Spliced Series

Seventeen-year-old Jimi Corcoran risks her life to clear a friend’s name–and in so doing uncovers the horrific truth about an influential businessman’s motives in this second installment of the Spliced series.

After Del’s death, Jimi wants to pick up the pieces of her life and move on. But she’s become a public figure in her defense of chimeras, and she can’t quite shake the spotlight–or her suspicion that she’s being followed.

When her friend Dr. Guzman, a chimera sympathizer, is arrested for the murder of a chimera wearing a strange medical bracelet, Jimi does some digging–and eventually discovers that Howard Wells, the venal businessman
and proponent of the Genetic Heritage Act, is supporting a hospital that ostensibly provides healthcare for chimeras.

After teaming up with friends Rex and Claudia, Jimi learns that the hospital is actually a cover for an extensive mining operation that retrieves metals needed to operate WellPlants, the computerized brain implants that only the super-rich can afford–and which have made Howard Wells millions. When Jimi realizes that the perilous mining is being done by captive chimeras, she risks her own life to shut down the operation–and incurs the wrath of one of the most powerful and dangerous people in the world.

Sixteen-year-old Jimi knows people change, but nothing could prepare her for what’s about to happen to her best friend, Del.

Over the years, their friendship has been evolving—and Jimi is starting to wonder if they could become more than friends. But Del is obsessed with becoming a chimera: a person with animal features, achieved by splicing animal genes into their own DNA. It’s a dangerous and controversial process, provided illegally by back-alley doctors called genies.

The dramatic physical changes chimeras go through have scared lawmakers into drafting legislation to declare chimeras officially non-human— taking away all protections under the law. When Del goes missing, Jimi is desperate to find him before he alters himself forever.

To save him, Jimi must risk her life—all while knowing that if getting spliced is the choice Del has made, it means he’s leaving her behind forever.  Unlikely allies and powerful enemies clash as Jimi questions her beliefs and uncovers closely-guarded secrets about her own past.

Set in a near-future society where technology is redefining what it means to be human, Spliced is part science fiction, part political thriller, raising questions about genetic modification and how we treat each other that will stay with you long after the final page.

The hardcover and paperback editions features a striking, texturally-embossed spot gloss cover, and the paperback features a sneak-peak at the heart-pounding sequel, Splintered.

A Hal Clement Notable Young Adult Book 2018