Aimed really high, fell too short
Surrogate is a twisted, calculated, dark thriller that has a science fiction sprinkled in. It starts off with an opening that is guaranteed to grab your attention and the book remains fast paced until the end. Emotions run high and are portrayed well even though the book moves fast.
The characters are pretty well developed. Typically I prefer books to be written in 1st person, but this book is a great example of when 3rd person should be used. David Bernstein does a great job of conveying the effects of events on multiple characters by using 3rd person. Emotions are conveyed through action a lot in this book, which gives you a really good feel for the characters.
There is a science fiction feel for the majority of the book with the idea of cloning, and then it kind of takes a weird turn when Jane's soul jumps into a cloned body. This book could have remained a horror novel without the soul jumping weirdness. That whole aspect was what brought the book down in my opinion.
I feel like parts of this book were anti-climatic and could have been done a lot better. The ideas were great, but they weren't executed all that well. It was half science fiction, half horror novel, and half drama... that doesn't seem to add up does it? Exactly my point, they tried to shove too many genres into one book.
Each aspect could have been done great. It got really graphic at times, and that could have made for a great horror book. The character Jane had an interesting back story, so that could have made a great drama. The idea to have a clone grow a baby was a great idea for a science fiction book. But all of it mashed together in this short book was just a little much. This book aimed really high and fell short for me.
