Marie: Teumessian Trilogy Book I
By Ana Elise Meyer
This is like a sci-fi mash up of mystery, action, horror, and plain old awesome. I’m not a huge fan of science fiction but this thriller hooked me from the start…ok, it hooked me after chapter two but that’s not so bad.
The first chapter was a basic introduction. We meet a man named Tyler who’s been pushing for the military to follow his measures but of course they won’t listen. Its all cool, explanations, and more character introductions, background stories come into play…but chapter two is where things really get interesting. We have this scary town that’s one of those small, backwoods places that just happens to house a military facility.
Everything seems so dark. The townspeople, the purpose of the facility. Even Dr. Stanley has some odd quirks.
I thought I wouldn’t really like reading about a program that experiments on babies but things got very interesting very quickly. We have nine boys in this program and just one girl, who is of course, Marie. Why they are being experimented on is not yet revealed. The mystery was kept to an all high level in this book but not to a point where it annoyed me, it was just enough to keep me turning the pages wondering what’s going on and why?
I think Meyer took a big chance in choosing infants as the main mystery in her book for the beginning. I enjoyed everything about it, but some might shake their heads. Especially when I read the line, “They had no idea what was in store for them or if they would even survive.” When you’re talking about soldiers who volunteered for something, ok. When you’re talking about adults who decided to join an experiment, alright. But babies!????
Fret not.
The book is dark but it’s not immoral. Meyer doesn’t hack up those babies she just injects them…
If that’s a turn off, let me give you this line in reference to the baby experiments; “They all grew at a healthy rate and none showed signs of illness ever.” So don’t worry.
Marie grows up to be heathy and smart and makes for a great female lead. She stands out amongst the rest of the test subjects, not just because she’s a girl but because she is different. When most of the other characters got into their bickering, Marie was somewhat distant. She seemed to be more of thinker than a mover and always sat back to observe the situation. She showed her strength through strategy which isn’t always demonstrated in lead characters. That’s a trait typical in a lead detective of a crime novel but not in a sci-fi thriller, so kudos to the author for bringing some creativity to the mix.
I liked and I disliked Marie. My feelings toward her were really highlighted after a character’s death. She had a conversation with Tyler when he confessed his struggle in coping with killing another man. She kind of just brushed it off, in the midst of his yelling and cursing she simply sums everything up by saying ‘It doesn’t concern you’. That moment was significant to me in that it really highlighted how inhuman Marie really was. We know her history as an experiment, we know about the disease and whatnot, but we don’t really know Marie. We see her from Dr. Stanley’s perspective, we see her from Tyler’s perspective but in situations like that one, we truly see Marie for who she is. And I struggle in deciding whether I like her or not.
Marie’s personality was something that was clearly layered. She brings out a lot in the reader as you try to find her humanity. She is human but her behavior is so different, and her demeanor is so unique you begin to see her as the experiment that she is. And that makes you wonder, how do you look at someone and say, ‘they’re not human’…?
I don’t think that was the point of Meyer’s book, but there were definitely some underlying messages in her writing.
I would say this is a thriller that will make for a great book club read. I enjoyed it very much and I look forward to the next books in the series. Would definitely recommend to readers looking for psychological thrillers.