Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard

Project Cain by Geoffrey Girard
Series: N/A (Though there is an adult companion novel)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Source: Purchased

Fifteen-year-old Jeff Jacobson had never heard of Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous serial killer who brutally murdered seventeen people more than twenty years ago. But Jeff’s life changes forever when the man he’d thought was his father hands him a government file telling him he was constructed in a laboratory only seven years ago, part of a top-secret government cloning experiment called ‘Project CAIN’.

There, he was created entirely from Jeffrey Dahmer’s DNA. There are others like Jeff—those genetically engineered directly from the most notorious murderers of all time: The Son of Sam, The Boston Strangler, Ted Bundy . . . even other Jeffrey Dahmer clones. Some raised, like Jeff, in caring family environments; others within homes that mimicked the horrific early lives of the men they were created from.

When the most dangerous boys are set free by the geneticist who created them, the summer of killing begins. Worse, these same teens now hold a secret weapon even more dangerous than the terrible evil they carry within. Only Jeff can help track the clones down before it’s too late. But will he catch the ‘monsters’ before becoming one himself?

Let's start off by reading the description shall we? Sounds amazing right? That was the same thought I had when I first read it. Starting the book however I quickly realized that wouldn't be the case. I had to pretty much force myself to even finish this book despite my love for serial killer related things.

The info-dumping was a huge turn off for me. It was pile upon pile of information just shoved at you and some of it I really didn't think mattered too much, case in point there was a whole section where Jeff talks about the likes and dislikes of a man. And then when the information wasn't be thrown at you Jeff had very little clue about anything. Stuff about his dad? No clue. The laboratory? No clue. Nothing at all. It was frustrating and really made the story hard to get through and choppy.

I disliked Jeff. I really did, for a Jeffrey Dahmer clone you'd think he wouldn't be so boring right? Wrong. I had absolutely no connection to him besides the fact that he liked to read. He was of no use to Castillo for the first half of the book and just kept wondering why his dad wouldn't talk to him while there were serial killer clones running around murdering families. The only two who made the book somewhat interesting were Castillo and Ox. They had all of these conspiracies about the government and what was going on.

This book had so much potential but just seemed like a watered down version of Criminal Minds for me. I was expecting awesome serial killers and gore and violence but there wasn't much of anything. It seemed to mostly revolve around Jeff not knowing much of anything and Castillo trying to catch the clones.