Starters

This is such a creepy and delicious idea for a dystopia! The idea of renting out your body and not knowing what the renter does is so hard to imagine, and just reading the description makes you wonder why you would want to do that. We quickly see with Callie her heart and determination--she does it for her brother. The family bond there is so sweet and I love how that is woven into the story. Fighting for her only surviving family is a motivation that I can totally understand and makes her actions believable and commendable.
The idea of the Enders is kinda creepy too... not knowing who is a real teen, and if you are seeing the same person inside a body every time. I liked some of the Enders that we met, and you can understand their motivations too.
I really enjoyed the romance and how twisted the relationships really are. I hope that they are explored fully in the next books in the series because there is so much potential and I want to know what happens next.
There is a lot of action and I was constantly engaged, wondering what would happen next and what would throw me for a loop.
Essentially, I loved it and can't wait for the next. Strong characters and refreshing idea.

I received my ARC copy of Starters by Lissa Price from Random House Publishing as a result of being chosen as one of their Ambuzzadors through their Random Buzzers website. The following review is my honest opinion of the work.

So I was sitting in my dorm room, bored out of my mind since there are seldom any other ways of sitting in one's dorm room. My eyes were wandering around the limited space when a small stack of books caught my attention, sandwiched between my US Literature books I spied Starters by Lissa Price. I debated momentarily. My homework was done. I wasn't going to read any more Faulkner any way. I had the whole day ahead of me. It was no contest. And so I began reading.

From the first page I was drawn into the dystopian world that Lissa Price had created with no intentions of ever turning back. Talk about a page turner! Had it not been the early afternoon when I started, and only a couple hours later that I finished it, this would have been one of those books I would have pulled an all-nighter for. I couldn't set it down. I tried. Eating is important you know. But I found myself wandering around, nose buried in this book. I had to know, absolutely had to know, what was going to happen next. Would Callie figure everything out in time? I was literally on the edge of my seat.

Starters had it all. There was of course the dystopian setting that we all love, where something has drastically changed the world we live in and the main character is put in the position to do something about it but there was more. There was a mystery aspect to it, you had no idea why things were going down the way that they were but you followed Callie as she uncovered clues and tried to piece together what exactly her renter has in store for her. There's the science aspect that leads you to ponder where our scientists will take us one day, just how far can these guys go? What can science do? And of course, the one constant in the books I love best, romance. But that's all I'm going to say about that.

It had some of the same feel to it as The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson [one of my absolute favorite books, hands down, EVER] and Lauren DeStefano's Chemical Garden series. There was something medically wrong, the dystopian world had pushed science too far and now the question was where it could be stopped. Just how far is too far? I'm giving Starters by Lissa Price a four out of five stars review and crossing my fingers that when the time comes I'll be considered for an ARC of it's sequel, Enders.

"Starters" by Lissa Price is an excitingly addictive story! After the Spore War that wiped out everyone not vaccinated (everyone ages 20-60), Callie Woodland, a sixteen-year-old unclaimed orphan, is living in an abandoned office building with her younger brother, Tyler. Life is terrible--running from renegades who would kill her just for a cookie, living in a cold, abandoned office building with no clean water, heat, or food, and hiding from marshals that want to institutionalize them and the other children. Since her brother is sick, she desperately needs money...so she "donates" her body to a place called Prime Destinations, which is run by an unknown figure known as The Old Man. At Prime, elders (a.k.a. Enders) rent teens' (a.k.a. Starters) bodies! They do that by inserting a chip into the Starters' heads, and each Ender has control over the teenage body that they rent! After giving the teens a makeover, the elders live as the teens while the teens are unconscious in their own bodies. But something went wrong with Callie's chip...and she is able to gain back control over her body for short periods of time! She wakes up to a world of luxury and has a handsome boyfriend. Through the malfunction, Callie uncovers the Old Man's sinister plans! In the meantime, her renter has plans of her own, and forces Callie to help her... Can Callie stop the Enders?

Lissa Price is a newcomer who is obviously talented to write such a good book! I literally could not stop reading this story. She is truly talented!! For more information about the author, Lissa Price, you can go to www.lissaprice.com. :)

While I was reading the story, I felt like I was watching a movie and I had to find out what happened in the end! The author could have been a bit more descriptive about the characters, but because the story was so good, that didn't matter! The storyline was very thrilling and addictive, (I read the whole eBook at once!) and I think it would work out great as a movie, too! I can't wait to read the next book in the series, "Enders"! Lissa Price is now officially one of my favorite authors and I can't wait to read more books by her. :)

**I received a copy of this eBook for free from Random House Children's Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I received no other compensation.**

http://reviewsbykristina.blogspot.com/2012/01/starters-by-lissa-price.html