Jack & Hyde (The Tracing Series Book 1)

Cloud S.
Riser
Genre: 
Young Adult

SCI-FI:  Jack Anderson’s life hasn’t exactly been sunshine and rainbows — he’s been plagued by a mysterious disease that makes him unable to live a normal life. His parents ship him off to a special hospital located in a remote desert where he will undergo groundbreaking treatment that is supposed to help him. However, after months of being subjected to medical experiments, Jack grows convinced the doctors are keeping him sick on purpose, and are trying to test something on him rather than help him. He manages to escape and heads home. 

 

However, once he returns home, he discovers a clone of himself named “Hyde” has been impersonating him in his hometown. But although Hyde looks like Jack, he doesn’t act like him at all, and his friends are starting to notice. When Jack comes face to face with Hyde, he’ll have to decide if he wants to fight his clone, or the people set out to destroy them. 

 

Reminiscent of the original Jekyll and Hyde story — that of a doctor’s good and bad sides becoming separate persons — Jack and his clone Hyde aren’t exactly the same, and they each have different personality traits that stand out. However, that’s where the similarities to the novel end, and this story is highly original and very entertaining. The difficulty lies in the four different perspectives that switch throughout the book, and not every perspective is equally interesting or well-developed. While Jake and Hyde’s perspectives are must-haves for the story, adding in two more perspectives made it harder to connect to each character.  That aside, the writing is fluent, the characters are interesting and the story is entertaining.   Readers will be anxiously awaiting the next installment in the series.

 

Majanka Verstraete