The Evolution of Claire by Tess Sharpe

Claire Dearing has just finished her freshman year of college and is packing up her room to return home for the summer. Claire wants "a bigger life. One far from here. One that's never boring. One that's always a challenge. One where I fix problems and always have the answer." Her older sister Karen picks her up and on the long drive home reveals that their parents are struggling in their marriage, but trying counselling. They discuss Claire's plans for the summer. She has applied to six internships, four at law firms and one internship with a judge. But the one she really wants is with the Masrani Corporation, run by Simon Masrani who is continuing the work of Dr. Hammond on dinosaurs. Masrani has expanded Dr. Hammond's work of creating the world's first dinosaur park, Jurassic Park. The park never opened.

Masrani's internship program, Bright Minds, is looking for "the best and brightest" in the country. He is planning to open a park where people can experience the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar.

However, Claire learns from Karen that she did in fact receive an offer of an internship at Bright Minds.Although her mother has reservations, Claire is determined to do something risky and different.

On her flight to connect up with the other interns, Claire meets Justin, a business major. As it turns out they discover that they are both Bright Minds interns. Clair and Justin also meet some of the  other twelve interns including Eric and Tanya whom Claire suspects are siblings, Wyatt whose father works on the island and Ronnie a girl who plans on attending West Point in the fall. While waiting for the ferry,  that will take them to Isla Nublar, Jessica assistant to Beverly Jamison tells them a bit about the park. They learn it will open next year with eight species of dinosaurs including a herd of Triceratops and Brachiosaurs.On the ferry Claire realizes there are also many others traveling with them who are not interns but are vets, trainers, scientists and other specialists.

Claire's roommate is Tanya Skye, while Tanya's brother,  Eric's roommate is Wyatt. Their lodgings are on the fourth floor of the park's luxury hotel. In the morning Mr. Masrani welcomes the interns, telling them they are integral to the opening of the park in nine months. New species are continuing to arrive from their secondary location, Isla Sorna but he also warns them that some carnivorous dinosaurs such as T. Rex and Dilophosaurus are restricted. As the monorail is not yet completed, the interns are taken on a drive through the park to Gyrosphere Valley where they see the herd of Triceratops.

At lunch, Claire dines with Simon Masrani who is intrigued by Claire, her life goals and her vision of the future. After lunch, they visit the command center and then the labs in the basement. Dr. Wu who worked with Dr. Hammond on the original Jurassic Park, has continued to refine the technique that extracts dinosaur DNA. During their visit, Claire overhears a conversation between Simon Masrani and Dr. Wu in which Wu references an earlier group of interns. She later asks Justin if he caught Wu's remark but he was unable to hear what he said.

Wyatt tell them that there are rumours about "phantom interns", a previous group of interns from an earlier program renamed after the incident. Wyatt explains that "They're called phantom interns because all evidence of the program disappeared..." This was done because something terrible happened and was covered up. According to Wyatt, some of the Brachiosaurses were brought over from Isla Sorna to Isla Nublar and interns were brought in to help the dinosaurs acclimatize to their new surroundings. A few months into the process, a severe storm knocked out the island's electrical grid forcing the evacuation of the park and the island. In the process, a female intern was left behind.

That night, while alone in her room writing up her journal, Clair makes a startling discovery: a notebook, its spine cracked and its pages yellowed, tucked inside the box spring of her bed. It appears to be someone's journal. Over the next two weeks, Claire and the interns spend time with the trainers and vets, learning about the dinosaurs. At first everything seems quite normal but gradually Claire begins to suspect that not everything is as it seems. With Justin's help she begins to try to solve a past mystery only to stumble onto a plan to steal the park's technology, one that will have deadly consequences for one of the interns.

Discussion

Fans of the recent Jurassic World movies will enjoy reading Sharpe's novel which is set during Claire Dearing's young adult years and explores how she came to be involved in the development of the new Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar.

Sharpe takes time to develop Claire as a character, who at the beginning of the novel seems to be the quintessential modern teenager, deeply concerned with animal rights, determined to be a trailblazer for women. Sharpe crafts her as an ambitious young woman who wants a life that's very different from her older sister Karen. While Karen has returned home after college, gotten an job, married and had a child, Claire doesn't feel that inclination. Although she sees herself as someone who follows the rules, she admits that "...there's another side of me, the reckless side, that's all about wonder and discovery, that wants something else." Claire wants "...to be the kind of woman who could make laws and enact the kind of sweeping change that was needed."  And indeed, Sharpe grows her character throughout the novel, towards her ambition. Claire becomes more assertive as an intern. At first she dismisses Wyatt's story about a missing intern, even showing surprisingly little curiosity about a journal she finds just after Wyatt's allegations. But when she begins to suspect that Masrani and the park administration are covering up something she doggedly pursues the trail of evidence.

The Evolution of Claire is somewhat formulaic, true to the story lines in the previous Jurassic Park movies: visitors, in this case young student interns arrive at the park, are awestruck by the beautiful, majestic dinosaurs. Meanwhile, there is an undercurrent of something suspicious happening at the park, a deadly carnivorous dinosaur is inadvertently let loose, and mayhem and death follow. The book's heroine survives, only to become employed by the park. The events that lead up to the novel's terrifying climax are common to the movies; these prehistoric creatures are deadly and just can't be contained.

Sharpe foreshadows Claire's deadly encounter with the raptor in the novel's climax. For example, Claire's sister Karen insists that she purchase bear spray, something Claire is reluctant to do. "You and Mom both have a totally wrong idea of what's going to be going on during my internship." she tells her sister.  But it is Claire who is unprepared for what she will face on the island.

The science isn't always spot on but after all, this is science fiction. For example, when Claire and her fellow interns visit Dr. Wu's lab, the scientists are in the middle of extracting dinosaur DNA from a mosquito's body - by hand. Mosquito's are tiny fragile insects and the level of accuracy required to extract, by hand using a needle is so great, it's unlikely this would be done manually. Instead, it would be done with highly specialized, computerized equipment.

This novel will appeal to those readers who enjoy the Jurassic Park movies and want to read more about Claire Dearing in the most recent novel. It might be interesting to read the backstory to Owen Grady, the velociraptor trainer and the other principal character in the movie.

Book Details:

The Evolution of Claire by Tess Sharpe
New York:  Random House Children's Books     2018
390 pp.