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Product Description
Review
genuinely enthralling (The Guardian )
Allen-Gray writes in an easy, readable style, raises stimulating questions, and offers a plot that keeps you guessing throughout. (The Financial Times )
This excellent novel is several things at once . . . its pace, tension and ever-present danger are worthy of a latter-day John Buchan . . . (the) story makes a terrific book - exciting, heartening, intelligent, and all too topical. (Peter Hollindale )
A novel with frightening possibilities for its adolescent readers (who face a future where these issues must be solved), and one that should be required reading for the adults who currently make the decisions. (Booktrusted News )
Allen-Gray writes in an easy, readable style, raises stimulating questions, and offers a plot that keeps you guessing throughout. (The Financial Times )
This excellent novel is several things at once . . . its pace, tension and ever-present danger are worthy of a latter-day John Buchan . . . (the) story makes a terrific book - exciting, heartening, intelligent, and all too topical. (Peter Hollindale )
A novel with frightening possibilities for its adolescent readers (who face a future where these issues must be solved), and one that should be required reading for the adults who currently make the decisions. (Booktrusted News )
Book Description
A gripping adventure about a boy who discovers that he is the first human clone.
Inside This Book
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book was deservedly shortlisted for almost every 'children's' book award in 2005/6 and won the Stockport prize. It's a pacy thriller that also manages to be intelligent and thought-provoking. Set one step into the future, it explores issues to do with cloning and asks the universal question: What, ultimately, makes you, you?
A fabulous read for any teenager.
A fabulous read for any teenager.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
I really wanted to like this book, as I do enjoy a lot of children's and young people's fiction, but I found it very frustrating.
It was very readable, and it did draw you in well. However, I got frustrated by areas where the science or setting or plot was implausible or just plain wrong.
I found that the characters didn't really act like people would. People were just too inclined to help this random kid whenever he showed up - it didn't feel real.
I don't know much about the science behind birthmarks. But I DO know that being genetically identical to someone DOES NOT mean you will have identical birthmarks. That is just gibberish. You may have a high likelihood of both having the same type of birthmark, but not The Same Shaped One In The Same Place. Surely a single person with GCSE biology checking the manuscript could have explained this....
I couldn't get past the implausibility of the whole world suddenly deciding together that they were going to reintroduce the death penalty for a single crime, and have that crime be the cloning of humans. Presumably they applied the law retrospectively too, since the cloning in the book would have taken place in 2001, when we know that such a global law didn't exist (this book was written after then). Perhaps if all the handwringing over that had been taken out, then we could have actually explored the feelings the boy mentioned occasionally, rather than glossing over the questions he asked.
There were other similar problems, but these were the main ones. I'm glad I read this book, and I did enjoy the story, but it did make me want to shout repeatedly at the author. Which is a shame, because it could have been awesome.
It was very readable, and it did draw you in well. However, I got frustrated by areas where the science or setting or plot was implausible or just plain wrong.
I found that the characters didn't really act like people would. People were just too inclined to help this random kid whenever he showed up - it didn't feel real.
I don't know much about the science behind birthmarks. But I DO know that being genetically identical to someone DOES NOT mean you will have identical birthmarks. That is just gibberish. You may have a high likelihood of both having the same type of birthmark, but not The Same Shaped One In The Same Place. Surely a single person with GCSE biology checking the manuscript could have explained this....
I couldn't get past the implausibility of the whole world suddenly deciding together that they were going to reintroduce the death penalty for a single crime, and have that crime be the cloning of humans. Presumably they applied the law retrospectively too, since the cloning in the book would have taken place in 2001, when we know that such a global law didn't exist (this book was written after then). Perhaps if all the handwringing over that had been taken out, then we could have actually explored the feelings the boy mentioned occasionally, rather than glossing over the questions he asked.
There were other similar problems, but these were the main ones. I'm glad I read this book, and I did enjoy the story, but it did make me want to shout repeatedly at the author. Which is a shame, because it could have been awesome.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Unique is billed as a book for children, but it is one of the new generation of books for children that cross over effortlessly into adult literature.
And it's far ahead of the rest of the pack - Rowling and Pullman included. Alison Allen-Gray has real strengths in both characterisation and plot - and she has taken on a big and important theme here, human cloning. Her treatment of it is fascinating.
Read it, and give it to your friends. You won't be disappointed.
And it's far ahead of the rest of the pack - Rowling and Pullman included. Alison Allen-Gray has real strengths in both characterisation and plot - and she has taken on a big and important theme here, human cloning. Her treatment of it is fascinating.
Read it, and give it to your friends. You won't be disappointed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A really enjoyable read
This book is very well written. A boy finds out that he had a relative that no one has told him about. Read more
Published 3 months ago by AE Hunter
Disappointment
I had the highest expectations for Unique but ended up being bitterly disappointed. The main character acts far too childish for his age, throws tantrums, shouts unreasonable... Read more
Published 4 months ago by ScienceFictionFancy
excellent for boys (or girls) aged 11-13
If you liked The London Eye Mystery, you would probably enjoy this. This book was recommended by the school librarian and my son enjoyed it. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Lucy B
Incredible Book
I read this book years ago when I borrowed it from the school library and had to buy it for myself. I would recommend the book to anyone, however it did arrive in a non-waterproof... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Sam Keenan
One of a Kind
'Unique' is a gripping story of a boy who, at 15, discovers his past has been hidden from him, by his manipulative father. Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2004
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