Review: Division by Karen A. Wyle

Title: Division
Author: Karen A. Wyle
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Self-published
Publish Date: October 29, 2013
Source: I received a copy from the author; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a sci-fi fan.
• You like asking 'what if.'

 What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "
Conjoined twins Gordon and Johnny have never let their condition keep them from living full and fulfilling lives. Gordon looks forward to many years of closeness and cooperation. Johnny, however, faces their future with increasing restlessness, even dread.

When the boys are in their teens, the new technologies of accelerated human cloning and brain transplants are combined into a single medical procedure -- Transplant to Clone, or TTC. Someone whose body has suffered such extensive damage as to make normal life impossible may -- with court approval -- be cloned and then given a brain transplant into the clone body. With Gordon's unwitting assistance, Johnny realizes that the TTC procedure provides the chance he had never dared to hope for -- the chance to live in a "normal," separate body.

But Gordon considers their conjoined life a blessing, rather than a curse. He has no intention of accepting separation -- not without a fight . . . .

Division, like Wyle's earlier novels, uses original settings and situations to explore universal themes: the complexity and intensity of family relationships, the nature of individual identity, and the far-reaching effects of the choices we make."

My Two Cents:

One of the things that I love most about sci-fi is its ability to make you ask what if and its ability to make you think long after you've closed the book. "Division" is very much in that vein. Gordon and Johnny are conjoined teenaged twins. When Johnny decides that they want to use new technology to live a separate life, it is not an easy choice for Gordon. On top of that, there are people in the world that will condemn the twins for their choice. Once one of them makes a choice, nothing will ever be the same for either twin.

I enjoyed this book. It is so interesting to think about what I would do in the twin's situation. I love books that make you question ethics. It is hard to know what I would do in that situation but I did like exploring that dilemma with the twins. I really liked how Wyle was able to make the technology in the book feel real. This book doesn't seem like it takes place too far in the future but the author wove in a lot of details to make Johnny and Gordon's world feel real.

The book had nice pacing and kept me reading. I was a little bit confused about one element in the book. The twins grew up with their neighbor, Dodi. Dodi falls in love with both of them and doesn't necessarily want them to separate. What confused me is that although Dodi says she sees them as separate people, she treats them as one unit even after the separation, which results in an interesting situation (I don't want to give anything away) that was not really resolved for me at the end of the book. I wish things were tied up a little more. Can Dodi really love both twins equally? Will there really not be any jealousy between them? That being said, I did still really enjoy this book.

This book would be a good pick for a sci-fi lover who wants something to think about long after they close the book.