[Review] This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

Series: This Mortal Coil #1

Rating: 3 stars

Published: November 7th 2017

Goodreads Synopsis:

Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.
That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.
When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.

I wanted to enjoy This Mortal Coil because I'm a chemistry major and STEM in YA is great - and for the most part, the book made all the science of coding and DNA really cool, but there were still a bunch of flaws in the book that I didn't like.


The big one - the love triangle. It's been awhile since I ranted about a love triangle, and I thought I was getting pretty tolerant of them, but this is so glaringly obvious (on who Cat is going to pick). Also the romance between Cat and Cole was about as developed as a film still in its packaging. I didn't feel any sparks.

Catarina in general kind of just grated my nerves because while I get that she is a supposed super-genius in coding and chemistry, I don't need constant reminders about it? It sounds unnatural and awkward to be so "in-your-face" about it.

"What, you don't want girl germs?" I unscrew the top, sniffing it. Coffee and hazelnut. The scent makes my stomach growl. "Having spent years studying biochemistry, I can assure you they're not real."

PLUS SHE'S A SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE. gah.

In retrospect, it was because I was fifteen and he was afraid of my father, but at the time I thought it was because I wasn't pretty enough.
The other girls I'd known at boarding school had satin, colortrue skin. They had fingernails that grew in pink, and quad-follicle eyelashes that grew until they cut them. Next to them, I felt like a common grey pigeon.

Also, this book is some form of zombie YA but with hacking and science. But it wasn't too well explained? People got chips up in them to alter their appearances... but why? Why was any of this happening? There was a lot going on but it didn't make much sense.

And it's too late in the evening to think too deeply on it.