Title: StartersAuthor: Lissa Price
# of Pages: 352 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Synopsis: HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER.
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. . . .
Review: Like usual, I'd like to talk about the cover. It has to be one of the creepiest beautiful cover I've ever seen. Her eyes look like they're staring into my soul, especially with that one blue eye.
At first, it really bugged me that her eyes were two different colors. But now I know it was suppose to be like the drawing Michael made of her. What I don't understand is why. Why did Michael draw her like that? What compelled him to make her eyes two different colors, other than for the artistic factor? There had to be something that made him do that, but it wasn't explained in the book.
And then there's that quote, made by the coauthor of Beautiful Creatures. Whenever Hunger Games is mentioned, I get suspicious. Why would fans of Hunger Games like this book? Is it because....THE AUTHOR'S A COPYCAT?!
Let's get to the story, shall we?
In the beginning, Callie makes this big deal about the spores and how they killed her parents, yada yada , yada. And I guess there was this war where people released these spores on their enemy. But, besides the few times it was mentioned, I didn't hear anything about it at all. Our protagonist makes this big deal about it all, but nothing comes out of it. Why did the author create this war and the spores if they're not even that important? I feel like that should have been.
Similarities to The Hunger Games Trilogy and Uglies
Turns out there are similarities to other books! Let's compare.
Hunger Games/Starters
The main character is a female and is poor/the main character is female and is poor
Prim is the younger, weaker sibling/Tyler is the younger, weaker sibling
Katniss makes a sacrifice for Prim/Callie makes a sacrifice for Tyler
Katniss helps Peeta regain his memories/Callie helps Blake regain his memories
I'm not saying that Hunger Games is 100% original because it's not. But it's a comparison that people can relate to.
The author's ripped off Uglies too. You know the band-bounce thing? To me, it seemed strangely similar to bungee jackets, don't you think?
Lack of detail
The style of writing reminded me a lot of Ally Condie. There's was barely any detail of the character's emotion, facial expression, or how the characters do anything. For example, when someone (I forgot the person's name, that's how bad the book is. It's forgettable) told the guard to grab Callie. He grabbed her of course, by her arms, but there wasn't a description of what Callie did. Did she just stand there and allow herself to be taken, or did she put up a struggle? I guess I'll never know BECAUSE THE BOOK DIDN'T TELL ME!!!
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