Subject A36 by Teri Polen is the first book in The Colony series. Asher and his family live in a dystopic world where human beings who do not belong to the Colony are hunted down and ‘harvested’ for their desirable DNA traits. The excuse for this inhumane treatment is that it controls the population (a necessary concern when disease has been pretty much eradicated, leading to longer lifespans). Asher and his adoptive family are part of the Insurgents, who work to free prisoners before they can have their DNA stripped. When accidental transfer leaves behind genetic material from Ash, the Colony begins hunting him in earnest. For Asher Solomon is more than he ever knew, far more valuable than those gathered for ‘harvesting’.

First off, dang! I love dystopias, and this was no exception. For some reason, it hit me even harder than say, Hunger Games, or others. I think it’s because we are still relatively close in time to the Holocaust, where people were gathered together to be slain, and many died in genetics experiments. With certain people and groups in positions of power, and other groups of people threatened with greater marginalisation, this just feels frighteningly plausible. 

Well, the gathering and imprisonment of certain groups anyway. The gene-stripping confused me. Our cells contain our entire DNA blueprint. DNA can be gleaned by blood drawn from a donor, with no need to kill them. I would have liked more exploration of this process, and the process to implant harvested genes into recipients. I’m having a hard time imagining how it might feasibly work.

I really liked all of the main characters. Ash and Noah were my favourites. The loyalty between the two adoptive brothers warms my heart. And Brynn! She’s so fierce. I imagine she could put Subject A36 in his place quite easily, no matter what the genetic enhancements. I also get easily attached to the genetically enhanced thanks to Khan Noonien Singh and Julian Bashir. And now I’ve dated myself 🤣

Some things felt very repetitive though, like Ash mentioning several times that rescued children taken to Insurgent facilities may be adopted by others or form their own families if theirs couldn’t be located. Also, how he didn’t want to see Oz hurt because his interest in Paige wasn’t reciprocated. I got it after the second and third mentions. I didn’t need to read it several times more. It’s something that could be removed to tighten the story.

I feel it would have flowed better removing the chapters not from Asher’s POV. Those few scattered chapters felt like unnecessary over-explaining of things that might work better more succinctly woven into Asher’s POV as showing, or as a dialogue exchange. Overall, I did enjoy the story and look forward to seeing the author grow as a writer, and where this story goes.

***Many thanks to the Netgalley & Black Rose Writing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Reviewed for R&R Blog Tours