REVIEW: This Mortal Coil (This Mortal Coil #1) – Emily Suvada

I grabbed This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada completely on a whim one day while wandering around Barnes & Noble.  I hadn’t read any reviews or heard any hype. I was pretty much helpless from the second I saw the beautiful cover and Shakespeare quote title.

And I’m so glad I picked it up!

This Mortal Coil centers around Catarina, the daughter of a world renowned geneticist who also happens to be a genius gene hacker herself.  As the world is thrown into chaos after the outbreak of a gruesome plague, her father is captured by an insidious corporation that believes he is the only one capable of engineering a cure.  With her father gone and the world quickly approaching hell, Cat not only has to try to survive, but also to unravel the mystery that is her father’s legacy.

This is an entirely original story.  The author’s background in science really shines through without being overwhelmingly technical.  

Though on one hand completely bonkers, the idea that we could eventually learn to code and “hack” our own human genes feels entirely plausible.  Maybe it’s because I live in one of the biggest tech hubs in the world and work for a med-tech company, but bio-engineering seems like an obvious scientific evolution.  I would be surprised if people weren’t already trying to do just that in their top secret basements and garages.

I was also impressed with Suvada’s willingness to really dig in to the gruesome aspects of the plague.  Bodies blown apart so violently that all that’s left is a giant cloud of pink mist? Pheromone reactions that drive people to cannibalism? Count me in! (…perhaps I should be concerned about myself…)

Cat, our brilliant narrator, is incredibly engaging.  I was able to connect with her pretty much instantly and was ready to go on this adventure of self discovery with her.  And when I say self discovery, I mean that literally. If you’re able to change your very genes with a few lines of code, how is it possible to define a central self at all?

Except for Cat, this isn’t quite the case.  She was born with a rare genetic disease that makes it dangerous, even fatal, to apply more than the most basic code to her system.  While ev everyone around her, what few are left, can enhance their features as easily as we flit through photo presets, Cat is forced to live that #nofilter life.

To step away from this novel for a moment, the theme of confronting beauty standards is a trend that I’m seeing pick up in YA lit right now and I am HERE FOR IT!  This probably stuck out to me even more because I picked up this book right after finishing The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton.  Now if only these badass heroines who challenge beauty standards didn’t naturally fit into them.  I would probably get up and do an actual happy dance.

Because Cat’s unaltered self is beautiful, leading to my least favorite part of this book:  The dreaded instalove triangle. Yes, I did combine the two tropes into one, ‘cause I can!

We all know I have very little patience for unnecessary romance, so luckily the romance didn’t detract from the action of the plot.  Suvada did a great job of weaving the romance through the story so it happened in line with the core momentum, rather than pulling focus or messing up the pace.

All in all this has been my favorite read so far this year and my first 5 star of 2019.