For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have the first book of a dystopian duology that I had my eye on and then was approved for the second and final book on Netgalley.
This one is my first book for the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!
Starters by Lissa Price
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Starters is the first dystopian I read this year, and it was quite about time, since it's my fave genre and I hadn't read any dystopian yet so far!
Starters shows us a world that's changed after the "Spore Wars" and the society that's arised from the aftermath of it. The vaccines were made and distributed but since there weren't enough for everyone, the priorities were kids and elders. That means that now most of society are kids under 19 or Starters and people over 60 or Enders. There are barely any Middles and society has worked on extending life as long as possible.
How skewed this society was towards confort and priorities towards the Elders and how mistreated and dehumanized the Starters were, that was the biggest shock for me in this book. Seems that society has stopped caring about the future and the future generations, and they're treated more and more like a burden or a bunch of slaves, and it also seemed like there was no sense of responsability towards the future generations at all, except for the exceptions of family members. Unclaimed minors were considered and treated as barely human.
Callie is one of those unclaimed minors, living with her lil brother on the run from the government since their parents died, and trying to find a way to make sure she can get money to provide a better life and care for him. She decides to try Prime Destinations, an agency that rents Starters bodies to Enders to enjoy feeling young again. Now that has to be one of the creepiest premises ever! Someone else being you, in your body? *shudders* At first she decides against it, but the situation gets more and more dire, so she finally goes for it. What she wasn't expecting is that her renter will be attempting murder using her body!
The storyline was quite interesting, the plot quite engaging and with plenty of wonderful secondary characters that I really enjoyed. There was plenty of action and the whole when will I be myself again while trying to prevent an assassination plot kept me flying fast through the pages.
The romance bit was a lil uncomfortable for me at the end, it was quite creepy when the final revelations came, and I'm not sure how I'd deal with that if I'd been in Callie's shoes. There was never a proper triangle, thankfully and I felt that it was well done otherwise. I'm not saying anything else to avoid spoilers though.
I liked how the ending solved the main plot line and gave us enough closure but also left enough of a trail to look forward to the second and final book on the series! No cliffhanger in this one was quite a release!
Quick read and engaging enough but there was a certain something missing for me, so I'm giving it 3 to 3.5 stars.
View all my reviews
This one is my first book for the Dystopian Reading Challenge 2014!
Starters by Lissa PriceMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Starters is the first dystopian I read this year, and it was quite about time, since it's my fave genre and I hadn't read any dystopian yet so far!
Starters shows us a world that's changed after the "Spore Wars" and the society that's arised from the aftermath of it. The vaccines were made and distributed but since there weren't enough for everyone, the priorities were kids and elders. That means that now most of society are kids under 19 or Starters and people over 60 or Enders. There are barely any Middles and society has worked on extending life as long as possible.
How skewed this society was towards confort and priorities towards the Elders and how mistreated and dehumanized the Starters were, that was the biggest shock for me in this book. Seems that society has stopped caring about the future and the future generations, and they're treated more and more like a burden or a bunch of slaves, and it also seemed like there was no sense of responsability towards the future generations at all, except for the exceptions of family members. Unclaimed minors were considered and treated as barely human.
Callie is one of those unclaimed minors, living with her lil brother on the run from the government since their parents died, and trying to find a way to make sure she can get money to provide a better life and care for him. She decides to try Prime Destinations, an agency that rents Starters bodies to Enders to enjoy feeling young again. Now that has to be one of the creepiest premises ever! Someone else being you, in your body? *shudders* At first she decides against it, but the situation gets more and more dire, so she finally goes for it. What she wasn't expecting is that her renter will be attempting murder using her body!
The storyline was quite interesting, the plot quite engaging and with plenty of wonderful secondary characters that I really enjoyed. There was plenty of action and the whole when will I be myself again while trying to prevent an assassination plot kept me flying fast through the pages.
The romance bit was a lil uncomfortable for me at the end, it was quite creepy when the final revelations came, and I'm not sure how I'd deal with that if I'd been in Callie's shoes. There was never a proper triangle, thankfully and I felt that it was well done otherwise. I'm not saying anything else to avoid spoilers though.
I liked how the ending solved the main plot line and gave us enough closure but also left enough of a trail to look forward to the second and final book on the series! No cliffhanger in this one was quite a release!
Quick read and engaging enough but there was a certain something missing for me, so I'm giving it 3 to 3.5 stars.
View all my reviews
I kind of liked the fact that the love triangle wasn't the usual, you know?
ReplyDeleteKate @ Ex Libris
Yep, I think that part was very well done, with she having doubts about her best-friend-maybe-something-more and the guy that she is attracted to... that was all very realistic and well done! My issue is with the discovery at the end of the book, that weirded me out so much!
DeleteOh my! you make me want to finish this book... I am halfway through it. It's one of those books that you read a chapter or two when you don't know what to read and then... leave it. (okay, maybe I'm the only one doing that).
ReplyDeleteBut now, thank you, I want to read it for real and I want to know how's that ending!
Great review, as always!
I do that sometimes with books, Lis! I'm so happy to hear that you now will be finishing it because of my review! Thank you!
DeleteI liked this one too, and I think I also gave it a 3-3.5. The concept is just very cool, although it wasn't a perfect book for sure.
ReplyDeleteThere's a book releasing this month called MINDERS with a similar idea, that I also liked. You might enjoy it. :) (Review later this month!)
Wendy @ The Midnight Garden
I'll have to check the book and your review for sure!
DeleteThank you for visiting Wendy!
Starters was just an OK book for me. There were SO many parallels to The Hunger Games that I almost got distracted noticing them all. It was still interesting enough for me to want to read Enders, but that one was terribly boring - one of those books that I can't even review because it just wasn't memorable in either a good or bad way.
ReplyDeleteStephanie @ Inspiring Insomnia
I liked it enough, but as I said, nothing mind blowing, Enders was equally ok for me, again. Not bad reads per se and with some good ideas there, but not a series I'd recommend unless you really love reading dystopians.
DeleteI have seen this around for a long time. I have always been interested by it. I am glad you liked it and it is good that there are a few curve balls in there! Maybe I will get it soon! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat review! :D
Thank you, Alex!
DeleteOh my, sounds like there are some creepy parts in here, definitely the thing about Enders renting your body! Sounds really interesting, I'll have to check it out. Lovely review Pili!
ReplyDeleteJeann @ Happy Indulgence
Thank you, Jeann! And yes, the creepy factor was definitely there!
Delete