This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada – Book Review

I have been meaning to read this book for ages as I keep hearing such great things and I am so glad I finally did! This book was amazing!

Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

Now Cat must decide who she can trust: The soldier with secrets of his own? The father who made her promise to hide from Cartaxus at all costs? In a world where nature itself can be rewritten, how much can she even trust herself?

I had no idea what to expect when I started but after I read the first chapter I was completely hooked! The first chapter literally blew me away! It is intense and the descriptions of the plague and how it kills are brutal and detailed. This first chapter was so good that I completely fell in love with the book and knew it would become a favourite!

The book is fast paced with lots of action and so intense! I just could not put the book down and ended up reading it in one evening. There are plenty of plot twists which I didn’t see the twists coming which I loved because normally I can figure out what will happen. This kept me guessing about what will happen next and kept wanting to read, just one more chapter.

I really enjoyed seeing Cat develop throughout the book and how at the beginning she is so unsure of herself and by the end she becomes more confident and sure of herself. She is smart, resourceful and capable of looking after herself and I loved that she is a scientist! I hope that we will see more characters in STEM areas in books.

I think my only issue was the romance. I felt like I could have done without it. And Cole was just there as a love interest rather than him having his own story arc. Though I did like that despite Cat having feelings for Cole, she didn’t instantly trust him and questioned his motives throughout the book until she learnt more about him.

I really enjoyed seeing the science and genetics being incorporated into the story. It was so interesting and although there was a lot of it, it was well explained so everyone will understand what is going on, and it made my science nerd heart happy! There was also some discussion about ethics and animal testing and I’m glad this was included in the story as it makes it more real.

This story was amazing and I cannot wait to continue with the series. It’s fast paced and intense and the plot twists were insane! I loved this book so much!