More Of Me by Kathryn Evans

review by Maryom

To her friends and teachers, Teva seems a perfectly normal 16 year old, but at home there are eleven younger versions of herself who will never grow up. Each year Teva separates into two - the previous version stays that age forever, the new one continues to grow for a year till she too is replaced. While her toddler-self knows nothing different, and the younger girls seem happy to stay locked in childhood or their early teens for ever, the last version, now known as "Fifteen", isn't happy. She had friends, a boyfriend, had worked hard for her GCSE grades - and doesn't want to hand all this over to Teva. Teva equally has realised that at the end of the year she will be cast off and become "Sixteen", virtually imprisoned in the house while another 'self' becomes Teva and moves on. 
Why are her family so different? Can Teva stop this process and begin to live life fully? This mix of real-life problems and scary science will have you on the edge of your seat wanting to find out!

More of Me is an absolutely brilliant YA debut from Kathryn Evans; part thriller, part science fiction, part romance, part everyday growing-up problems - and totally fab!
The concept of a body that splits each year is weird, but it's treated in such a way that I found it easy to believe in - and when all is revealed at the end, there's enough scientific basis that it doesn't all fall apart  (though I hope no one would ever pursue such ideas in the name of Science!) It isn't just a book about a scientific conundrum though - Teva and her younger, stroppier version Fifteen are believable characters you can easily empathise with - they put in all the effort at school, do the homework, revise for and sit exams, and then someone else benefits; make friends to lose them at the end of the year; they fall in love, only to hand their boyfriend over to a new self - who wouldn't be angry? 
I just loved it from the first page, and it had me hooked till the last. 


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Usborne
Genre - Thriller, Teen, sci-fi, YA