Review: Starters by Lissa Price

Starters

Author: Lissa Price
Series: Starters, Book One
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: YA Dystopian/Science Fiction
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Release Date: March 13, 2012
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

My Review:

At first I was kind of just okay with this book. It was kind of slow starting and then it would pick up for a bit and then go back to being slow. But then, the end happened. I would say the last 100 pages completely changed how I felt about the entire book. It changed from mediocre to omg amazing in those 100 pages. This book is so original, an idea unlike any other. These crazy Spore Wars came and wiped out everybody between the ages of 20 and 60. So now, those younger than 20 are called Starters and those older than 60 are called Enders. The human lifespan is greatly increased from the present day so people live to be 150+. These old people don’t want to live in their bodies so they rent bodies of teens and get to use them for the agreed upon amount of time. Creepy? Yes.

I liked Callie from the beginning of this book. I’ve been finding that, in a lot of books that I have read lately, the main character just bugs the crap out of me. That was not the case in this one. Callie cares about one thing and one thing only. Her brother. He is sick and they have no money. They are unclaimed minors, meaning both their parents are dead and they have no guardian. They live on the streets because the alternative is living in one of the Institutions and trust me folks, you’d be better off on the streets. Callie will do whatever it takes to get the money she needs to help her brother, even if it means renting out her body to some creepy old person. After her parents died, she took on the responsibility of raising him. Her heart is made of gold and there wasn’t one moment in this book where she annoyed me.

I wish that we could have gotten to know Michael better. Michael is a friend who lives with Callie and her brother and helps Callie take care of Tyler. He promises to watch Tyler while Callie goes to Prime Destinations to sign up as a donor. I felt like Callie’s relationship with Michael could have been swoon worthy, but he just wasn’t in the book enough. I hope that that changes in the next one because I feel like he is a really good guy and I can definitely see myself falling in love with him…I mean, I can definitely see Callie falling in love with him. Oh who am I kidding? And me. I will likely fall in love with him.

Blake is the grandson of a powerful senator that Callie meets when she wakes up in her body in her renter Helena’s life. They start seeing each other and Callie starts falling for him. I of course am screaming no this entire time because I firmly believe that Callie should be with Michael. But Blake is hard not to like. He takes her on romantic dates, looks in on his great-grandmother, and is an all-around gentleman.

Helena, the renter, has some pretty intense plans for Callie’s body while she is renting. As Callie starts to unravel her secrets, she joins up with her to fight against something she knows is wrong. Helena is a bit of an extremist and I think that Callie brings her back down to reality and makes her realize that if she follows through with her plans, she is just as bad as the enemy.

Madison/Rhiannon (Madison is the donor body, Rhiannon the renter) was one of my favorite characters. She is this ditzy woman who befriends Callie the first night she wakes up in her body in a nightclub. The whole book she is just kind of in the background. She likes to party and have a good time, but in the end when she is needed, she turns into this brilliant, commanding woman who helps execute Callie’s plan.

My favorite part about this book is that it’s so hard to decide who the villain is. One minute it’s one person and the next it’s someone else. This book has so many plot twists. I was constantly on my toes. Just when I thought I had it figured out, Lissa Price was like nope!

Overall I really enjoyed this book. Although it kind of had a slow start, I think it was necessary to get background on what was going on and how the world works now. There is still action in the beginning, it’s just spread out. But guys, the last 100 pages will blow your mind. I can’t wait for the second book, Enders, which comes out January 7, 2014. Happy reading all!    

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