Six Wakes - Mur Lafferty

It was not common to awaken in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood.

At least, Maria Arena had never experienced it. She had no memory of how she died. That was also new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died.

Maria's vat was in the front of six vats, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so it could awaken. And Maria wasn't the only one to die recently...

Wow, this is a clone mystery story done right.

So, you've got 6 people on a spaceship, 5 were murdered, and one committed suicide. They all wake up in new cloned bodies with no memory whatsoever of what happened. So who did it?

The premise promised lots of fun and twists and that's exactly what I got. The pace is just right and the twists make sense. During the book, we slowly learn more things about each of the crew members, and well, people are always hiding horrible stuff 😂

And there were many, many skeletons...😂

Of course, having so many "protagonists" means I'm not gonna like all of them - and that was perfectly fine! That was the point. They all have different personalities and were given different tasks on the spaceship. I think out of all of them, I liked Maria, Joanna, and IAN the most. No one is surprised I picked the ship's AI 😂

There are no unnecessary chapters in this book. Each time you turn the page, something new and shocking happens. The chapters also alternate between the past and the present, which was definitely fascinating. When you find out how everything is connected, you just feel this great satisfaction.

While this book delivers on the mystery aspect, it also delivers as a commentary on the effects of cloning. Who gets to live, the first or second clone? Who will inherit everything? Can clones have kids? Can you clone someone against their will? etc.

All in all, a twisty mystery that also offers a new perspective on the value of human life and how cloning can offer new opportunities but also take some from you.