Let me start by saying that pieces of the worldbuilding were interesting and thought out well—it’s obvious that the author’s spent a lot of time thinking about a climate changing future and what that entails for us, so there were intriguing bits of that sprinkled throughout. That’s the nicest thing I have to say. Buckle up.

At the top of my list of grievances, because I’m qualified to speak to this: The science is just Bad. I get it, it’s science fiction—theoretically it’s allowed to bend the rules. However, as a biologist, the fake science bugged me A Lot. The general premise is people (usually teenagers, for whatever reason) can get animal DNA/features spliced into theirs for a price. The rich kids can do this with good fancy doctors. Most people, however, do it with back alley “genies,” who apparently can alter someone’s biology within twenty-four hours in a garage or abandoned house by sticking them with a viral vector and infecting them with animal DNA to give them new physical traits. The soon-to-be chimera (that’s what spliced people are called) then undergoes a lengthy process that they call “sweating out the change,” where their biology and organs and bones and literally everything physical rearranges, again over the span of hours, and you emerge on the other side a chimera. If, however, you decide that you don’t like being a chimera, within 24-48 hours you can go to a “fixer,” a doctor who can somehow reverse this process, but if you wait longer than that, you’re stuck forever.

That’s just not how any of that works. Like, at all.

Human bodies fight off foreign invaders (like, for instance, animal DNA injected via viral vector), unless someone is immunocompromised. That’s, like, the whole point of the immune system. There was no mention of immunosuppressants or anything like that to deal with the body’s immune response, and somehow this whole chimera vector thing is in a couple of syringes, max? Plus, bodies don’t just rearrange and grow new organs and bone structures and glands and what have you over the course of hours while someone lies in an abandoned house under a blanket, which is how we witness a couple chimeras “sweating out” their changes. I’m willing to buy some fudged science if it’s at least believable fudged science, and this was definitely not. Oh, and later on a character gets an emergency splice “stacked” onto him, when his first one almost kills him? So theoretically this bigger better one saves him from the first one, which is also just . . . wrong. Like. Why.

In addition to the science being atrocious, it’s also not super well established why people want to be chimeras in the first place? The tagline on the back of the book says “Getting spliced used to be a fashion statement. Now, it’s a death sentence,” but even the “fashion statement” bit isn’t explained super well in text. Most of the chimeras who the MC, Jimi, asks why they wanted to be spliced say something about “getting back to nature” (which humanity has wiped out, basically) and “honoring/remembering the animals we’ve killed,” or something to that extent. Or they just think It’s Neat(TM). The rich kids clearly do it because it’s cool and trendy, but that no longer makes sense given the book’s political climate. There’s an extremist group (a large extremist group) called Humans for Humanity (H4H) trying to get the Genetic Heritage Act (GHA) passed, which means that anyone who’s not 100% human is no longer a person. But there are huge demonstrations and rallies for this thing, and it’s a popular enough idea that chimeras are ostracized. And yet. People. Still. Choose. To get. Spliced. Just cuz it looks cool, basically, is what I got from my read.

So not only did I not buy the fact that people would want to do this to themselves (because it’s always voluntary—no one forces anyone to be a chimera, ever), I also don’t buy the H4H logic and the fact that the GHA ACTUALLY PASSES IN THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THIS BOOK. It seems weird to me that what’s essentially an elective body modification surgery can mean that people are no longer people? I feel like it’s one thing if you’ve always been part animal, part human, but these people were literally fully human before the opted for this procedure.

It’s impossible not to understand the Real World Parallels, because this book is incredibly heavy handed: Chimera hate is a stand-in for racism and other types of discrimination (although shout out to the giant YIKES I felt when I actually read the word “homosexuals” with my own two eyeballs in the MC’s narration about other groups a certain mega church has discriminated against), but my issue with that is that it’s a false equivalent. You choose to be a chimera (for whatever awful unexplained Reasons). You don’t choose to be a person of color or queer or neurodivergent or marginalized. Trying to parallel the backlash chimeras face in their quest to be recognized as fully people with the struggles that people of color face Doesn’t Work, period. (This isn’t my lane, by the way, I’m super white, but I’m surprised I didn’t see anything along these lines mentioned in the other reviews I read? So I wanted to at least throw it out there, but I’m by no means an expert. Please listen to people of color.)

In addition to the paralleling not working, it also sets up a nasty “white savior” situation with our MC, Jimi, becoming the Chimera Savior. Jimi is not a chimera. Jimi is the one who miraculously saves the endangered chimeras at the end, and makes a rousing speech on TV about how we all gotta love each other and get along. Jimi saves the day. Which, I get that she’s the MC, but with the paralleling to our own contemporary real world issues . . . yikes. 0/10 do not do, especially when you’re a white man writing a (probably—of course it’s not specified, but her name is actually Dymphna Corcoran, named after an Irish saint, so I’m Guessing) white protagonist.

Other miscellany that’s worth mentioning:

There were at least five (5) references to skeeviness (of the sexual harassment/edging toward narrlowly-avoided assault variety), and one attempted skeevyness on page. Against our 16-year-old girl protag (and one of the referenced ones was when she was a KID ON A PLAYGROUND). I get it, that’s life. As a female-presenting person, trust me I get it. However. Just because it’s life, doesn’t mean I want to read about it in a YA sci-fi thriller that’s not about that sort of thing. It was very jarring, and made my pulse skyrocket every time in panic, and it was borderline creepy to me, because the author is a middle aged man.

Also, holy abuse, Batman. Jimi has one (1) friend, Del, and Del’s cop father is horrifically abusive. Physically violent (and, spoiler, murderously physically violent). Does Jimi or Jimi’s mom (Del’s NEIGHBOR) do anything to get Del out of this house and situation? Nope. Not a thing. Ever. Del just comes running to Jimi’s place when he’s SERIOUSLY INJURED for Jimi to help fix him up so they can share a kiss (their first! They’re best childhood friends but the kiss early on Changes Everything! Ew! Why!), and then start the plot, which is Jimi trying to track down Del before he gets spliced. The abuse is . . . not handled well, or thoughtfully. That’s frustrating and disheartening.