Review: Starters by Lissa Price

Starters (Starters and Enders #1)

By Lissa Price

Release Date: March 13, 2012

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Hardcover, 352 pages

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. . . --Goodreads

5 Stars

Review 

I can not say how much I enjoyed this book. I know that dystopian novels are blowing up in the YA book world, but I can promise you that this book is one of the BEST dystopian novels ever.

Callie was such an awesome protagonist! So while her body is being rented by an Ender, she finds out that that Ender's granddaughter, along with a lot of other kids, were taken by Prime and never seen again, so she wants to stop that. In order to stop Prime, the Renter wants Callie to kill the Old Man, the person running Prime. Since the Ender is using Callie's body to murder someone, Callie is in danger because she will be sentenced to death for killing another person.

Callie had a struggle between helping her sick brother by finishing her rental and bringing home money, therefore able to buy food for everyone to eat or doing the right thing and help the Renter stop Prime and prevent other kids from going "missing." This struggle that Callie had kind of reminds me of the struggle that Katniss from the Hunger Games had, where Katniss had to decide between getting out of the Games alive, so she can have money to support her family, by going against her morals and killing others or doing the right thing. Callie being the smart cookie that she is, eventually figures out a way to stop Prime without killing.

Now what is a YA book without a love interest? So the love interest of this book was Blake. He was so kind to Callie, but Callie knew that she shouldn't get involved because soon she will leave and go back to her old life, where things are not as glamorous. But she does get involved, but finds out that Blake is not an ordinary, rich kid, but the Senator's grandson, the very Senator that is working with Prime and the Old Man!!! 

The thing I love most about Starters was all of the super cool made up technology that they had. It all sounded so cool, even the Spore Wars was a cool concept where it rained these black specs and if the specs touch you you are done for. (side-note: The Spore Wars kind of remind me of the Avatar the Last Airbender where if it starts to "rain" black snow/specs that means the Fire Nation is coming and you and your city are in grave danger.)

There's honestly nothing bad I can really say about this book, therefore it is a five out of five stars! Yay for awesome books!

The ending: The ending was THE BIGGEST CLIFFHANGER in the history of cliffhangers. I had so many questions...what's going to happen between the REAL Blake and Callie? Who is the Old Man? Are we positive that Callie's dad died along with everyone else during the Spores War? Needless to say, I absolutely can not wait until Enders, the sequel to Starters, comes out. Oh, if you have read Starters tell me what your predictions are. Who do you think is the Old Man? I think it's her dad... I know creepy right?? So leave a comment below and tell me what you predict for Enders.

Purchase the book: Amazon / Barnes&Noble / The Book Depository