Some people have chosen to get animal gene splices added to their DNA.  Known as Chimeras, they are causing an uproar among humanity.  The primary debate is whether they are still human or not and most people have taken sides.  Dealing with things like discrimination, medical ethics, and even futuristic tech, things get pretty intense quickly in this storyline. 

Sometimes, when we see a need, we feel called to help in whatever meager way we can.  Such is the case with this story.  Seventeen-year-old Jimi is our narrator and the informal leader of a group of young protectors.  When nobody else would take action, they refuse to sit on the sidelines.  They are the A team.  Jimi is not new to saving Chimeras.  She’s been in the middle of it all before (in book one) and it caused some fallout with her mom.  “Why does it take a 17-year-old to save the world?”  Thank goodness her willingness to be uncomfortable overrode her common sense to play it safe. 

I love how this book felt like the inner thoughts of Jimi.  The language flows so easily; it’s like the reader is there in her mind, hearing her inner thoughts.  Full of suspense and a touch of horror, this book keeps the reader coming back for more.  There are several main characters that all interact but they aren’t super heroes.  They are common individuals who care about the people around them and put other’s lives before their own.  Some of the characters were also in book one, and some are new to book two.  Being the second book in the Spliced series, this one stands alone very well because the author, Jon McGoran, gives enough background from book one.  This book was addicting and kept me on the edge of my seat.  I look forward to reading more of the author’s works. 

Review of an Advanced Reading Copy

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Holiday House

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  5 religious exclamations; 48 mild obscenities, 12 religious profanities; 2 derogatory names; 9 scatological words; 14 anatomical terms; 1 offensive hand gesture. 

Violence/Gore:  An older teen girl punches a young man in the nose; mention of friends who died a few months ago; a young man cannot breathe and dies of unknown causes; mention of an older teen girl previously finding a young man & his dying; an older teen girl’s teen friend was shot & killed by his father; a young man’s parents died in a plane crash when he was a child; a bombing blows a cross with offensive language off the top of a discriminatory church; 3 young people are run off the road by thugs yelling discriminatory insults; people are kidnapped, held against their will, genetically changed, & forced to do slave labor; 3 young people are poisoned unintentionally by a gas; a young man was captured & tasered; previous story of a woman who refused to do slave labor and was shot, some gruesome detail; a young man lay dying from experiments done to him; several adults throughout the story are shot with dart guns & knocked out; a long rescue scene, several adults tasered, other’s wounded, scared, a man is shot in the gut & face, descriptive; a dead man is dumped in a grinder then solvent; another dead man is saved from the grinder & solvent; several people lay in the snow dying; several people get sick.

Sex/Nudity:  A young man & an older teen girl kiss often, not descriptive; 2 men hug & kiss several times; a young man sleeps in a bed with a young woman to keep her warm, her under the blankets, him above, non-sexual.

Mature Subject Matter:

Social conflicts, discrimination, gene-splicing, medical experimentation, practicing medicine without a license, medical ethics, tech ethics, disregard for human life, keeping secrets from parents, slavery, guns, kidnapping adults, bombings, homegrown/domestic terrorism, going 140mph on a highway, homosexuality.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None