Shell
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of Scholastic

What if you thought you had died, only to wake up to find that your brain and eyes had been transplanted into someone else's body? When Lucy, a teen diagnosed with terminal cancer wakes up cancer-free, it should be a dream come true. But faced with a life she didn't choose and trapped in a new body, Lucy must face the biggest question of all . . . How far would you go to save the one you love?






2018 marks the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein, which many of you know is one of my favourite literary classics; so when I heard a YA adaptation (with a twist) was being written, how could I not give the book a go? So thank you to the people at Scholastic for sending me this book over 2 months early!

Our story focuses on teenager, Lucy. She has been cancer riddled for a while and despite her family's riches, she has exhausted all of her options and accepted her fate: she is going to die. Although, she is the only one that has accepted that her time is up. She starts preparations for her goodbyes until something changes...

She wakes up in an unfamiliar room, surrounded by the people she loves, in the most unimaginable pain. But she is cancer-free, miraculously. She looks into the mirror, and someone unrecognisable is staring back at her. Her mum and dad tell Lucy, it's the new "her".

Lucy has woken up in a new body. Apart from her brain and her eyes being taken over into her new body, everything else is unfamiliar. Her body, her allergies, her voice. Lucy feels like nothing is really hers anymore. She is then told that her life as "Lucy" has ended, her funeral has taken place and she must now enter the world as "Renee".

Lucy is struggling as to "why"? Why can't she tell her best friend and her grandmother that she's still Lucy? Why can she not speak to body donor's parents? Why is she subject to such vigorous testing? Why is she experiencing tremors, if she's so healthy? Why can't she still be Lucy?

As Lucy moves back in with her parents as "Renee" (their new "foster" daughter) and tries to keep up this facade, it gets more difficult for her by the day. Then things start to get intense. Lucy uncovers some secrets that could change everything, but by the time she discovers them, it just might be too late...

As a lover of YA horror, this is one of the best. Fast-paced, action packed and twists and turns around every corner. The intrigue and excitement of finishing each chapter made it impossible to put down and I devoured it in one sitting. An absolutely fantastic book to kick off 2018 and a brilliant adaption of a true classic.