At eleven years old, Dayton watched a news story about a girl of the same age who refused medical treatment for a fatal but curable disease for religion reasons.

"[2] Dayton's interest in genetic engineering began in 2009 when she read an article in The New Yorker about synthetic biology and the scientists who were fusing together body parts to create new life.

Soon we meet Alexios, a boy whose genetic modifications at the embryo stage were supposed to give him super-human intelligence and open the door to a happy and successful life.

Instead, his body was born deformed and his extreme intelligence has twisted in upon itself so that he spends his mental energy creating anagrams and solving useless puzzles about the world around him.

[8][9] Sadie Trombetta of Bustle described the book as "powerful, poignant", writing: "six interconnected narratives come together to tell a larger story about a distant future where science and technology have made it possible to attain the kind of perfection humans have always craved.

[11] In a starred review, Kirkus wrote that the book was "imaginative and incisive ... [and] asks readers to ponder what makes us human and if we’ll know when we’ve crossed the line, becoming something else.

"[12] Publishers’ Weekly also gave the book a starred review, stating that "Dayton’s brilliant collection of stories is best described as a scientific Twilight Zone".