Review of Starters

Starters

Author: Lissa Price

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publication date: March 2012

    Fast-paced, relentlessly unexpected, and delightfully scary, Starters will leave you craving the sequel. Sixteen-year-old Callie lives with her seven-year-old brother Tyler and her friend Michael in an abandoned building. After the Spore Wars killed her parents a year ago, only Starters, kids and teens younger than 20, and Enders, anyone above age 60, are left. In this new world, Starters will do anything to survive while the Enders bask indifferently in their wealth. In desperate need for money, Callie finds Prime Destinations, where teenagers rent their bodies to the over-privileged Enders who can afford to experience being young again. When Callie submits herself to the company, a chip is placed in her head to connect her to her renter. She falls asleep, expecting to wake up when her rental is over, but the chip malfunctions, and Callie wakes up in the life of the Ender who was using her body. As she begins to uncover dangerous secrets about the people surrounding her, she finds herself wondering if the money she will earn for renting out her body is worth risking the life she will go back to - if she survives.

    There is almost no spot in Starters where the urgency and uncertainty of the next page will allow you to put this book down. Seriously, please leave a comment if you find an easy stopping point past chapter 3! The plot twists in this book are complicated enough to keep you interested but not so confusing that they interrupt engagement with the story and characters. The main characters are interesting, but the haunting and detailed story is what propels you through the book, from the alluring cover art right through to the cliffhanger ending. This novel is a wonderful pick for middle grade and young adult readers who enjoy fiction that speculates about just how much humans are capable of destructively warping our society and ourselves. The mix of witty banter, glancing blows from social and moral issues, and snowballing plot make it a potential pick for adults as well.

- D. K. Nuray