Review Detail

Oh man, I really, REALLY liked this one. I had never read any of Sophie Jordan's work before but when I was auto-approved awhile back for all of HarperTeen's titles on Edelweiss, I snatched this one up in a hurry.I was so hoping that I wouldn't be disappointed. And I wasn't. I was fully thrust into this world where it is so very much like it was prior to the end of segregation of African Americans and Caucasians.

Davina "Davy" Hamilton has a bright future but all of that comes to a crushing, heartbreaking end when she is found to be carrying the HTS gene. Suddenly, all her friends abandon her, her boyfriend ditches her and her parents seem afraid of her. She is now sent to a different school where the carriers are separated from the other students, the normal ones who don't carry this gene.

Davy's lost everything and I could feel the grief through the pages of the book.Suddenly she's friendless and terrified.She's thrust into a room at her new school that's dubbed The Cage. It's here where she meets both allies and adversaries.I really liked Coco from what little we saw of her and I was really wishing she was more of a presence in this book.

Now to the guys who were very mysterious initially, although they couldn't have been any different. Gil was more outgoing and friendly. Sean was quiet and not all that friendly. He definitely wasn't mean to Davy, but he definitely had an edge to him.Maybe it was the HTS thing or maybe it was his home situation, but I think it was a combination of both.

As quickly as her former friends turned against her, I never would have believed that her ex boyfriend and her ex best friend along with other kids would have turned her in for a seemingly minor crime. But they did and I was heartbroken for Davy.It wasn't right and it made Davy feel even more hopeless.

When she's given an unexpected opportunity, she takes it instantly. What she doesn't know is that by taking this offer, she's putting herself in even more danger.Soon she meets other kids like her, who have the HTS gene. She meets more adversaries and one more ally, all the while trying to ignore her growing feelings for Sean.

Watching that relationship slowly develop was awesome. It wasn't a case of insta-love, thank goodness. Sean worked his butt off to protect Davy throughout this book. They were friends long before they became anything else.Their romance added a bright light in a very bleak world.

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot to mention the FEELS. Ohhhh boy there were a lot of feels for me in this book. Not just one or two feels either. A whole range of feels. From sadness, to happiness to glee and many other feels.Books that give me these kinds of feels are always going to be some of my favorites.

I really did enjoy this book a lot. There are only a few things I didn't like so much. I wish we had learned how the HTS gene was discovered and a little back-story on that. I also didn't like Davy's parents that much. I know they were scared but I didn't particularly love the way they treated Davy. It wasn't like she asked for this gene. Her brother was awesome though. He seems bound and determined not to see Davy as a threat to his safety. He treats her normally unlike her parents and her former friends.

I cannot wait to read the final book in the duology. I have a feeling that it will be amazing.So go read it if you like action, romance and above all, books that make you feel.