From the Bookshelf of SpecFic Buddy Reads…

False Hearts (Pacifica #1)

L.R. Lam,

Laura Lam

Why we're reading this: Featured Buddy Read September 2016
[close] Featured Buddy Read September 2016

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Aug 06, 2017 Veronique rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, read2017

4.5

What an arresting premise! A twin has to take her sister's identity to enter a criminal syndicate in order to save her life. Well, that attracted my interest right there.

The story is set in a future San Francisco where everyone has been altered to be beautiful and crime is nearly extinct - well, on the surface of course - due to a drug called Zeal that allows people to purge their non-social and violent tendencies safely, while also pacifying them. Clubs offering this miracle cure, as well a ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2016 Lindsay rated it it was amazing

A fantastic SF mystery thriller about a future San Francisco, a cult and now-separated conjoined twins who escaped the cult.

Taema answers the door to find her blood-covered twin sister Tila there. Soon after the police turn up and take Tila away, the first arrest for the first murder in San Francisco in decades. The use of the drug Zeal has suppressed most peoples violent urges and city is apparently peaceful and crime free. Of course the police want to interview Taema as well, but things get st A fantastic SF mystery thriller about a future San Francisco, a cult and now-separated conjoined twins who escaped the cult.

Taema answers the door to find her blood-covered twin sister Tila there. Soon after the police turn up and take Tila away, the first arrest for the first murder in San Francisco in decades. The use of the drug Zeal has suppressed most peoples violent urges and city is apparently peaceful and crime free. Of course the police want to interview Taema as well, but things get strange fairly quickly, and Taema ends up deeply involved in a police investigation and where her cult upbringing is critical.

The story is told from both twins point-of-view with Taema getting the lions share of the narrative as she goes undercover as her sister into the vast criminal underbelly of San Francisco and an organization that actually threatens to take over the government and the largest corporation based there. From her jail cell Tila writes a memoir of her and Taema's time in the cult of Mana's Hearth and their escape from it and it's psychotic leader Mana-ma.

I read this in nearly one sitting. The sister's devotion to each other is so profound, but so is their separation from each other. This future San Francisco is also compelling and the author has put a lot of thought into the technological underpinnings of the society as well as the effects of substances like Zeal and Verve and where cheap and ubiquitous body-modification might take us. In another way it's a little cartoonish though. Even a drug like Zeal wouldn't reduce crime to zero; humans are too diverse for that. Also, the backlash from everyone making themselves model-perfect would be just about immediate, and you'd expect to see punkish body-mods almost immediately. But it's ok, the detail is fleshed out enough for the story to move on and move on it does. Relentlessly.

This is another one I'd give 4.5 stars to if I could. It's not perfect, but it's damn good, and it should get a read. I don't mind bumping it to 5 stars.

One final note: I don't see how people are shelving this as YA. The twins are twenty six and Tila's memoir of when they're sixteen is a very minor part of the story.
...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Oct 10, 2016 Robyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016

4.5. I really enjoyed this futuristic sci-fi x murder mystery novel. Great characters, wonderful sense of place, and a very interesting technological world.

I listened to this and was very impressed with how skilful the narrator was!

12 likes · Like · see review

Oct 10, 2016 Helen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Interesting take on life in the future, I'd certainly take advantage of the youth, weight and hair colour advances!!

Conjoined twins, growing up in a cult seek life, individuality and a brighter future. ...more

8 likes · Like · see review