Customer Reviews

Double Helix

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The setting is in present time. It is a science fiction book that deals with cloning and DNA manipulation. The suspense keeps the story moving throughout the book. Eli is an 18 year old who doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. By chance a famed scientist Dr. Wyatt took interest in Eli and gave him a good job. A job that his father is abosolutly agianst Eli in taking. What ever the reason Eli's father doesn't want him taking the job, it is to painful for him to speak about. Eli thinks that there is some connection between Dr. Wyatt and his family and wants some answers. This is an excellent book to read and I would suggest everybody who would like a good read to read this book. This would definatly one of the best books I've ever read.

This book was a phenomenal disappointment. I was excited the day I found it at B&N and bumped it high up on my reading list. What a letdown. I am a Biological Sciences major and I wrote my honors thesis on scientific literacy. When I found this book, I thought, "How wonderful! A teen book about science and NOT vampires!" What I got was a lecture on how scientists are evil and immoral and all genetic research is suspect.

From a literary standpoint, the main character, Eli Samuels, is emotionally shallow, self-serving, naive, angsty... the list goes on. The pacing was extremely bizarre. Some of the plot points were scientifically inaccurate (for example: new recruits are not allowed to play with lab animals, there are a LOT of hurdles you have to jump in order to work animals of any kind - the kind of detail that underscores how lazy the author was). And the "mystery" wasn't especially mysterious, or even remotely difficult to figure out.

As for the bioethics of this book, Werlin mentions discussions with people about genetic research and claims to have read a great amount of material on the subject, yet her view is so narrow-minded and heavy-handed that it's difficult to believe that she even cracked a book that disagreed with her viewpoint. There is no discussion of right and wrong, of the different positions that exist on the subject or where some of the grey areas might be. Scientists are represented as pretentious, scornful of anyone who isn't an expert, and completely lacking a moral compass.

And yet, we're supposed to believe that a young man whose only belief about his mother (who suffers from Huntington's Disease) is that she's "insane" and that she should just die and get it over with so he and his father (whom he also hates) can get on with their lives -- this young man is APPALLED to discover that embryos were considered "waste material" by the evil Dr. Wyatt. Apart from being unbelievably trite, it's appallingly hypocritical.

If you want a good story about the bioethics of human genetic manipulation, watch Gattaca. It has the added bonus of Jude Law and Ewan McGregor. And Uma Therman, if you're into that sort of thing.

This book was amazing! I absolutely loved every part of it. The summary above explains the plot, but the greatness of this novel cannot be put into words. I recommend this book to anyone who has read Nancy Werlin's books before, and anyone who wants a good read. Thumbs up!

Um. I really liked the idea of this book, and when I started it I had very high hopes for it. The idea of a boy with an interest in genetics that's somehow connected to his past sounded so original compared to the slews of books that conform perfectly to the stereotypical demands of their respective genres (for example, the sword-and-magic-wielding fantasy hero who grew up on some country farm, or the teenager trying to get over the death of a parent and find who he/she truly is in the process) that I thought it had to be good. I was devastated when I turned out to be wrong.

I still have to give the author credit for the idea. I think it's really cool, and it's a good way (or so it seemed) to get kids interested in science. So I've decided to dedicate my first section to the various flaws in the presentation of that idea. None of them are very big, but their collective strength started to get on my nerves by the middle of the book.

First, the writing. It just had no detail. I couldn't visualize any of the characters; I knew that Eli was very tall, and Viv was very short, but nothing else. The lack of description made the story feel like a ghost world, without any reality or definition.

Second, the characters themselves. Like the descriptions, they had no depth. Maybe Eli was smart, a little cocky, too, but what else was he? None of his actions showed any personality. They were all just the expected reactions of an eighteen-year-old boy to a given situation.

Third, the plot. It moved more quickly than it should have, and it didn't fit together very well. The event at the end with Kayla and Dr. Wyatt didn't make sense no matter how I looked at it.

And fourth, the sexual references. I guess the author wanted to make the story realistic considering Eli's age, but the repeated mentions were completely unnecessary and I found them gross.

I could have dealt with these issues, because although they lowered the quality of the book they left the idea intact, and as I've already said, I loved the idea. That's why I felt so betrayed when I figured out what the author was really trying to say.

Double Helix is an insult to science. There's no other way to put it. It makes all scientists involved with genetic research on human eggs and embryos seem like crazy, soulless, twisted fiends who either don't understand ethics or don't care about them anyway. They're supposed to believe that the human awareness is just an illusion, and that's supposed to be a bad thing; they're supposed to sacrifice human rights for an impossibly perfect future. Sure, the author mentions at the end of the book that science could be used in more humane ways. But that doesn't change the impression that the book gave about science and its place in human culture. In a time when many important scientific practices are in danger of becoming illegal, America absolutely doesn't need stereotypical pictures of mad scientists murdering babies being stamped on the minds of its kids. We need science, and we need to be rational when we consider the idea of scientific progress. Double Helix was far from rational.

I know that a lot of this was my opinion, and maybe I shouldn't let it bias my view of this book. But if you read my review and think I'm wrong, remember this: no matter which view of science is right, the author's presentation of her views was prejudiced and inaccurate, and making an argument for or against anything with such prejudices isn't right.

So I didn't like Double Helix, and I still hate to admit it. I wanted to like it, more than I usually want to like a book. That's why I'm giving it two stars instead of one, in tribute to what it could have been. Because it could have been very, very good.

I like a book in which I can learn something new and interesting while following an exciting plot. Double Helix is a perfect example of such a book. I gained insights into DNA research--for both good and bad purposes--while trying to figure out the mysterious connection between eccentric scientist Dr. Wyatt and lab intern Eli's family. Powerful writing from Nancy Werlin, as usual!

After recently reading and reviewing Nancy Werlin's The Rules of Survival, I went in search of some of her other books. I discovered DOUBLE HELIX, and it didn't disappoint me.

Eli Samuels, salutatorian of his graduating class, has decided to postpone college for a year. His father is not pleased. But Eli is struggling to decide just exactly where he is headed in life. Complicating matters are his relationship with his girlfriend and his mother's illness, Huntington's disease.

Eli and his father have been struggling with Ava's illness for many years, but the end is near. She is confined to a nursing home and not even aware of their visits. Eli's future is uncertain because Huntington's disease is hereditary. His mother may have passed him the gene which carries the disease. A simple blood test holds the answer, but Eli is not ready to know the truth.

Dr. Quincy Wyatt, a famous scientific researcher, offers Eli a job at Wyatt Transgenics. It involves caring for research animals and helping in the lab. The more Eli learns about Dr. Wyatt and the work of his company, the more he begins to question what he knows about his own life.

Using clever twists and turns, Nancy Werlin has created a real nail-biter that makes this book hard to put down.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

This book, although marketed as "Young Adult," could easily take its place on the shelf alongside mysteries intended for an adult audience. A recent high school grad chooses to postpone college for a year - much to the dismay of his father - and instead takes a job in a lab which deals with cloning and genetics. Like the stereotypical male, the protagonist believes that if he can successfully compartmentalize each aspect of his life, things will be fine. Unfortunately, as his girlfriend uncovers what he has tried to keep secret - his mother's Huntington's disease - and he begins to suspect a past connection with his parents and his boss, that his father refuses to discuss, his life becomes steadily more messy. To compound matters, he begins to suspect that something is not quite kosher at the lab and with his brilliant but quixotic boss. Although the end climax and confrontation seemed tame, the events leading up to it held my interest.

The book reminded me of two mysteries by Charles Atkins, in its raising of philosophical/existential/psychological issues, its vividly drawn characters (presented as human not caricatures of scientists), and its easily recognizable Boston setting. Highly recommended.

Eli Samuals is in a good position, or so it seems. He gets decent grades, and is really good at sports. He has a nice girlfriend and is offered a job at Wyatt transgressions. He is handpicked by Dr. Wyatt himself. But Eli's dad doesn't approve of the job, and asks Eli not to take it and won't reveal the answer. His mom has Huntington's disease, and his father and him share an apartment. Eli loves his job, but one eventful day, he was working in the lab alone. He was lonely, so he broke a rule: He took a bunny out of its cage. The bunny, Foo-foo escapes and leads him to a secret. But what is the secret? Read this book to find out. I liked this book, and I think it deserves 4 out of 5 stars. The plot is slow to start, but picks up in the middle and you can't put the book down by the end. I think it deserves a sequel, because while the end isn't meant to be a cliff hanger, it is. I was biting my nails at the end, waiting to see what happens to Eli and his friend. I would suggest this book to any 6 through 8 grader, although it does have some sexual terms and swears.

This novel has a remarkably unlikable and immature main character who is simultaneously self-deprecating and self-centered, with pacing to rival the consistency of old chewing gum (if the passages, did I say passages? I mean chapters, of nothing more than Eli's angsty, redundant brooding about how his girlfriend should trust him blindly and just do as he says and that she's too much of a pain because she doesn't do that or how he wants to punch his father in the face because he is negative for Huntington's Disease, if these were to be cut, the book would only be 100 pages of shallow plot whereas now it's 250 pages of shallow plot and shallow boy.)

I kept reading because I wanted to find out about the genetic engineering hinted at just to find a sloppy, unresolved, unsatisfying cop out of an ending that makes not a smidgen of sense and to demonstrate how little sense it makes, here's a *spoiler alert*(The climax of the book is more or less that suddenly a child wants to kill its father for giving it a wonderful, happy life, but also accidentally giving it a degenerative genetic disease that sets on in middle age.)*spoiler ends* Unfortunately it took getting through 98% of the painfully bad writing in order to realize that the whole novel is not so much a novel as a badly constructed sermon against genetic engineering. All intelligent questions that were raised went unexamined and were swept under the table in favor of emotional reactions that were gruesomely hypocritical. I wouldn't even have had a problem with the book's message had it been well-written and well-argued, ... but alas it wasn't. It was an adverb-riddled, overly repetitive, dull waste of time without so much as imagery or maybe humor to redeem it.

This book is about an eighteen-year-old boy named Eli and the mystery of his secret past and his job at Wyatt Transgenics where he discovers things about himself.
When I started reading this book, I immediately got sucked into the story. The word choice is phenomenal, and I felt like I was actually there. When I saw the book it just screamed, "Read me!" maybe because I'm into this technology stuff. But, I think anyone from age 13+ will enjoy this book. It has so many different styles in it. Science fiction, romance, suspense, and mystery are all crammed into this one book!
I also like how the title of the book is subtlety slipped into the story. So when you notice it you say, "So that is why it's named Double Helix." Another thing I like is the cover; I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but I do. If the cover doesn't look good I usually won't pick it up off of the shelf.
The whole time I was reading this book it was like nothing else in the world mattered. I just could not put the book down. Out of the many books I have read this is one of the best.