Genesis Alpha

Plot summary

Josh worships his older brother, Max. They look alike, they sound alike, and they both have the same interests, including their favorite multiplayer online role-playing game, Genesis Alpha. But Josh and Max have an even deeper connection. When Max was sick with cancer, it was Josh's stem cells, harvested when Josh was just a baby, that saved Max's life.

One day, while the two are playing a game of Genesis Alpha, Max stops responding. Josh soon realizes that Max was arrested in his college dorm room for the brutal murder of a teenage girl. As Josh tries to reconcile the brother he knew with the monster they talk about on television, he also has to deal with his own guilt: If his cells had not saved Max's life, would this girl still be alive? But this is only the beginning, and soon, Josh will come to a number of startling revelations—revelations that have dire implication not only for Max's future, but for Josh's as well.

Josh needs to know the truth. When he looks for it he finds the teenage girl's sister, and a character called Rook. Is it in the real world or did Genesis Alpha have a more sinister part in his life than he knew?

Reception

Esther Keller in her review for Library Media Connection said "This book is primed with material for reluctant readers, but the clunky shifts of tenses at the start of the book may throw them off. Even so, it’s worth sticking with to discover the twists and turns." Frances Bradburn reviewing for Booklist called it a "fascinating, troubling thriller." Anthony C. Doyle reviewing for the School Library Journal did not recommend the novel saying "readers looking for a novel about a sibling's criminality would be better served by Patricia McCormick's My Brother's Keeper, and those looking for stories about tissue donation and sibling illness could try Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper"