Spliced by Jon McGoran - ADVISABLE

Spliced by Jon McGoran, 360 pgs. Holiday House, 2017. $18.99 Language – R (113 swears, 0 “f”), Mature Content – PG; Violence – PG; 

HS – ADVISABLE. 

Jimi does what is expected of her and tries to prevent her best friend, Del, from doing anything too crazy. Del is Jimi’s only friend, and they support each other when family drama overwhelms them. But then their lives are interrupted by politics of the times and questions about the legality of performing genetic changes by giving people animal DNA. As society divides and riots become common, Del goes missing, and Jimi will do anything to find him.

My first though after finishing this book was “wow,” and I just sat speechless for a moment. My second thought was that I hope McGoran writes a sequel. The characters in Spliced feel like dear friends to me now that it feels like I’ve gone through this grim time with them. With Jimi and her chimera friends, I rode the rollercoaster of hope and disappointment, I questioned what the right thing to do was, and I pondered the definitions of person and human. For me, the best part of Jimi’s journey was seeing different sides of humanity and which definition should be the politically correct and socially accepted one. 

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen