The Similars

By Rebecca Hanover

A New York Times Bestseller!

Don't miss the series debut that readers are calling Gossip Girl meets The Umbrella Academy and one of the best boarding school books. At Darkwood Academy, secret societies rule and nothing is as it seems…

This fall, six new students are joining the junior class at the elite Darkwood Academy. But they aren't your regular over-achieving teens. They're DNA duplicates, and these "similars" are joining the class alongside their originals.

The Similars are all anyone can talk about. Who are they? What are the odds that all of them would be Darkwood students? And who is the madman who broke the law to create them? Emmaline Chance could care less. Her best friend, Oliver, died over the summer and it's all she can do to get through each day without him. Then she comes face-to-heartbreaking-face with Levi, Oliver's exact DNA copy and one of the Similars.

Emma wants nothing to do with the Similars, but she keeps getting pulled deeper into their world. She can't escape the dark truths about them or her prestigious school. No one can be trusted, not even the boy she is falling for with Oliver's face.

This exhilarating and riveting debut by Rebecca Hanover is the next obsession for readers who devoured One of Us Is Lying, Tell Me Three Things, Scythe, and Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful.

Perfect for readers looking for:

• teen books for girls age 13-16
• young adult bestsellers
• exciting thriller series

Praise for The Similars:

"Fascinating. I was captivated."—Francine Pascal, bestselling author of the Sweet Valley High and Fearless series

"[A]s immersive and fast-paced as it is shrewd, compelling and heartbreaking."—Ray Kurzweil, inventor, futurist, and New York Times bestselling author

"A fast-paced thriller about identity and love."—Publishers Weekly

"Episodic and fast-moving with plenty of twists and one very big turn that will delight mystery readers."—Booklist

Also in this series:

The Pretenders (Book 2)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: Jan 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781492665113

Rebecca Hanover

Rebecca Hanover received a BA from Stanford University in English and drama and was awarded an Emmy for Best Writing in 2008 as a staff writer on the CBS daytime drama Guiding Light. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America and lives in San Francisco. Visit rebeccahanover.com.

Reviews for The Similars

[jennybeast · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I found the main character unlikeable in the extreme, due to her overdramatic stream of consciousness. It took everything I had to keep reading the book, because who knew what madness would transpire next?!?!?? (Spoiler alert, very little happens, except for half baked plot reveals that struggle to be compelling. The most interesting thing that happened in the whole book was her best friend getting attacked in the boathouse and that was a complete red herring that never went anywhere.) The whole book is like that, and it’s irritating. Almost as irritating as the constant assurance that the school is one of the most progressive around, even when there is absolutely no evidence to back this up at any time. I kept waiting for the plot to make sense, for the big reveal to be revealed, and instead we get an acid trip of a VR ride, that somehow reveals how our narrator has an especially strong and fascinating mind. Meh. It was a first book. I hope her future books are better.

Advanced Readers Copy provided by Edelweiss.

[fionaanne · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The story offers an interesting premise but never becomes an interesting story. Characterization is very weak and the pacing is inconsistent.

[tinatome · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher/author for an advanced copy in exchange for review. My reaction when reaching the last page? What the actual FUCK?!? I then ran to be sure there would, indeed, be future books. I need to know what happens to the Similars... all of them.*TRIGGER WARNING* Suicide: the book starts with the line "I don't actively want to die. Not all the time." And the first few pages focus on suicide, but it's not graphic or throughout the book.Emma is a smart, talented, kind girl who has had a rough summer. She is not a super special snowflake (which is refreshing). She goes to school with a lot of other smart, talented kids. This year, six new students are attending. They are pretty special. They are clones, who prefer to be called Similars. One has the face of her best friend, who died over the summer. Then, things really get interesting.This book was... so freaking awesome! It took me some time to get through it, but it was not the fault of the book. Holidays and some personal issues kept me from being able to properly concentrate on it. I finally made myself sit and finish it, and I'm so glad I did. I went in expecting a Science Fiction novel and what I got was a mystery with SciFi elements. It's full of twists that had me second guessing everything I thought I knew from previous chapters. I had sneaking suspicions for some things that turned out to be true (at least partially) and others I was dead wrong about. The characters are interesting. The MC is not annoying, or stupid, or selfish (ok, a little selfish, but so is every other 16 year old). I wish we could have gotten to know all the Similars as well as we get to know Levi, Maude, and Pippa, but the ones we really get to know are well written and you kind of feel for them. There are quite a few political points in the book that can easily be related to most civil rights movements currently, or in recent history. The politics are important, but not the main focus. Over all, it was a book I didn't know I needed. I honestly cannot wait for the rest of the series.

[pinkpurlandprose · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Many thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Fire, and Rebecca Hanover for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.Imagine the chance of going to school with the first set of human clones. The Similars, a group of six teenagers, will be attending Darkwood Academy and Emma is less than excited. Created by a rogue lab technician, they have been kept secret, raised apart from society, with only each other for company by a mysterious guardian. Until now. Now they will be going to school with their human counterparts. What will they be like? Will they be exactly like their doubles? Will they like the same things, behave the same way, be good at the same things? I mean, they have the exact same DNA. Emma might be more excited if one of them weren’t the exact copy of her best friend, Oliver. Oliver is the only one who won’t be meeting his clone because he committed suicide last summer. Emma still hasn’t come to terms with his death and now she has to run into his face everywhere - in class, in the halls, in the cafeteria. But it isn’t Oliver, it is Levi, his clone. Levi would rather not have to walk around with some dead kid’s face but he wasn’t given a choice in the matter. He gets that Emma can’t stand him, but she doesn’t even know him. But Emma doesn’t trust the clones, something is off with them. They can’t be trusted. But no one believes her. Now Prudence, her human friend has been attacked. Was it the clones? Was it someone who wants the clones dead and got the wrong twin? Emma is determined to find out and that might just give her some answers to why Oliver died.I really like the premise of this story. The execution lacked for me. There were too many things going on and I didn’t find any of the story lines very exciting. It had potential but without development it fell flat. I didn’t really bond with any of the characters, so I didn’t really care what happened to any of them. There was the usual teenage angst, very predictable stuff with the cool kids being mean to Emma and her friends, of course the Emma/Levi romantic storyline, really nothing new, not even an interesting take on the old stuff. It was so predictable that the author didn’t even bother to develop the romantic storyline. They didn’t like each other and then they were in love - for no reason at all. Having six clones meant that there were too many to develop any of their characters, but even as a group we didn’t really get to know them. You could have had their point of view told through a character like Pippa. There were some enjoyable parts and the ending had some worthwhile bits, but overall I was disappointed.

[kristymk18-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The premise of this story sounded unique and I was eager to get my hands on it. And for the first half or so of the book I was thoroughly enjoying it. With the sci-fi, mystery mix and a dash of romance, this seemed the beginning of a good YA series. But then things began to turn and I found myself rolling my eyes as The Similars fell into familiar YA traps: predictable twists and teens who can outsmart adults. I really struggled with the last 10-15% of the book. I think teens will enjoy this but I feel adults will share my sentiments more.

[standhenry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Exciting technology-forward YA novel that dives into the subject of cloning. Emma goes back to Darkwood boarding school as a junior but things won't be the same this year. Her best friend, Oliver, is gone and the school has 6 clones that are replicas of some of the students (aka Similars). One of them looks exactly like Oliver. Mystery, suspense, and a touch of high school romance all make this book a quick, enjoyable read. Satisfying ending yet open to a sequel.