 | Helga Author: Yu, Catherine | |
| Price: $14.24 | ||
Summary:
Helga is not the obedient science experiment her father intended. And though she has only just awoken, he leaves her in the care of his lab assistant Penny to go on a business trip. Bursting with curiosity, Helga quickly escapes from the well-meaning Penny and heads into Amaris City. There Helga finds she is as untamable as the invasive blackberry vines overtaking the island. And because of the misdeeds of her father’s scientific community, the natural world grows more volatile.
Reviews:
Booklist (08/01/24)
Full Text Reviews:
Booklist - 08/01/2024 Though Helga’s scientist father was trying to create a perfect, obedient daughter, Helga absolutely does not meet those expectations. Brash and reckless, Helga escapes from the lab while the Doctor is out of town—putting lab assistant Penny in the unenviable position of having to track Helga down and bring her back. The longer Helga is in the world—eating food, hearing music, talking to boys—the less she wants to be confined to the life her father planned for her, the closer she and Penny become, and the more desperate she becomes for freedom from the Institute. Poignant and precocious, Helga oozes teen mentality in its purest, most uninhibited form. Untethered from social stigmas and behavioral expectations, Helga’s newly born mind experiences the complete range of human emotions, and although her reactions to some events feel exaggerated, other responses are perfectly reasonable. The world building lends itself to discussions of gentrification, with the wealthy Uphillers forcefully gentrifying the Downhill areas. A creative Frankenstein reimagining, begging to be read alongside the classic, Helga is dynamic, grotesque, and wonderfully strange. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.
