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    Lucy
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    Lucy
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    Lucy
    Audiobook11 hours

    Lucy

    Written by Laurence Gonzales

    Narrated by Kim Mai Guest and Abby Craden

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Laurence Gonzales's electrifying adventure opens in the jungles of the Congo. Jenny Lowe, a primatologist studying chimpanzees-the bonobos-is running for her life.

    A civil war has exploded and Jenny is trapped in its crosshairs . . . She runs to the camp of a fellow primatologist.

    The rebels have already been there.

    Everyone is dead except a young girl, the daughter of Jenny's brutally murdered fellow scientist-and competitor.

    Jenny and the child flee, Jenny grabbing the notebooks of the primatologist who's been killed. She brings the girl to Chicago to await the discovery of her relatives. The girl is fifteen and lovely-her name is Lucy.

    Realizing that the child has no living relatives, Jenny begins to care for her as her own. When she reads the notebooks written by Lucy's father, she discovers that the adorable, lovely, magical Lucy is the result of an experiment.

    She is part human, part ape-a hybrid human being . . .

    Laurence Gonzales's novel grabs you from its opening pages and you stay with it, mesmerized by the shy but fierce, wonderfully winning Lucy.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 13, 2010
    ISBN9780307735362
    Unavailable
    Lucy
    Author

    Laurence Gonzales

    Laurence Gonzales is the author of the best-selling title Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why. He has won numerous awards for his books and essays, including two National Magazine Awards, the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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    Reviews for Lucy

    3.5/5

    118 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 2/5
      This book was simply a story, told in a fairly boring way, based on an interesting concept. Never has so little been made out of so much. Wouldn't recommend.
    • 4/5
      A brilliant work of SF doing exactly what SF should do: use what science has not yet done to hold up a mirror to the world that we live in. Furthermore, it paraphrases Steve Martin monologues from SNL in the 1970's and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. What's not to love?
    • 4/5
      A brilliant work of SF doing exactly what SF should do: use what science has not yet done to hold up a mirror to the world that we live in. Furthermore, it paraphrases Steve Martin monologues from SNL in the 1970's and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. What's not to love?
    • 4/5
      Not a book I would typically pick up to read but it was one my mother read near the end of her life and it was an important one to her. My mom typically read biographies and non-fiction so for the first half of this book I was mildly amused at her reading what felt like a combination science fiction, thriller and young adult novel. Around the middle I saw what she liked so much about this book. The first half of the book feels like mild entertainment, the second half an emotional rollercoaster - anxiety, anger, despair and finally some enlightenment at the end. Overall though, a reminder of why I prefer animals over humans.
    • 4/5
      When I read the description on this book I wasn't at all sure that I would be able to enjoy it. A man genetically engineers an ape so that she can give birth to a half human child? How good can that be? Actually it was very well done.Naturally there are a lot of questions raised by the story, mainly what is “human” and what is “animal.” It wasn't thrust on the reader in an unnatural way either. Sure there are some logistical parts where I thought it was obviously just easier to throw something down to hurry up the story than to work around the problem of a half-chimp not having a passport and other issues of the sort, but on the whole, it went very well story-wise. I enjoyed the flow and the look into society. I actually recommend this one. Don't be fooled by the sound of the summary, it's quite good.
    • 4/5
      Lucy ist ein junges Mädchen, die im Dschungel bei Ihrem Vater, einem Primatenforscher, aufwächst. Bei einem Aufstand im Kongo wird dieser jedoch ermordet, und die benachbarte Primatenforscherin Jenny nimmt das verwaiste Mädchen mit. Lucy ist einfach wunderbar, intelligent, gutherzig, sehr schön- und zur Hälfte ein Bonobo. Irgendwann wird diese Tatsache bekannt und es stellt sich die Frage: Was ist Lucy? Mensch oder Tier?Das Thema ist äußerst komplex: Was macht einen Menschen menschlich? Es gelingt dem Autor, diese Frage in dieser Geschichte gut aufzuwerfen. Allerdings ist mir die Herangehensweise zu einfach: Natürlich ist Lucy einfach wunderbar und in fast jeder Hinsicht menschlich - da ist es sicher keine Frage, dass alle Leser/innen auf Lucy Seite sind. Aber so eindeutig wäre eine solche Kreuzung wohl aus logischen Gründen nicht. Schon rein optisch könte sich auch viel stärker das Bonobo-Weibchen durchsetzen - denn sähe Lucy wie ein Affe aus, würde aber dennoch Shakespeare zitieren, wie sie es tut, was würden wir dann denken? Insofern macht es sich der Autor zu einfach, denn er erschafft einen eindeutigen Menschen mit leicht verträglichen Bonobo-Eigenschaften- es könnte aber aus logischen Gründen das genaue Gegenteil auch der Fall sein.Wie die etwas einfach konstruierte Handlung mit eindeutigen Gut-Böse-Schemata ist auch der Stil. Das Buch ist sehr einfach geschrieben. Der flache Stil gefiel mir nicht. Trotz aller Einwände habe ich es sehr gern gelesen. Es regt zum Nachdenken an, ist spannend und hat liebenswerte Charaktere.
    • 3/5
      I almost stopped reading this, and I'm glad I trucked through it and finished it just minutes before NaNoWriMo 2010 began. I found the first half kind of slow and, while I like the idea behind the book, the story didn't really engage me at first. It seemed kind of light and like not much was happening. I found it a little tough to imagine that a 14-year-old (albeit a 14-year-old human/bonobo hybrid) would fit in with high school seniors as well as Lucy seemed to. I did like the details about The Stream and about how the other characters sensed something different about Lucy and all tried to reason it out in different ways.

      I found the short sections written in Lucy's voice to be quite compelling and eloquent. I wonder if the book may have held more interest for me from the beginning were it written in Lucy's voice, either completely or in larger part.

      Then about halfway through, the book took off, and I tore through it. The relationships deepened, the characters developed and became more 3-dimensional, and I began to actually care about them. Maybe it just took the central conflict to transform this bunch into people I'd want to know.

      A couple of things I was curious about that Gonzales didn't address. One was the difference in development between a newborn bonobo and a newborn human. As I understand it, because humans have larger brains and smaller pelvises (because we walk upright), we are born about 3 months earlier, developmentally speaking, than bonobos and chimps are. So when a bonobo is born, they're at a developmental stage roughly equivalent to a 3-month-old human. With a bonobo mom, would Lucy have been born like a bonobo newborn, and if so, would her head have fit OK through Leda's pelvis? Or would Lucy have been born at the same stage as a human newborn, in which case, what adjustments would Leda have had to make to allow for a baby who couldn't immediately cling to her fur with the strength a bonobo newborn could?

      At times I found Gonzales' allusions to be a little heavy-handed. In the portion of Lucy's memoir that we get to read, there's an allusion to the Garden of Eden, how Lucy was a bonobo until she learned to write, and then began to differentiate towards the human side of her genetic heritage, leaving behind the innocence of her bonobo relatives. I would have preferred if Gonzales had just let the reader feel clever for having picked that allusion up rather than making direct reference to Eden.

      The portrayals of the two main reactions to Lucy's existence were a little black-and-white, too. Those opposed to her were religious fanatics who wanted her caged and/or killed and those who supported her were all good, intelligent people who accepted her human side and didn't seem to have any serious problems with her ape side. Seems like in reality, those reactions would be a little more nuanced.

      All-in-all I found this to be an enjoyable read. Touches on a fairly surface level some very deep issues (and brought up an application of the USA Patriot Act I hadn't considered), and explores what it means to be human.
    • 2/5
      Didn't really do it for me...
    • 4/5
      Fascinating story of the first bonobo/human offspring is at once warm and heartbreaking. Lucy is a character that you won't forget. Her determination to fit into life as a "normal" teenager living in Chicago is filled with joy and frustration. And when her secret comes out she becomes the target and the hunted. This would make a wonderful film in the right hands. Although it's not being marketed as a teen book, it shouldn't be overlooked by that group.
    • 3/5
      From the moment I heard about this book, I wanted to read it, and as I finally started reading it, I really wanted to like it. It started out so strong, but then it went off the rails. As I kept reading there would be sparks of the potential that this book had, but it ultimately left me disappointed.Even looking past some of the far-fetchness of the plot in places, I found some of the relationships and character traits very unrealistic, especially the inclusion of Lucy's friend Amanda. So much about her personalty did not ring true, even if she was the most sophisticated teenage ever.
    • 3/5
      Fourteen-year-old Lucy's father is a primatologist living in the Congo and her mother is a bonobo. When her parents are killed by guerrillas, she is found by Jenny, another primatologist, who takes her to safety in the U.S. and enrolls her in school. But once her origin as a genetically bioengineered hybrid is discovered, it remains to be seen how safe she really is. A decently written enjoyable suspense novel; has definite teen appeal because the point of view alternates back and forth from Lucy to Jenny, and depicts Lucy's adjustment to being an American teen in a typical high school.
    • 2/5
      Interesting concept, but very disappointing execution.
    • 1/5
      Couldn't get into it. I myself love the mall.
    • 3/5
      Read the Advanced Reader's Edition. Interesting story, but kind of jumpy between events - author may spend a lot of time on one event and then the next paragraph would jump to the next week or month, etc. with no segue in between.
    • 3/5
      This book was compelling at first, with a very interesting concept. It lost me when too much interpersonal conflict was added, such as Lucy's relationship with her first and only girlfriend. I did finish it, as I really needed to know how it ended. I am unsure who I would recommend this book to though.
    • 4/5
      Lucy is a hybrid human - part human and part ape (bonobo). The story is an excellent one with a lot of believable happenings. It is at times heartwarming, and sometimes a little funny and sometimes quite scary. I found most of the characters to be richly developed and I came to care about them a lot during the reading of the story, none moreso than Lucy herself. Although the storytelling is mostly excellent, the writing itself is rather bland at times. I state this as an observation, not a criticism. The story is well told. I'd say the author does have a problem with teen dialogue, creating an odd mix of a 70's-80's-90's lingo. Tell me when was the last time you heard a teenager quote a line from a mid 70's Steve Martin skit for example. But still, the teen friendship central to part of the story felt honest and real. Other than Lucy's father, characters in the story are painted in black and white rather than shades of grey. That may bother some people. And if you are a fan of the Patriotic Act, you might want to avoid this one. I'm glad I gave this book a chance and consider it an above average read. I think it might appeal mostly to late teens, but it covers issues of ethics and humanity that are relevant to readers of any age.
    • 4/5
      Although the characters aren't completely developed, this book raises some interesting issues about human and adolescent society from the POV of a newcomer. Could be good for an older teen. Doesn't have the ick factor I thought it might.
    • 5/5
      Jenny Lowe is deep in the jungle of Congo. She is studying the bonobos apes. Jenny is not the only one whom is studying the apes. Donald Stone, British researcher and his fifteen year old daughter, Lucy are also in Congo. Jenny awakes to hear gun shots. She takes off running through the jungle towards Dr. Stone’s encampment. There Jenny finds Dr. Stone dead. Jenny rescues Lucy and takes her back to London. Jenny starts to notice something is slightly different about Lucy. It isn’t anything really big but just little things like the way Lucy eats her banana, doesn’t understand the concept of clothing, or how to communicate. Jenny learns the truth about Lucy. What Jenny does with this information can change the world and evolution. Lucy is the first novel I have read by this author. I can say without an absolute shadow of a doubt that I will be checking out more books by Mr. Gonzales. This book had elements of the movie, Congo. This book is something I could picture paying money to go see in the movie theaters. Mr. Gonzales really brings to life, Jenny and Lucy. Right from the beginning I was sucked into this book and found that I could literally not tear myself away from this book. I was in the zone and nothing could distract me. It was interesting to see everything from Lucy’s point of view. If you love sci fi novels or are just looking for something new and refreshing from vampires, werewolves and demons then you have to pick up a copy of Lucy. You won’t be sorry.
    • 4/5
      I took a chance on this one. My first thought upon finding this was "A half human, half ape girl? I don't know about this.." But my curiosity was picqued enough that when I found it at my local library, I decided... "What the heck.. it's here already and doesn't require an ILL request.." It was surprisingly good and had me on the edge of my seat. (Obviously! I devoured it a day!) Lucy is the result of a scientist that has lived 25 years in the Congo jungle studying bonobos. The scientist artificially inseminated a female bonobo with faint human genes (also of his creation) with his own seed and raised Lucy as both human and bonobos for 14 years. Lucy and her father's peaceful if strange jungle existence comes to an abrupt halt when civil war breaks out tho. Her entire family is dead and a fellow scientist, Jenny rescues her with no knowledge of Lucy's unique DNA. Jenny takes Lucy to home with her to Chicago but the secret eventually comes out. When Jenny discovers she is adopting an ape girl, she vows to protect Lucy at all costs. Don't make promises you cannot keep!! Due to medical issues, Lucy's secret is discovered. Soon everyone wants Lucy. The religious fanatics want her. The US government wants her. Scientists want her. The Nazis even want her. And most of them want her dead. With her posting her entire life on Youtube and showing up on Oprah and Good Morning America, it's only a matter of time before Lucy is captured by one of those groups. Will she get away? There's bound to bloodshed, but whose? And when it comes down to it, is Lucy more human or more ape? I laughed when Lucy tosses a boy across the wrestling mat and chuckled when she watches YouTube and thinks of how drunk girls act like bonobos. I found the book rather insightful as well. It's an interesting look at human behavior from a non human POV. Makes you think. Four stars because I thought Lucy's friend, Amanda needed to get her own life. I found her constant involvement in everything weird.
    • 4/5
      Lucy is the story of a girl raised in the jungles of the Congo, who turns out to be far more complex than we -- or the public in the novel -- can imagine. Lucy is a wonderful, rich character, and the novel sheds light on many of our most troubling social and environmental issues -- both ones that exist, and ones on the horizon. For me, though, the level of the writing failed to live up to that complexity of the main character and the struggles of the issues, marring what could have been a phenomenal book with pedestrian dialogue and undergraduate writing workshop prose.
    • 4/5
      This is a very intriguing read. Subject matter is for some hard to wrap their mind around, making it my type of book. I will write more as soon as I finish.
    • 5/5
      Lucy follows a fifteen year-old girl from the jungles of the Congo to the very different jungle that is the United States. Before fleeing to the United States Lucy's father taught her about the destructive nature of humans and explained to her his vision and why he created her. In the United States she is quick to recognize the deficiencies of the human race, but is also determined to fit in and begin her new life as a human. The author does a fantastic job of making Lucy seem exceedingly human, but at the same time very much an animal. You really begin to feel attached to Lucy and feel for her struggles as well as her successes. When the public finds out who and what she is and represents we once again see the beauty as well as the absolute darkness our species is capable of. While the novel is not without its fault, Lucy is an intelligent and thought provoking novel that really reminded me why I love to read.