Dr. Franklin's Island (Readers Circle)

"When something terrifically terrible happens to you, I think your brain doesn't get it, for quite a while. You go on trying to see the world the way it was, even when common sense should tell you that everything has changed forever."

Semirah Garson is certain that nothing could ever be more horrific than what she has just lived through: a plane crash in the middle of the ocean followed by the shocking discovery that she and the other survivors are stranded on an apparently deserted island with no Target or Taco Bell in sight. But she's wrong. Because no matter how hard it is for Semi, Arnie, and Miranda to bear the sun, snakes, and fading hope of rescue, it's nothing compared to what Dr. Franklin has in store for them. It's his private island they've had the misfortune to land on. And it's his private hell they'll have to endure. Dr. Franklin is too old to test his theories of animal gene therapy on himself. He needs resilient teenage bodies that have already proven they can handle great trauma. Semi's always wondered what it might be like to breathe underwater. She just never imagined she'd know firsthand....

Veteran science fiction author Ann Halam has taken the framework of H.G. Wells's classic evolution parable The Island of Dr. Moreau and crafted an exquisitely wrought 21st-century update that plays on all our modern fears of test-tube clones and misguided medical ethics. Haunting, bold, and heartily recommended. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert