This review is also available over at my blog.

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Actual rating is 3.5 stars. This will be a long ass review, by the way, I'm just warning you right now.

This book didn't turn out to be as bad as I was expecting. In fact, most of the time I actually enjoyed myself while reading. Am I a little disappointed, though? Well, not really, because I had low expectations from the start. I'm pretty pleased that it wasn't as horrible as most of the reviews I've read made it seem.

In the wo More...

While Beta has a fascinating premise of clones in a perfect world, there are a lot of elements in the plot that I found either unnecessary, or very off-putting. At first I thought I could overlook these qualms, but they kept piling up on top of one another until it toppled and became too much for my taste. The ending, however, almost brought this to a 3-stars as it actually caught me off guard for once. I would never have expected it--though this may not be the case for everyone--and it makes me More...

I won’t mince words and as a result I am going to spoil this book a little. If you are afraid of spoilers, please don’t read on. Fair warning.

When a book uses rape as a plot point, especially when the character was initially a supporting and caring brother-like figure, I get pissed off. When this is compounded with the rape victim getting pregnant and those around her not allowing her to get an abortion because her child is too special, then that just makes me rage. BETA has this and more, which More...

3.5 stars - Gotta love a sci-fi dystopian book with a cliffhanger.

This book wasn't what I was expecting - your typical "I'm a clone, and I'm not allowed to feel" type of book. Yes, that was what this book was about, but I hadn't realized that Elysia was purchased to serve as a member of a privileged family and a companion to her siblings and their friends.

I will say it took a while for me to get into the Book. Cohn uses a lot of description - which I have yet to decide if it is a good or a bad t More...

I would LOVE to read this on NetGalley . . .

. . . but apparently, Disney-Hyperion "isn't accepting blogger requests at this time."



It's okay, Rachel. I'll own your book . . . eventually.

The cover of this book is so amazingly beautiful that I spent a few minutes being creepy and caressing it. The satin finish of it complements the colours and the model is so incredibly beautiful and the cover merges so very fantastically with the content in the novel. I went into this book knowing that it was about clones and that’s about it. I have read other books by Cohn and liked them so I was reasonably confident that I would appreciate the writing if not love the story. I didn’t start the More...

Ready for a new heroine? Katsa, Katniss, and now Elysia, the clone. Water Wars have changed the earth, but the richest people have managed to create a special island, Demesne, with pure air, lovely violet water, and a population of clones to do all the work. Most of the clones are fully adult, but the doctor in charge is now experimenting with teen clones, still in the Beta stage. The governor's wife buys one for her family and is delighted with the beautiful, compliant, young woman. But Elysia More...

"Rebellierende Klone auf einer exotischen Insel …"


Inhalt:
Beta ist die neue Generation von Klonen auf der exotischen Insel Demesne. Elysia ist eine von zwei Beta Klonen und sollt reichen Menschen auf Demesne Freude bereiten und ihnen ihre Wünsche erfüllen. Für ihr neue Familie ist Elysia ein Produkt, ein Spielzeug. Sie soll den Platz der ausgezogenen Tochter einnehmen und der ganzen Familie Freude bereiten. Allerdings verändert sich Elysias Wahrnehmung im Laufe der Zeit und sie beginnt eigene Wün More...

This book wasn't too bad. It's just near the end of it that I really didn't like. Actually, the ending's so absurdly horrible that I can't imagine myself reading the next few books. The girl's brother assaults her and she becomes pregnant, but she still regrets killing him?? I think just by that development I just really want to go throw the book away. It's just. wrong. I'm sorry but it's wrong. And she wants to proceed with an abortion for her unborn child, the other characters just tell her sh More...

Check out more of my reviews at ***Singing and Reading in the Rain***!

As a serious sucker for a gorgeous cover, I fell for Beta; I'll be open about it. However, looks can deceive. I traded it with a friend, so I'm not too upset about not enjoying it that much, besides the fact that it was not an enjoyable read. In the end, Beta didn't live up to par.

In Beta, we were first introduced to Elysia and her first moments waking up as soon as expert scientists created her. She's a Beta, a test drive of More...

Seen at Scott Reads It!

**I would like to thank Disney-Hyperion for providing me an ARC on NetGalley.**
Beta is one of those books that came with alot of hype and publicity. I read many mixed reviews for Beta but I didn't let that stop me from reading it. Beta has a super interesting concept but I don't think it was executed well. This a book where there is an extremely slow paced plot where throughout the majority of the book nothing seems to happen. There was way too much dialogue and not nearl More...

Elysia is a new beta, one of the first trial teenage clones. She is sold to the Bratton family to be a replacement for their daughter Astrid who moved away. Elysia is to play with her new "brother and sister" Ivan and Liesel. She must also call the woman who bought her "mother." Clones are made and sold to work on the island. They have different tattoos on their face according to their jobs. They have no feelings so the drugged air does not affect them and they will work hard. Demesne's island h More...

A provocative, intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging tale of humanity, identity, ethics and free will, BETA is, in a word, fascinating. In this fun to read, absorbing and unique novel, Rachel Cohn addresses some interesting ethical issues about the pitfalls of cloning and bio-genetics. She introduces us to a great new heroine that, engineered to serve the wealthy residents of Demesne, is forced to either obediently follow all the rules or die. Disquieting, thrilling and haunting, More...

After reading (and enjoying) many others by this author I came to my egalley of Beta with high expectations that the book utterly failed to live up to. While the world is interesting the character development felt poorly paced. This would have normally still earned 3 stars from me but for two major issues: a race of characters in the book that are genetically modified to be the "best elements of human kind" and are therefore utterly Aryan and worshiped by normal people for their beauty AND a na More...

Bei diesem Buch möchte ich Nancy H. danken! Sie hatte mir damit einen kleinen Wunsch zum Osterfest erfüllt! Da ich das Cover und den Klappentext sehr ansprechend fand, legte ich auch gleich los und begann zu lesen!


Das Buch wird aus der Sicht von Elysia erzählt, einer sogenannten Teen-Beta, einem Klon von einer verstorbenen Person, ihrer First! Sie berichtet, wie Klone entstehen und was diese so besonders macht! Ebenso erzählt Elysia vom Leben auf der Insel Demesne, wo nur Betas, wie sie leben un More...

I picked up Beta after flipping through the first chapter. What struck me first about the book is the clinically cold and awkward way in which it is written. I'm pretty sure this is to mimic the way these clone characters would actually think and talk, which brings me to my next point: I'm confused about how these clone characters work. Elysia tells us that clones cannot feel and are emotionless, but I had a really hard time actually visualizing that throughout the book because I thought most of More...

4 STARS!!!!

Beta is a such a capturing novel! It had so many twists and turns which managed to baffle me every time. I could easily relate to Elysia and I found myself attached to this book. The way the book progressed was amazing.
The first half of the book was very slow and boring. It felt like the book couldn't get any slower but the second part was very interesting especially after Tahir's entry. It managed to make up for the first half.
I generally thought that i couldn't love water any more More...

"Beta" erzählt die Geschichte von Elysia, einem Beta-Klon, der eine absolute Neuentwicklung ist, weil Grundlage dieses Klons ein Teenager war. Auf einer paradiesischen Insel mitten im Meer soll sie nun einer reichen Familie dienen. Doch Elysia merkt schnell, dass sie keine so vollkommene Betaversion ist, wie die Menschen um sie herum gehofft hatten. Sie kann Gefühle empfinden, Nahrung schmecken und sieht ab und an Erinnerungsfetzen ihrer First, der Person, aus der sie geklont wurde. Doch bald er More...

Tout d’abord, j’ai adoré l’univers de l’île de Demesne. Ce côté brillant, unique, paradisiaque et parfait. Tout, jusqu’à l’eau où l’on se baigne et l’air que l’on respire est sublimé pour le bon plaisir des riches habitants.
L’île a tout l’air d’un monde utopique où tout est beau, tout est gentil mais tout en passant un message sur le clonage, on se rend compte qu’elle cache bien des secrets!

Elysia, notre héroïne, est celle qui nous mènera à nous poser des questions sur cette île et sur ceux qui More...

Dear Ms. Rachel Cohn,

I am reviewing your book "Beta" in this following rant/rave/whatevs, so please follow carefully as no train of thought is going to make sense what-so-ever.

SERIOUSLY?! I understand the whole aspect of being an author is to make people enjoy their lives and that having a huge twist ending/cliffhanger is a big part of it but - DUDE! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED WITH THAT ENDING?!?! It was SOOOOOO uncalled for!!

And creepy.

And weird.

Like it was on crack. And speed. And drunk on alcohol More...

Elysia ist ein Klon. Sie lebt auf einer kleinen Insel, in der den Menschen jegliches Luxusgut zusteht. Elysia ist eines dieser Luxusgüter und dient nur dazu den Menschen zu dienen. Sie hat keine eigenen Bedürfnisse und keine Gefühle. So sollte es zumindest sein – doch Elysia hat Gefühle. Das bringt Probleme mit sich, denn wer aus der Reihe tanzt und nicht nur zum dienen da ist, der ist defekt und muss ausgeschaltet werden. Wir Elysia es schaffen sich eine eigene Zukunft aufzubauen?

Fazit:

Der Sch More...

Okay, this book started out beautifully! Beautifully. There's a girl, her name is Elysia. But...she's not actually a girl. She's a beta teenager, and she was "tested" to be formed as a clone. In her world, the island that she lives in, (Demesne) everything is perfect. There are humans, (who always feel at peace and love it, because the air is somehow intoxicating, in a good way) and there are clones. Elysia is a clone. She is, as stated before, a teenage beta, and she's basically a "test" subjec More...

Kurzbeschreibung:
Sie hat, was sie nicht haben soll: Gefühle...
Elysia ist eine Beta, ein geklonter Teenager, und sie lebt als Dienerin der Menschen auf der paradiesischen Insel Demesne. Ihr einziges Ziel ist es, ihren »Eltern« zu gefallen – bis sie entdeckt, dass nichts so ist, wie es zu sein scheint. Die heile Welt auf der Insel wird von Klonen gestört, die Gefühle und eine eigene Meinung haben, sogenannten defekten Klonen. Und dann entdeckt Elysia, dass auch sie Gefühle hat. Sie verliebt sich u More...

Beta ist der Beginn einer Tetralogie von Rachel Cohn. Und damit ein sehr ehrgeiziges Projekt. Die Hintergrundideen und die Welt, mit den Klonen, Water Wars, der Technik, der Besiedlung im All usw ist theoretisch unheimlich faszinierend. Da der erste Band aber ausschließlich auf der perfekten Insel Demesne spielt, verspielt das Buch meines Erachtens leider ein paar Chancen. An sich ist die Idee, aus der Sicht des neuen Klons Elysia zu schreiben nicht schlecht, denn so erfährt der Leser Schritt fü More...

Elysia is a clone of a teenage girl that died. She is created to serve the wealthy citizens of Demesne. She is treated alternately like a slave or a pet. Despite the perfect exterior the inhabitants aren’t really happy and there are all sorts of secrets. Elysia keeps one of those secrets, she feels emotion even though she is not supposed to. She has to struggle to navigate these confusing emotions without giving herself away, and discover if there is more out there for her.

I was just not able t More...

In a paradise designed for the extremely wealthy, finding people to work is a problem. The solution is to create human clones that are beautiful but have no feelings. These clones serve every whim of their owners. Elysia, a Beta, is an experimental teenage clone. She also may be defective because she experiences emotions. Elysia is bought by the wife of the governor to become their replacement daughter. Elysia can tell that everything is not as peaceful as it seems in the governor’s home but she More...

BETA (the 1st of 4 planned books) is a story set in a Utopian island engineered to be paradise on Earth, to give their inhabitants ataraxia. It is so relaxing that no human would want to work. So it is staffed with unfeeling clones whose only purpose is to serve these wealthy people as either labourers or companions. If the clone is discovered to have his own desires or feelings, he is labelled a 'Defect', and quickly tortured and killed. It is basically the slavery business all over again set i More...