"Brave, I tell myself. This is my mantra. I will be strong; I will be brave."

This book. This book . I've had my eyes on this book for quite a while and got the chance to read it before its official release, on the 2nd of November, here in the UK. Thanks to Penguin Random House UK Children's for the ARC e-book received through NetGalley. And let me tell you something, I wasn't disappointed in the slightest way. 

The first 100 pages or so were a bit confusing to me as we discover the world and the plague (caused by a virus called Hydra), as well as the importance of genetic codes. But then I couldn't stop reading. I was being sucked into the story page by page, chapter by chapter. The story kept evolving so much but never too fast or too slow. Everything was just really well written and developed. 

"This is the Hydra virus's cruellest side: it forces the healthy to eat the sick. To hunt and jill and feed on each other to save ourselves. Nature designed this plague as a double-edged sword: it either takes your life, or it takes your humanity."

The world Emily Suvada built is absolutely brilliant but terrifyingly too close for comfort. What I mean is that in this book, we see how much evolution and making Man better is sort of an obsession of ours which eventually led here to the creation of gentech and the panels that enable everyone to change their appearances to their will and imagination by influencing their DNA. And the book did such a magnificent job at showing this obsession, this need that we have to always try to better ourselves in every possible way without really thinking of the consequences of it all. In This Mortal Coil, those changes start with appearances, the way we look, then with the senses, our vision or hearing, and finally, it mentions influencing our brain to make it better.

"Code than can affect people's brains has been the obsession of conspiracy theorists since panels were invented."

What I loved the most about this book was that Suvada keeps us on the edge throughout the entire book, adding little plot twists and revelations here and there, to end it all in a massive plot twist that took my breath away, a few chapters before the end. I have to say that before the chapter just before this massive plot twist, I would have never suspected this turn in the story. Never. It was so well played and clever from Suvada to take her story in this direction.

Beyond the well thought, structured and written plot and the world around it, what I truly liked about this book was the characters. I do have to admit that I didn't quite like Catarina at first but that changed pretty quickly. She still has most of the typical YA dystopia characteristics but they fit her so well that I don't even mind. She's strong but so fragile at the same time, so fierce and determined but so lost. She's this young woman trying to survive, trying to follow her father's plan to save humankind.
Right beside Cat, we can find the second main character of this book, Cole, the blacked-out soldier coded to protect Catarina. I'm not gonna lie, he's the typical YA dystopian character but what can I say, I still love those characters with all my heart even though most of their actions are predictable. I loved Cole for how human he was even though he was raised to be a weapon. 

"'There's no gene for art', I say. 'At least, not that anyone's been able to find so far.'
He nods, with what almost looks like pain in his eyes. 'That's why I wanted to be an artist.'"

I can't talk in details about the other characters like Lachlan without spoiling but just wow, I think this last character is probably the most well thought one I've read about in a long time. 

In the end, I can say that I absolutely loved This Mortal Coil and everything about it. It's still a classic YA dystopia in many ways (predictable romance, main characters questioning themselves and who they are, etc.) but it's also so much more than that not only by the author's writing but also by its unique world and its plot twists. I would truly and highly recommend this to anyone who loves a good dystopia or just a good read in general.

Thrilling and bloody, this cyberpunk update features gene-splicing, dna coding, and lots and lots of old-fashioned blood. Starting with a familiar trope - dystopian future, missing scientist father - Emily Suvada tightens the tension  with some horrific twists and deepens the plot with a lot of science. Romance, in fact a romantic triangle, is not overlooked, but this is a book about Cattarina, coder, scientist and science experiment. 
This Mortal Coil was too intense for me, and some may find the mix of action and science hard to reconcile, but it will be the perfect book for others.

I loved This Mortal Coil. It was everything I had hoped for, and more. It had so much action, a great cast of characters and it completely blew me away. I couldn't put it down. It is complex, clever and thoroughly gripping. Totally recommended!

Wow. This book is absolutely excellent. 

An exciting, intelligent book with an original idea and some clever plot twists; one of the best I've read in a very long time and an author going straight to my favourites to keep an eye on. And her first book too! Just explosive from start to finish, really well written and utterly addictive. If you, like me, have a growing pile of books to read and just can't choose what to read next or are eye-balling your books thinking what do I have time to read, let it be this one. You won't be able to put it down.

Catarina is the daughter of a very talented gentech coder. Gentech coders basically write codes for your genetics. Dr Lachlan did in fact once write the cure for a nasty Influenza virus going around. But there's something much worse than a flu outbreak to deal with now. There is a new virus with no cure or vaccine to stop it and only one chance at immunity; eating a tiny bit of the infected people you come across, at just the right stage of infection, because if you take a bite too soon or too late you might find yourself turning into Red Mist - "that's the colour of a human body when its cells are ripped open, blown into mist and spat into the air. A Hydra Cloud". And you better avoid a Hydra cloud too, because if you breathe that stuff in, you're also dead. So naturally a vaccine is needed, and Lachlan is the guy all the big "corporations" want. All the big corrupt, evil "corporations" like Cartaxus that Lachlan knows all too much about. So he and his lab assistant are taken by Cartaxus and Catarina is left to fend for herself in the wild. 

So unfolds a fast-paced story as Catarina learns more about the vaccine and the things that she thought were true about Cartaxus, but also about herself.

This book is so much more intricate than I expected, with excellent characters and believable relationships throughout. The level of planning that has gone into making what could have been a simple zombie-type novel is really impressive; the author doesn't spare any details and fully fleshes out her character and world development to focus less on the virus and more on how to stop it. It's totally believable, gruesome and hugely complex. This story platforms into nothing at all like a flesh eating story and actually cleverly weaves technology and biology into one big, exciting concept in which humans are laced with technology, bits of computing and code, to make them what they are. There is endless potential for how ideas like this can develop and this makes for such an incredible read. 

I love a book which surprises me and each time there was a fork in the road, another swiftly appeared to change the direction of the plot again - and none of them I saw coming. If you want a book to keep you hooked from start to finish with interesting and intelligent characters you can get behind then this is absolutely the one for you. No damsels in distress in this book - Catarina is totally bad ass! I predict this book is about to explode onto our shelves and I can't wait for more!

As a YA novel, This Mortal Coil ticks all the boxes, going through the tried-and-tested formula of a gifted heroine, a mysterious deuteragonist-turned-love interest, a quest with a ticking time bomb and multiple shadowy organisations in pursuit, a shattering plot twist at the eleventh hour, and a revelation to set up the sequel. None of that detracts from the fact that wow, it's a clever little gem of a book. Nerdy, angsty and jarringly violent, This Mortal Coil deserves to join the list of the most powerful YA debuts.

Just to get it out of the way first, there really is something to be said for the degree of graphic violence in this book. We're talking "oops, I just broke my tibia and fibula and now my bone is sticking out of my knee" level of nastiness. A relatively very mild example: "There were holes in my skin, you could see my spine through them." Ewww. The psychological violence is just as intense, maybe more. Then again, we're starting off from the premise that over half the world's population has already been wiped out in less than two years since Patient Zero by a virus that causes you to explode, so I don't suppose the faint of heart are lining up to read this.

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Catarina is quite possibly one of the most unlucky heroines to grace YA, quite an achievement when most of the genre's protagonists are already armed to the teeth with sob story upbringings. Despite making rational choices at every turn, the plot always finds a way to turn those choices into the catalyst for a bigger catastrophe that she then has to somehow clean up. (Murphy's Law: fiction's ultimate fuel.) Catarina is also one of the rare author-proclaimed geniuses in any novel that actually reads like one. Hats off to Emily Suvada, because that is again no small feat. Being a trained mathematician/astrophysicist and data scientist, it makes sense that Suvada of all writers would know what she's writing about and be able to show rather than tell her protagonist's intelligence. Yes, This Mortal Coil is built on pseudoscience as befits an apocalyptic plague story, but I as a reader with no advanced biology knowledge found it easy to follow and accept, which is a massive plus.

The plot intrigues adequately for the most part. Some of the plot twists are fairly predictable with enough experience reading similar novels, but there are so many of them in this book that there's no way you'll guess them all. Suvada writes off-screen characters splendidly--even after his death, Dr. Lachlan Agatta reads as the plot's most important character, simply because of his influence he held that pervades every interaction between the people who knew him. This is masterful writing. Jun Bei, too, feels like she has a life of her own despite remaining a mystery for most of the novel, and the solution to that mystery is something I didn't foresee at all. Quite frankly, it's brilliant.

In my honest opinion, I doubt we'll get such a smart YA sci-fi for a good while. I've been soundly impressed by what Suvada managed to do with just her series opener and have high hopes for what she'll do with the sequel. Don't pass on This Mortal Coil. You won't regret picking it up.

This cinematic dystopian novel was superb! Definitely the best dystopian I have read this year, and  I am fully expecting this to be made into a movie at some point. I can't wait for the next in the series to be published. A must read for fans of the Maze Runner and Hunger Games series.

Wow. That was one hell of a ride & now I'm exhausted.
It was intense and had me on the edge of my seat for the majority of the journey and made me cycle through so many different emotions constantly. Many times I changed my mind about different characters and whether I trusted them or not and new twists and turns in the story had me tensed all over again.
I loved every minute of it and didn't want it to end and now I'm desperate for more Cat and Cole.

I'm a massive William Gibson fan but it's been a while since I've read a cyberpunk novel... and I don't think I've read one aimed at a YA audience. 

This was excellent! Truly excellent. I'm lost for words. Simultaneously twisty and intimate and epic and convincing. It threw up all manner of ethical quandaries. Whilst it flung you straight into the world of genkits and biotech, Suvada didn't leave you bewildered or unable to engage with the plot and characters as some SciFi can. 

It took my breath away.

This is quite far from my usual choice of genre, but given the hype I'd seen surrounding it, I was eager to give it a try. I was so happy that I did. It's different, gripping and emotional. I hope there's a sequel, as I devoured this and need more Catarina and Cole!!

This is a young adult fiction that can be enjoyed on many levels and as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed this.  This is an outstanding novel that works on many levels and Suvada has taken a real tired formula and has sparked it with new life to give an unique perspective and highly enjoyable read.
 
Taking a leaf out of the outstanding novels of Mira Grant and adding her own spin to the proceedings, this novel’s science is enthralling and really captures a world that is very possible in the near future.  Using a story device of an apocalyptic world, Suvada captures a world where the human race is at peril and only one girl has the decryption key to unlock man’s fate.
 
The characters are richly drawn and the settings are awe inspiring.  The science is written in full detail but never gets in the way of the plot.  In fact, she has a talent of providing this intricate detail to drive the story forward.  The love story that progresses the novel works well though at times there is a bit of young adult nativity to this which on one level makes sense considering the ages of the characters but works within the confines of the story.
 
Some of the characters due lend themselves to stereotypes but the author puts her own spin on this to make them interesting. The novel also has an ending that is very thought provoking and satisfying though there are some loose ends to develop this into a series.  I would be very interested to see where this goes but if this is a stand alone, it works extremely well.
 
This is a highly recommended novel and I have placed this up there with some of my favorite young adult fiction which includes the excellent Feed series by Mira Grant and the Unwind series by Neil Schusterman.  If this series takes off, we are looking at the start of a wonderful series that should do very well.  I’m a complete fan now and can’t wait to read her other works when they are released.  Highly recommended.

This is one of the best contemporary sci-fi books I've read in a long time. I know nothing about coding and that only made me more intrigued so please do not think this is a book for tech nerds only! This book gripped me from the first page and I read the entire thing in two days. A sci-fi classic for the contemporary reader!

Cat's father is a famous geneticist who may have found a cure for a deathly global plague. During the outbreak, he is kidnapped by Caraxus who is using his skills for their own benefit. Cat is left on her own until  Cole, a Cartaxus soldier tells her she is now an orphan but her dad was able to create a vaccine to kill the plague and that she needs to help Cole find it and save the world. Cat does not know who to trust. Will she do the right thing? Very much under the cyber punk umbrella, Mortal Coil is good from an unusual concept point of view and I rather liked the technology. The love stuff got in the way a bit and watered down Cole's character too much. Otherwise a good read, action and a few twists.

Emily Suvada has written a brilliant dystopian science fiction thriller set in a future where humanity is threatened by a deadly plague that has people exploding into toxic Hydra clouds. Catarina Agatta is a talented hacker, 'bobcat', working with The Skies resistance movement against the monolithic Cartaxus Corporation. She is the daughter of the most able scientist in the country, Dr Lachlan Agatta, working on a solution to the plague. He and his assistant, Dax, were forcibly taken by Cartaxus,, to work for them two years ago. Before he was taken, he drummed it into Catarina that she must never trust or have anything to do with Cartaxus. However, a Cartaxus soldier, Lieutenant Cole Franklin, now seeks her out, under the radar, to inform her of the death of Lachlan, and that he succeeded in developing a vaccine. Cole is implanted with the latest technology, including the vaccine, but the coding is beyond them, the only way they can save the world is by working together and making their way to a Canadian Laboratory.

Suvada creates an intricate and complex post-apocalyptic world where people can be implanted with technology to recode their DNA, to potentially become whatever they want to be. Healing Apps are in everyday use, and the scientific explanations, given in some detail, are clear and easily understandable. Cat is not certain she can trust Cole, but it soon becomes clear that her father has coded him so that he will protect Cat as his most overriding mission. As Cat and Cole endeavour to reach the Canadian Lab, they face betrayal from every corner and nothing is as it seems. Cat is astonished to discover that a Cartaxus bunker is nothing like what she expected it to be. Cat's journey leads her to discover that there is much more to her than she was ever aware of. This leads to momentous world shifts as Cat is forced to rearrange her realities. In the meantime, Cat and Cole's relationship assumes a chemistry and importance that neither see coming.

This is an atmospheric and gripping story that you cannot stop reading until you reach the climactic end. There is clearly more to come in this story as the issues are not resolved. Suvada has taken established science fiction tropes and given them an original spin in this novel. The narrative is imaginative, has considerable depth, and the story is impressively plotted. The characters grab your interest, are well developed, and nuanced. Cat is tough, vulnerable and courageous, willing to put the interests of the world above her own. I have no doubt that this is a book that is going to do well, and quite frankly it deserves to do so. A fantastic and absorbing read that I highly recommend. Many thanks to Penguin for an ARC.

There’s no gene for Run Like Hell…

Or is there?

Stop the presses I’ve found my new YA trilogy obsession with Emily Suvada’s “This Mortal Coil” a fast paced, intricately woven, brilliantly fascinating and best of all intelligent and addictive thriller.

Actually I’m assuming trilogy I guess it may end up being more but this is definitely book one and what a book one it is. For a start we have genuinely likable characters, none of whom are in any way generic, who you almost immediately care about and by the end of the novel you are entirely attached to.

Secondly Ms Suvada manages to avoid almost everything passe and overdone in your classic YA post apocalyptic story and makes the genre seem fresh as the morning sun – her romance threads are realistic, her relationship building is highly natural and the world building is subtle, immersive and well achieved. It’s also bloody clever. Rather than stick with your everyday virus she has created a truly fascinating, scientific geek heaven, honestly believable outbreak and rather than zombies she has….well I’ll let you find out that one for yourself.

The sciency (yes I know that’s not really a word) parts are really really riveting, the tech speak is easy to absorb within the narrative, it defines and drives the characters and sets us up for a lot of high thrills and spills action along the way. This is one of those truly immersive novels where you live in it for the moment, a proper page turner that will appeal to all ages, it is an adventure of the classic kind brought into modern times with  socially relevant themes running throughout.

Seriously also it’s like a YA psychological thriller spun into a fantasy – it has often literally breathtaking twists and turns as our anchor to it all Cat starts to discover some horrific truths behind her honest belief system and starts to methodically yet emotionally untangle a web of deceit that shatters the very centre of her being. The ending will have you up out of your chair, a kind of fist pumping but dammit now I have to wait reaction that encompasses all that has gone before it into one big bubble of reading trauma. Don’t you love it when that happens?

Beautifully written, skillfully plotted with that touch of subtle intuitive storytelling  that makes a book a word of mouth success, I am rather hopeful that movies and the suchlike will follow. We’ll see. But I get the feeling I just signed on for one HELL of a ride.

Highly Recommended.

An extremely good idea (sort of simplified YA version of Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovac series which is being made into a TV series - finally) where science has enabled himans to code their genes and enhance bodily functions by way of embedded apps. Set in the aftermath of a plague, where the majority of humanity have been driven to live in corporate bunkers for safety, the 17 year old female protagonist Cat (predictably plane, and not code enhanced) has to decipher the code for a vaccine (written by her deceased father) and distribute it to humanity. Its a great premise, and a fun story, but the writing is pretty basic and a bit frustrating - everything is explained so clearly there's very little suspense. But hopefully that will improve as the series progresses. I will revisit for the sequel to give it another go

A pretty good take on the done-to-death apocalypse genre.  A virus that kills and spreads in a wonderfully gory manner (isn't the cover of this book lovely? *wink*) and turns some uninfected folk in to what are essentially monsters.  The gene technology is fascinating and detailed, and scary as hell.

But...
In my opinion this book is 100 pages too long.  Also the teen angst and obligatory love triangle, plus the constant getting injured/almost dying and patching each other up got really tiresome and repetitive for me. 

However, despite my moans and groans I did enjoy the underlying story, which is actually quite original for an overdone genre.  The tech is really amazing and makes you wonder, and worry, what the future will actually be like as today's science fiction becomes tomorrow's science fact. 

Hardcore YA fans will love this book but it might prove to be too gory for younger readers and too angsty for older ones.

Crazy,  brilliant, ingenious  they are the three words I would use to describe ‘This Mortal Coil’

In a tech controlled world Catarina and her father Lauchlan are genius’.   He is known for his brilliance, but in the past has made mistakes, now the virus is coming for all of them and he needs to make a vaccine. Cartaxus – the company that controls the apps that are available to change your world for the better, from making food taste better, to helping you heal.  

I really enjoyed this book, it sits clearly on the YA Sci-fi and fantasy  shelf, has interesting characters and its easy to connect with Catarina as you read.   Today’s world is so full of technology with a lot of it being managed by apps the future vision feels like it’s a path we could be headed down, scientific research, only learning so much from animals and the ability to grow horns or change your hair colour at the push of a button feels like its nearly a possibility.  Its all about trying to outwit nature and change evolution – perfect for getting your imagination fired up.

Not just another plague book! 
This novel has it all, hackers, genetically modified humans, blood and gore, romance and a great plot twist.
With hints of 'Hunger Games' this thrilling dystopian adventure deserves to be recommended to teens and adults alike. Although this is a complete story, the opening is there for a sequel.  Cannot wait!

As a debut novel, first in a new series for young adults, this book ticks all the boxes.
The scenario is believable and suitably gruesome.
The characters are interesting and work well together (except maybe Agnes. I can't get a handle on Agnes).
The science is frighteningly possible but also in language that can be understood. Nothing worse than leaving the readers confused.
There is a happy ending...ah, well, I just dropped that in there becase it seems like a happy endiing then Rosa has a lightbulb moment...
Bring on book two.

((2.5 stars, rounded up for THAT plot twist)) 

i don't think i've ever been so conflicted about a book in a while. 

i'll start with the stuff i liked first. the plot and the concept was excellent. there have been no shortage of apocalyptic plagues in speculative fiction, but both the concept of the virus itself and the circumstances surrounding it were extremely original. i mean, bodies exploding and floating around in a giant Death Cloud??? that's the kind of macabre stuff i can really get behind, man. there were also so many plot twists, and i wasn't expecting at least half of them. 

but then... 

there was so much potential, but it was just watered down by the writing and the characters. i mean, it should have tipped me off when the book opened with Unnecessary Bird Death (i love birds so if you kill them that's a huge black mark, my friend) and then the annoyances just multiplied from there.

first off, THERE IS A LOVE TRIANGLE. yeah, i know. this is like, a mortal sin in YA literature in the year of our Lord 2017 and it ticks me off that the editor didn't go, "hey, you know, you don't need this #Drama with the old love interest, you can just have the new one. or, maybe, none at all, maybe just a strong platonic love because romantic love is not the be-all and end-all of human relationships" 

but romance is kind of, not my thing. i don't mind m/m and f/f relationships, simply because i'm a Huge Queer and i love seeing people like me in books, and that feeling of "YAS QUEERS" usually overrides my "ew romance" instinct. unfortunately, this was neither a gay relationship nor a particularly exciting and nuanced romantic relationship that i could get behind. because hey, i'm not like, anti-straight people, i like lots of m/f relationships, it's just my Silly Nonsense Tolerance Level is always lower. 

and this, my friends.... was a lot of silly nonsense.

i just don't see the point in having a romantic relationship when a platonic relationship would do just fine. and why the HELL do boys smell so nice in YA books. sweat doesn't smell nice, it smells like gorillas, mkay?

it was kind-of instalove-y. not quite, but it was nearly there tbh. i didn't feel a lot of chemistry between them, and the characters themselves just seemed pretty flat to me. like i said in one of my updates, cat did not seem particularly genius-like most of the time, but rather naive, and cole was like a lovesick, less-cool version of bucky barnes. and dax, the Old Love Interest who reappears, was POINTLESS. i mean come on, why??? WHY???

the writing was also lacklustre. first-person present isn't my favourite tense and perspective, and i think it's becoming a bit overused. i suppose it worked to some extent, as that POV is best for an action/suspense filled narrative and there was quite a lot of that going on, but it seemed too simplistic at times, despite the massive Plot Twist Bombshells that were being dropped left right and centre towards the end. 

overall: this was an excellent concept, but was ruined by a messy execution and pointless romance. this has a pretty high rating overall though, so if you like romance in your books you'll probably like this a lot. but if you don't, be warned.