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One of the most clearly written and thought-provoking non-fiction books I've read in a long time. Skloot raises some really important issues about heavy topics such as bioethics and racism, but seamlessly laces them into a completely compelling narrative. This book has made me more open to "science writers"--a genre to which I've not devoted any attention in the past.

Enjoyed this much more than the fourth book in the series, but can't help feeling that both this book and the last one could have been edited differently. Regardless of any problems with the pacing of the story, I'm hopelessly hooked on these characters and will follow Martin whereever he goes with them.

I enjoyed reading this book very much, but found it slightly more difficult to escape into than the only other Kearsley book I've read (The Winter Sea). Slight spoiler: Like Kearsley's other work, this book involves some time travel. I found the instances of time travel in Mariana much less elegant than a similar tactic used in Winter Sea. I became slightly distracted from the story because I was thinking too much about how the time travel would work. Other than that slight snag, this was a quick and engaging read, and it won't be the last book of Kearsley's that I read.

Like all of Ondaatje's other books that I've read, I loved the characters developed in this book and the complicated elements of their biographies. In this book, I wished a bit more plot development would have pulled the story along, particularly in the early stages.