Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

A space adventure set on a lone ship where the clones of a murdered crew must find their murderer -- before they kill again.

It was not common to awaken in a cloning vat streaked with drying blood.

At least, Maria Arena had never experienced it. She had no memory of how she died. That was also new; before, when she had awakened as a new clone, her first memory was of how she died.

Maria's vat was in the front of six vats, each one holding the clone of a crew member of the starship Dormire, each clone waiting for its previous incarnation to die so it could awaken. And Maria wasn't the only one to die recently...

I was hesitant to read Six Wakes after hearing such mixed reviews on it including readers not understanding how it was a finalist for the Hugo Award. I tend to like books that have won that award since I began paying more attention to the finalists and winners of it. I kept coming back to the book because I enjoy sci-fi and thrillers and the plot sounded intriguing. 

I decided to finally take the plunge and read it to discover my own opinion on the book. Six Wakes begins right in the midst of murder and mayhem. The entire crew has been murdered and all of them wake up in their new clone bodies to discover the gory scene. None of them know how or why they were murdered or who the culprit is. I normally have a lot of trouble with thrillers because I find that authors make it entirely too simple to discover who the murderer is or their motivations for murder are not interesting enough. 

Mur Lafferty does a brilliant job of putting so many twists and turns into his book that it is hard to pinpoint exactly who committed the murders. It was thrilling to read and discover more and more clues to the mystery! 

I loved getting to have all of the different points of view and flashbacks for each character. The author does an excellent job of building the world through each of the characters and I loved every minute of it. Everything feels so realistic which makes the book even creepier. Many of the things that happen in this book could potentially happen with the advances in science and medicine that we have uncovered today. 

I was afraid that the reveal at the end would be disappointing but it was exactly what I would have wanted. Although, I would have liked more ending or at least a sequel. I'm not sure that a sequel would have the same effect or tone that Six Wakes had but I guess I just want more time in the world.