I had high hopes for "Subject Twenty-One". I didn't set them high enough! This is a superbly written story (in every aspect), with an engrossing plot (I bet you forget lunch while reading), great characters (it's impossible not to connect with them on some level), and a setting that makes everything else come to life. Eagerly awaiting the second book - and already hoping for a 3rd!! My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

I don’t read many sci-fi and dystopian novels, but you just need to mention Veronica Roth or Divergent and you have my attention and that’s how I found myself reading Subject Twenty-One… and I don’t have any regrets. At times I found similarities that reminded me of the Divergent series (and also of the movie Gattaca), but Subject Twenty-One is unique and completely captivating. The story is set in a post-Pandemic world divided in three classes of people: at the lowest level there are the Sapiens, the descendants of those who lived and caused the Pandemic that wiped out 95% of the population. The Sapiens are considered the inferior race, without any particular skill or strength, they have to follow the rules set by the Potiors and they are never allowed to advance in their lives. The Potiors are the elite advanced class, born from genetic engineering. They are the smartest, the strongest, practically immortal, and, from what I gathered, they have no empathy or any kind of emotions. The Medius are placed between the Sapiens and the Potiors. Their DNA has been tweaked as well and they look down at the Sapiens and look up at the Potiors. The protagonist, Elise, is a Sapiens. All her life she’s been told to keep her head down and do as she was told. Her life changes when she gets a job at the Museum of Evolution as a companion to Twenty-One, one of the Netherlands brought back to life by the Potiors to be studied. She leaves her family and the Sapiens community where she grew up and moves into the Museum where she meets Luca, another Sapiens, and Samuel and Georgina, two Medius who don’t seem to care about the differences in their DNAs. And then, there is Twenty-One, the Netherland whose cage may be beautiful, but it’s still a cage. Elise is a fantastic heroine. Engaging, strong and determined, she is excited about her new job at the museum until she quickly realizes that she is not much different from Twenty-One. Even though she is allowed to leave at night, she is herself in a cage. The story is addictive, thought-provoking, and fascinating, about a world divided in classes and bases, where scientific progress is used for the benefit of few, where a heroine tries to stand up against that few. Subject Twenty-One is the first book in the Tomorrow’s Ancestors series and I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel, The Hidden Base (which is out now, by the way), to see what is next for Elise and her friends.

What if humans created a superior species using genetic engineering? What if Homo Sapiens were then held responsible for the damage to the planet, and forced to make reparations? And what if we used genetic engineering to bring back extinct species - including Neanderthals? Book One of the Tomorrow's Ancestors series introduces a world where unaltered humans are treated as manual workers, and denied luxuries as punishment for their destruction of the natural world. Teenager Elise is determined to move out of her manufacturing job, and her life changes when she is hired to work as a companion to one of the Neanderthals in the museum in the base where she lives. Her task is to spend time with him and make sure his life as a glorified zoo animal is interesting, while ensuring that he only has access to technology and food from 30,000 years in the past. Elise learns quickly that her job is not as straightforward as she hoped, and that there is more going on in her base - and in the museum - than she realised. Elise is a sympathetic and engaging character, and right from the start I cared about her story. She is surrounded, at home and at the museum, by a cast of well-drawn and interesting colleagues, neighbours, and family members. I particularly liked her relationship with the museum nurse as it developed through the book, and her relationship with her brother. My favourite character has to be Kit, the Neanderthal she works with. His grudging acceptance of her companionship grows into something more as she finds ways to bend the rules, and make both their lives more interesting. The ending is a cliffhanger, so I'm glad I bought Book 2!

Headlines: Great concept Page turner Friendship & respect Subject Twenty One was so easy to get into and honestly, this was such a fast and easy book to read. This 'Jurassic Park-esque' concept grabbed me immediately and I really enjoyed the immersion in such an unusual story of a dystopian future. This world with three different species of sapien, showed humanity not at its best. Elise, at the bottom of that rung was employed at a museum to be a companion to Subject Twenty One. The build up to this and the time working with him was just so interesting. Still, I wanted to know Kit better than I did at the end. I'm hoping for more of that from the second book. There was so much plot to unfurl in this story but it was easy to follow. Trust was an underlying theme and it was truly hard to know who was trustworthy. Even Elise's family were suspicious to me. I liked Samuel, quite a lot and again, I want to know more about him. This book was a fresh, gripping read with themes of suspense, trust, ethics and friendships. I am so on board with this world and I'm dying to read more; I can't wait for book two. Thank you to DelRey UK for the review copy.