Starters by Lissa Price
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
March 2012
My Rating:  ♥♥♥♥♥ (5/5)

Would you rent your body out to people who wanted to re-experience their youth… if you truly had no other choice?

Starters by Lissa Price is a new dystopian novel that takes place after a deadly virus hits mankind. The only survivors are those who managed to get the vaccination first – namely children and old people. Anyone not in those categories never had a chance.

In the aftermath, society is in shambles. Children who have no one to claim them as relatives are put in institutions – very unpleasant institutions where bad things happen. Teens and kids with nowhere to go are on the run, squatting in abandoned buildings, staying alive by scrounging up what they can to live. That’s how life is for 16-year-old Callie, her sickly little brother Tyler, and her friend Michael.

There is an option for those most desperate… a place called Prime Destinations that will pay teens to basically rent their bodies out to old people so that the old people can experience life in a young body again. Fear that she’ll lose her brother drives Callie to this desperate measure, and Callie signs a contract to rent her body out at Prime Destinations.

What sounds easy enough – going to sleep and waking up without any knowledge of what has passed in the last month or so – turns into a nightmare for her when she suddenly wakes up on the floor of a nightclub one evening before the rental period has ended. Thus begins a series of events that brings to light a web of deceit, murderous plots, and what could be the end for many many unclaimed minors, including Callie and those she loves the most.

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I couldn’t put Starters down from the moment I started reading it.  Callie’s messed-up world felt very real and believable.  Her fear of losing her brother, being put into an institution never to be heard from again, or starving to death was tangible.  Her desperation led her to do something terrifying – let a stranger take over her body, trust people she doesn’t know not to hurt or cheat her.

I loved Callie’s character – she was so easy to relate to!  I lost myself in her story, which was fast-paced and edge-of-your-seat, and found myself equally drawn into the lives of other characters in the book.  This is really a terrific young adult book and highly recommended!  If you liked The Hunger Games, you can’t miss this.

I was sad when Starters ended, but very glad to find out that this is only the first in the series.  I am most definitely left hanging and can’t wait to read the next book to be  released:  Enders.  That’s coming at the end of this year.  :)

www.lissaprice.com
www.startersbooks.com 

Buy it at Amazon.com.

Book source:  Digital PDF borrowed from NetGalley and returned after 90 days.  Amazon links are my affiliate links.

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