I haven’t. There is so much going on with this story, including the fact that Teva has her own love interest. Don’t worry, it’s not a love triangle. This story kept me glued to the pages because I thought too that Teva might be going insane but there was too much to support that that wasn’t the case. I will say that I hated Teva’s mom because she was the aloof parent most of the time on the page constantly losing her cell phone to Fifteen even though she had so much control over her “daughters”. She kept too many secrets from the other Tevas under the disguise of what they don’t know won’t hurt them. It isn’t until the current Teva begins forcefully asking questions that she finally fesses up.

More of Me is told entire through Teva (Sixteen)’s first person point of view. This story had the feel of a tragic fairy tale even though it is set in contemporary times. I felt for her. She has the usual selfishness of a teenager her age but also of someone who wants to be true to her “Sixteen” self, not her other sisters. She wants all of them to have a better life instead of hiding in what the town considers the creepy, Haunted house at the edge of town. I also hated Fifteen even though I knew I shouldn’t. She wanted what she thought was rightfully hers. (Even though I kept thinking that relationship will never go anywhere while Ollie grows up she will always been Fifteen.)

I was NOT prepared for the ending. I cried and cried after what Teva went through. All the mysteries will be solved so I was happy having a definitive ending that didn’t leave me with questioning what exactly happened to Teva. If you want to laugh, if you want to cry, if you want something a little different from the science fiction community then definitely check this one out.

This book was really awesome! I loved how unique it was, and Teva has this choice-that everything with there being a number of previous, younger versions of her, or she's crazy. And she teeter-totters back and forth with pieces of evidence! So great to read!

If I were in her shoes, I don't know what I'd do. If she does have all these younger selves stuck in the house, well, that means the same thing is going to happen to her one day, and that's pretty awful. But if she's crazy, well, she's crazy, you know?

I loved the different relationships she had. Like the guy who started dating 15, but now that this Teva is here, well, that complicates things with both the guy, and 15, who Teva basically stole her life from. Which really sucks, but it's a cycle that keeps repeating.

At the center of it all, is the mystery of why this is happening to her, and trying to fix or stop it. As things progress, and stuff with her father comes out...well, things come to a head and yeah, that ending was pretty epic!

I really enjoyed how things ended, and I just plain enjoyed this book! It was so great!

Amazing but strange book! I have never read anything like it.

What a weird premise. It was definitely a unique book but some of the MC choices seemed pretty strange.

This is an odd book. Even knowing that the girl unintentionally clones herself, it is hard to read the opening chapter. It was confusing and just very out there.

It's always harder to review a book that I didn't like as much as I was expecting to.
In this case, I don't think the writing is the problem. I think the problem for me came from it being written in a style that isn't the norm for the genre. It reads like a YA Contemporary more than SciFi. I don't mind YA Contemporaries, but I'm a mood reader so I picked up this book expecting a quirky SciFi and that's what I wanted. Instead I got a something that felt mostly "contemporary" with a bit of the "unreliable-narrator-in-a-psychological-thriller" thrown in. And then there was the SciFi bit. But the book was mostly about Teva and her relationships with people (or herself or whatever). And she just happened to have this weird SciFi-y problem (that I did find fascinating).
More of Me didn't quite hit the mark for me, but I enjoyed the author's writing style. There was definite chemistry between Teva and Tom and I think Kathryn Evans would write a great YA Contemporary Romance.

I liked the early uncertainty. I really wasn't certain if Teva was separating or if she was mentally ill. I'd have liekd it better if the uncertainty had remained strong throughout the bulk of the book. Its clear a little too early that what she is experiencing is in fact real. That is, of course, not my only concern. Characterization is not particularly strong. The friends are a bit idealized. And the final third is rather week. Motivations, cause and effect, it all falls apart. We see what her father did but not why. And we don't get good explanations for the early split or the violent death. It falls short of its potential.

When I first read the blurb for this I was intrigued...a girl who unwillingly clones herself every year? A genetic abnormality? I haven't read a good sci-fi in a while and this might just be what I was looking for.

Well, it definitely didn't disappoint, as I was sucked in by the end of the first chapter, and could not put this down. I wanted to know what happened next, and was constantly in search for an answer to the "How?" and "Why?" questions that arose while reading. I fell in love with Teva and always wanted to know whether she manages to 'save' herself. I also love how Kathryn Evans throws a bit of doubt into the reader's mind.

I could have done without some of the drama and the love triangle, in favor of a little bit more information about the 'sisters' and possibly some chapters from the perspective of the other. clones. One of the things that also bothered me, is that the 'sisters' don't really talk to each other. Fifteen's dislike of Teva makes sense, she lost her life, but I couldn't help but feel that things would have been resolved and answers found in the family just got together and talked things out. We do find everything out by the end and the circumstances surrounding Teva and the twins is slowly revealed. The ending is unpredicatable, but it was better than anything that I could have imagined. This is a truly unique and original story, which makes it really stand out and shine.

The premise of the novel absolutely hooked me – living with your former selves and coming to terms with having to ‘shed your skin’ and relinquish control of your life to a future self. It sounds gripping, a story of self-acceptance, suspense, and action: especially as this version, is unwilling to let go. Without knowing why, and being isolated from help, this current Teva must not only figure out her identity, as a teenager (and all the problems that comes with), but also why she is the way she is, and how she can move forward without losing herself.

Because of this, Teva has a difficult relationship with basically everyone. Her mom is unwilling to tell her the truth or allow her to tell others. The past versions of herself, fifteen especially, have varying levels of dislike and their own problems: stuck in that age forever and completely isolated. Her friends and boyfriend seem to realize something has happened, but cannot put their finger on what has changed. She feels that her life is slipping out of her control, and it is.

I appreciated both of these aspects on their own, but there were many things I could not come to terms with. First off, there is a discussion of mental illness that I feel is insensitive to those suffering from that particular condition. Additionally, there should be a trigger warning for self-harm.

Secondly, it was difficult to like Teva for a while. Her character is extremely complicated, but for the most part, she remains self-centered. Perhaps that is ironic, since she is literally trying to save herself, but it kept me from really connecting with her. Overall, on the one hand, I can understand her self-absorption, but on the other, it goes over the top, for me, and does not result in my emotional attachment until too late.

I was disappointed with the side characters. There were many instances where they could have been more unique, instead of plot devices. For example, her best friend, Maddy is Indian, but all we get to know about her is that she is extremely smart and beautiful. I do not want to spoil the plot, but there are a few incidents where there is a possibility for more discussion that I wish had been taken (like Tommo).

Additionally, I wanted more mentions of the other, and younger, selves of Teva. Family is a large theme in the book because her mother rationalizes that the reason they cannot tell anyone is that they would be split up, treated as a family of freaks. Yet I did not truly get a sense of family from them. In this area, I felt it was lacking scenes of their family life.

However, one of my main complaints is the ending. I will not spoil it for you, except to say that it is wrapped up tidily and conveniently. If you have read it, I am sure you could agree. Perhaps I was unrealistic, but I was expecting more depth.

Even though I’ve listed quite a few complaints, overall reading the story was an enjoyable experience because of Teva’s journey as a character. By the end, I was witnessing the kind of transformation I was longing from at the start. I am not saying I want my characters to be perfect, far from it, I adore imperfect characters. All I am saying is that in their imperfections, I want to be able to connect with them.

Main character Teva believes that she is a genetic freak, a person who clones herself each year so that a new version of herself emerges. As in that her body sort of splits open and the newest clone pops out. Teva's mom hides all but the newest clone in the house (each clone is named for (and frozen in time at) the age Teva was when they emerged. Teva is sixteen, so the clone to be most recently locked up is named Fifteen, and she plays a larger part in the book than the other clones.)

Me: "Whoa! Is this sci-fi or is this girl completely insane?"

It's sci fi.

I tried to explain this plot to a scientist/geneticist type person I know. He said "Impossible because blah-blah-blah." Then I explained the aphid thing (toward the end, the book explains that apparently aphids clone themselves like nested Russian dolls) and he said "Aphids are not human; they have exoskeletons blah-blah-blah."

So, okay, maybe the science behind this is a bit sketchy (it's not very well explained) but the story is still a moving story of a girl trying to hide the secret that she thinks will make everyone reject her -- her best friend, and the guy that she (but also Fifteen) are in love with. (It sounds triangle-y but not so much.) It reminded me a lot of The Originals by Cat Patrick, a book from about 4 years back about three sister-clones who have to take turns living. Both books are about science but also about family ties and the universal need to be accepted and loved.

Bottom line: if you're a stickler for details in your sci-fi you might have issues with this one, but I thought it had suspense and heart, which are far more important to me. Oprhan Black fans, take note!

*I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.*
This book surprised me in so many ways. More of Me is about sixteen year old Teva, who every year clones herself. When each new Teva arrives they absorb the memories of their former selves, and continue the previous Teva's life.
Throughout the book Teva tries to find a way to stop her new self from coming and splitting away from her. In her journey to find the truth she starts to feel like maybe she is crazy. As she tries to figure out what is going on, you feel like you are with her, going deeper and deeper as her life spirals out of control.
Kathryn Evans really pulls you in, and you can feel Teva's frustration. This book kept me guessing until the end as to what was really happening. I loved this book. The characters felt so real and the world building was great.
I had a few problems. The expression "Oh my God," was used a lot. What really bothered me though was God was always spelled with a lower case g. I did read an uncorrected ARC so maybe that won't be the case in the finished copy.
Also the ending seemed a little rushed. I really thought there was going to be a sequel because of how late it in the book everything came together. The ending left me wanting more, and who knows maybe she will continue the story. I feel like there is more there that could be expanded upon.
Overall I really liked this book and would gladly recommend it. I do hope she writes more in this world. Perfect for fans of The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams.
Expected arrival date of June 13, 2017 wherever books are sold.

This was truly entertaining.

If you're a Doctor Who fan, imagine if he were a teenager girl and his regenerations actually allowed his older self to coexist with the new one. For Teva, this replication happens every year. And only the oldest one is allowed to use the Teva name and live her life while her "sisters" need to stay at home, hidden from anyone.

As I'm mentioning Doctor Who, while I could never call this a cliché, I can't say this was all too original, either. To be honest the bickering between current Teva and her fifteen-year-old self even reminded me of Ten and Tentoo—and of whenever regenerations meet in special episodes. Still, cloning not a theme I have seen explored in YA fiction, much less to this extent.

Teva has two big dilemmas to deal with: she needs to take over someone else's life she feels is her own but she also acknowledges it really isn't—as with anyone growing older, our personalities also change as we mature. The second dilemma is exactly the next Teva, she can feel her under the skin, gradually forming and getting stronger. She won't really die in a year but she'll be locked inside the house with her other selves, which is almost the same.

And she notices there is a third problem. Because her mother is so afraid of others finding out and taking her daughters to a lab, she hasn't allowed Teva to tell a soul—not even her best friend or her boyfriend. What if her copies aren't real, then? Funnily, whenever such an idea occurs, that's the one we hope against. For this book, I saw this ending as the happy one so hopeless I considered Teva's predicament.

But this YA doesn't run too deep. To be honest, I prefer it this way. I liked the mess that was Teva's relationship with the others I kept picturing how this story would ideal for a TV series. The plot does thicken, don't get me wrong, but it isn't the focus. This is really a lighthearted story about a teenager between her former selves and her future self—in a far-from-ordinary manner. Most of the story could have worked for siblings really close in age, for example. And I would still have liked it.

This is a fun read that will have you turning pages, worrying for poor Teva. There are also many themes here ideal for group discussions, as well as a mystery. It could have been more but it's still really good as is. Definitely, one of my favorite YA's of 2017.

Teva, version 16, is well aware of her fate. She knows she has one year to be the Teva, who interacts with the outside world. She has one year to live her whole life before she is replaced by Teva version 17, and is then forced to spend her days locked away with her previous versions. But it appears the laster version Tevas are not happy with this arrangement, and they are willing to fight for the right to live their lives, but will Teva survive long enough to accomplish this task?

When I first discovered this book, I thought the concept sounded really interesting. I love science, and genetics is an ever-evolving and growing field. I have to admit, when I started reading this book, it was a little weird, but then I remembers, SciFi books not set in space are a little weird, therefore, I kept reading. I am glad I gave this book a chance, because the story did hit its groove, and I grew to enjoy reading about all the Tevas.

Something I really enjoyed, was trying to figure out if this was legit or if we were dealing with an unreliable narrator. Evans did a great job keeping me in that grey area. I vacillating between the two scenarios, and found myself analyzing past passages to figure out if there were clones or was it all in Teva's head. Well play, Ms. Evans.

I also thought Evans blended these out-of-the-ordinary parts very well with the ordinary parts of every day life. These Tevas never came across as science experiments or less than human. In fact, the two oldest versions, fifteen and Teva, were preoccupied with such average teen girl issues, that this read almost like a contemporary (my favorite genre). That SciFi twist added an extra layer to the story and brought up the intrigue factor.

The story was interesting, and there were some great characters supporting this story. Two of my favorite were Maddy, Teva's best friend, and Tom, Teva's classmate. Maddy was a fun and faithful friend, who challenged and supported Teva. Tom provided most of the comic relief, in my opinion. His character was quite amusing, but we did get to see that he had some depth later on, and I really loved where Evans went with him.

Now, I am going deep. When I was trying to decide if the multiple versions were real or not, I started thinking of them metaphorically. This idea, that each year you shed your younger self, thus emerging with some of your former thoughts and beliefs, but also open to forming new ones. I even saw some symbolism in the physical pains Teva experienced as her new, older self was battling to emerge. Growing up is hard and can be painful, and I thought this was illustrated in an interesting way throughout the book. OR that was totally not the author's intention, and I am reading into it too much. Either way, I love that it made me think so much.

Overall: An interesting portrait of growing up sprinkled with romance, mystery, drama, and humor.

"I have grown in strength inside her. Filled her cells with mine until we must split apart. It's not my choice - that's how it's always been for us."

* *
2 / 5

More of Me is based on a pretty unique concept. Every year, Teva splits in two. The old Teva, the one who keeps the proper memories and consciousness, stays at the same age whilst the new Teva adopts her life, going to school and picking up old Teva's friends and boyfriend. Our Teva is sixteen and she refuses to let go of her life. She doesn't want to lose her life, her boyfriend, her future career to the self growing under her skin, and she'll do anything to stop her breaking out.

The basic idea is really good and I was kept awake quite late by this book, frantically flipping pages to try and find out the truth. Why is this happening to Teva? Why won't her mother let her see a doctor? Why does her boyfriend prefer Fifteen to her, even though they're the same person? Is Teva, after all, just absolutely insane? I really wanted to find out. However, the book was dragged down by a love triangle and too much focus on Teva's school life.

"I burned inside, at the unfairness of our lives"

Teva lives with her mother and her "siblings". There's little four year old Eva, then Six through to Fifteen. Imagine being immortalised at thirteen, forever into anime or being goth or loving Justin Beiber. Awful, right? Now imagine that your thirteen year old self lives with you, in your massive house with an industrial gate around it, and is forbidden to leave. Then there's Six, who constantly picks at the wallpaper, Eleven who's really into mystery novels and wants to be a detective, Eight who stuck in an Enid Blyton fantasy land, and Fifteen who hates your guts because, well, she's fifteen and eternally rebellious.

Alongside all this, Teva tries to act normally to her best friend Mads even though most of her memories are fuzzy. She only inherits the memories her earlier selves thinks are important, so small details of her life slip away from her. Then there's her boyfriend Ollie who is, to be quite honest, a bit of a douchebag; when Teva gets upset at his flirting with another girl, he brashly informs her that she is overreacting, but when she arranges to help a boy in her textiles class out, Tommo, with his English work in exchange for tips on her textiles portfolio, he gets angry and confrontational. I don't believe I have ever been a fan of love triangles, but this one is particularly dull: there's virtually no tension or anything particularly interesting going on, which is unfortunate.

"We all change, don't we? I used to love endless reruns of Top Gear but now ... actually no, I still love endless runs of Top Gear. But seriously, we grow up, don't we?"

I would have enjoyed this book far more if it had dropped the romance aspects entirely. There was quite enough to focus on with the splitting mystery, Teva's identity crisis, her tricky relationship with Fifteen, and her thoughts for the future. I really didn't care about her struggles between two guys or her fashion show. Teva's textile class is embroidering corsets for their current project and their teacher wants them to wear them in the school charity fashion show fundraiser. It's a weird little sideplot that I found distracting and unimportant. Whilst I liked the dilemma that Teva had, why bother working towards a future that won't be yours, why not just have fun if you're going to be sixteen forever, I don't think it was done particularly well.

The ending was also too rushed for my liking. This was, I think, the product of too many story lines that Evans had to wrap up. There's the romances, the problems with Fifteen, Teva's future, the "other" Teva trying to burst out of her skin, the blog she's running, her entire life mystery, her best friend troubles. It's all too much and results in a conclusion that's just a bit unsatisfying.

So whilst I would recommend More of Me because of the really cool idea behind it, to really get into this one you have to enjoy typical "slice of life" type highschool stories.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of More of Me