Double Helix - Softcover

Werlin, Nancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014240327X ISBN 13: 9780142403273

Publisher: Puffin Books, 2005

Synopsis

Eighteen-year-old Eli discovers a shocking secret about his life and his family while working for a Nobel Prize-winning scientist whose specialty is genetic engineering.

About this title

About the Author:

Nancy Werlin writes YA fiction that ranges from realistic fiction to suspense to fantasy, often breaking the boundaries between genres. Her books have gathered awards too numerous to mention, but including National Book award finalist, Edgar award winner and finalist, New York Times bestseller, L.A. Book Prize finalist, and IndieBound Top Ten. Nancy's first novel, Are You Alone on Purpose, was a Publishers Weekly Flying Start pick.
 
Of Nancy's suspense fiction, Sarah Weinman says, "Chances are, many of you haven't heard of this author. That would be a shame, because she's simply one of the best crime novelists going right now. Period." These titles are where Nancy habitually breaks genre-separation rules and include The Rules of Survival (a National Book Award finalist), The Killer's Cousin (Edgar award winner), Locked Inside (Edgar award nominee), Black Mirror (which the Washington Post called "an edge-of-your seat thriller"), and Double Helix (named to multiple best-of-year book lists). 
 
Nancy's unusual fantasy fiction was inspired by the ballad Scarborough Fair and includes the loose trilogy Impossible (a New York Times bestseller), Extraordinary (featuring a rare thing in fantasy fiction: a Jewish heroine), and her personal beloved, Unthinkable. 
 
For fun, Nancy also writes and draws a graphic memoir in comics, using her Tumblr to self-publish an episode three times a week. 
 
Her favorite book in all the world is Jane Eyre. 
 
A graduate of Yale, Nancy lives near Boston, Massachusetts with her husband.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

My new boss, Larry, looked at me. "Our work here is all about human protein development. Um—what do you already know about this, Eli, so I don't waste your time?" He was too nice a guy to add, Or mine.

"Pretty much nothing," I admitted. "Um—you probably know this—I'm just a high school graduate." I felt compelled to add, "I got this job as a—as a sort of favor, but I promise, I'm going to do my best here."

"Yeah," said Larry. "I'd heard that, uh, you were young." He gave me a sideways look. "You know Dr. Wyatt, I understand?"

I didn't know what to say. I half-nodded and half-shrugged.

"Lucky you," said Larry mildly. I still couldn't think of anything to say. I didn't have to, though. Larry nodded, shrugged, and then simply continued talking.

"Well, I'll give you some books and articles to read, but here's the short story. You know what ‘transgenic’ means? It's when an organism is altered by having a gene from another species transferred into it. Transgenic research involves studying organisms that have undergone this kind of manipulation. Clear so far?"

We had started walking again. I had a very unscientific urge to mention Spiderman, who had been bitten by a radioactive spider. X-Men. Behind that silliness was the same idea, I now realized—the transfer of genetic material. Transgenics. Perhaps the very key to the end of suffering that Dr. Wyatt had talked about. "I get it," I said.

But it was as if Larry had read my mind. "Take the Swamp Thing. You know him? Half-plant, half-man?"

"Yeah," I said. I added, gravely: "It was a terrible accident in the lab."

"It's always a terrible accident in the lab." Larry placed a hand over his heart. "Or sabotage." He grinned. "But hey, Eli, did you read the issue where we found out that wasn't quite what happened?"

"To tell you the truth, I just saw the movie. Years ago."

We had reached our own home lab, on the east side of the building. Larry waved me through the doorway.

"Well, get this. Turns out Dr. Alec Holland actually died before he fell into that swamp. His corpse decomposed and got eaten by the swamp plants at the bottom. The plants absorbed the super-growth plant formula and the plants became intelligent. They actually figured out how to mimic a human body in plant form. The plant creature thought it was Dr. Holland! So, Swampy isn't a man who's turned into a plant. Swampy's a plant that tried to become a man."

"Vive la difference," said a dry voice behind us.

"Uh, Mary Alice," said Larry. "I was just explaining our research to Eli. Swampy came up in passing."

"He always does." Mary Alice directed my attention to the far wall. Above a computer desk hung a Swamp Thing poster, meticulously matted and framed. On it, a giant leafy hand was emerging from murky water; above that were the words: Too intelligent to be captured. Too powerful to be destroyed.

"So much weirder than Batman," murmured Mary Alice.

Larry practically choked. "Mary Alice, listen, you don't understand this and you never will, so stop trying. Batman has no genetic enhancements. He's just plain psychotic."

Mary Alice rolled her eyes. "Sorry."

About this edition

• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 014240327X
• ISBN 13: 9780142403273
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250