A board creaked out the front. She strained her ears and there it was again, another creak, and another. Then someone tried to open the door. Dad was back! He’d probably forgotten his key and was trying to get in without waking her.
Tully leaped to her feet. ‘It’s okay, Dad,’ she called. ‘I’m awake. I’ll unlock it.’
There was a grunt of approval from outside.
She twisted the key in the old lock and tugged on the door. It flew open, almost hitting her.
‘Sorry, I don’t know my own strength,’ grinned a total stranger.
Tully’s father has always been overprotective, and all Tully wants is to be as normal as everyone else in Rivertown. But when her Dad is uncharacteristically late home, and Tully accidentally opens the door to a total stranger, she discovers just how different she really is.
Captured and taken to a secret laboratory, Tully meets other girls the same as her – identical in fact – and her life is changed forever as she tries to escape both the lab and the future it holds for her.
Water is a gripping genetic thriller, set in a contemporary world, but based on the premise of being able to breed humans with genetic mutations which make them useful for both scientific and industrial purposes. Tully and her clones are physically identical but have their own personalities, and the action is fast moving.
Water, by Geoff Havel
Scholastic, 2010
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