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A review by districtreads
Archetype by M. D. Waters
5.0
Too often, thrillers simply don’t live up to their name. That’s not the case with M.D. Waters’ Archetype, which I can only describe as BBC’s Orphan Black meets The Handmaid’s Tale and Gone Girl. We meet Emma, the main character, struggling with a case of amnesia after a devastating accident. She is fighting to be herself – but is that Emma Burke, wife of the wealthy Declan Burke, or is she someone else entirely? And what does the voice in her head – one Emma calls “Her” – have to do with it?
The slow buildup will keep you turning pages, as a thoroughly contemporary world is revealed to be a futuristic one, where a low fertility rate means that fecund women are valued as important commodities to be bought and sold. Women are “prepared” for marriage in Women’s Training Centers, and then bought by the highest bidder for their reproductive attributes.
Emma doesn’t know any of this at first – all she knows is that Declan is a loving, caring husband, and that she cares for him very much. If only she could remember their past…
When she meets a man in public who has featured heavily in her dreams – and nightmares – Emma’s world is turned upside down. There is a very real betrayal, and a love triangle with conflict tied up in the knots. Her very understanding of who – or rather, what she is – is shaken. I was breathless until the very end.
And that ending! I couldn’t put this book down. You don’t have to be a science fiction buff, or the kind of fan who watched Battlestar Galactica religiously or in a Netflix marathon, to get into this book. Put simply, this is one of the best thrillers I have read all year. The best part? It’s a duology, so the second book will be published in late July. That way, you won’t have to wait very long to get your fix. (Lucky me, the folks over at Dutton sent me both at once, so I read them back-to-back in a few days.)
Cross-posted to http://www.off-the-book.org/2014/06/face-in-book-book-reviews-archetype-by.html
The slow buildup will keep you turning pages, as a thoroughly contemporary world is revealed to be a futuristic one, where a low fertility rate means that fecund women are valued as important commodities to be bought and sold. Women are “prepared” for marriage in Women’s Training Centers, and then bought by the highest bidder for their reproductive attributes.
Emma doesn’t know any of this at first – all she knows is that Declan is a loving, caring husband, and that she cares for him very much. If only she could remember their past…
When she meets a man in public who has featured heavily in her dreams – and nightmares – Emma’s world is turned upside down. There is a very real betrayal, and a love triangle with conflict tied up in the knots. Her very understanding of who – or rather, what she is – is shaken. I was breathless until the very end.
And that ending! I couldn’t put this book down. You don’t have to be a science fiction buff, or the kind of fan who watched Battlestar Galactica religiously or in a Netflix marathon, to get into this book. Put simply, this is one of the best thrillers I have read all year. The best part? It’s a duology, so the second book will be published in late July. That way, you won’t have to wait very long to get your fix. (Lucky me, the folks over at Dutton sent me both at once, so I read them back-to-back in a few days.)
Cross-posted to http://www.off-the-book.org/2014/06/face-in-book-book-reviews-archetype-by.html