A modern drama sits on the table. Your first instinct? You avoid it because it’s common knowledge that within the pages lies a trivial plot that actually passes itself off as literature. It’s unrealistic, unoriginal and boring. Beta, first of the Beta trilogy, has potential to break all of those stereotypes and be a major success on its Oct. 16 debut.

Bestselling author Rachel Cohn creates a futuristic world in which a series of wars have trapped the world’s population onto a single continent, renamed to be the Mainland. During this era, Elysia is created. She is a teenage version of a human clone called a Beta. Betas and the other human clones are designed for service on the island of Demesne, a utopia for the wealthiest among the Earth. The clones are designed to not feel emotions, to focus on work. Yet in such an environment, Elysia is capable of feeling powerful sensations. Elysia soon senses her abnormality and realizes she is the result of manufacturing error – a Defect. If anyone finds out that Elysia is a Defect, she will be tortured and decommissioned. Elysia must hide her personality and still find a way to express her love. Fraught with fast-paced action, plot changes, and a heart-stopping surprise ending, Beta could be considered a thriller as well as a drama.

Though suspense, romance and comedy are so difficult to mix together, Cohn artfully combines the three so effectively that readers cannot help but reading the whole book in one go. The characters are both dynamic and believable and will definitely grow in the latter two books of the series. What makes Beta so engaging, however, is the pure originality of the plot. The very concept of Demesne, of human clones, of soulless people differs completely from other post-global war books, which mostly discuss a barren wasteland as the future of Earth with all technological innovation lost. Cohn explores the light and dark side of humans from an outsider’s perspective by making the main character a clone, which gives an ‘off the beaten track’ point of view. Also, the plot never slows down even though it is a long read at 329 pages.

All in all, Beta was a thriller as much as it was a drama, which I learned is not a bad combination at all. The overall structure of the story was extremely concise and easy to follow. Even fast readers like me that often skim stories rather than nitpick at each detail could follow Beta easily. I will most likely be found sitting in my bedroom for the next couple of days rereading and obsessing over this story and waiting for the rest of the series to come out, hungry for more.