Review: Starters by Lissa Price

368 pages
Published: March 13th 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: ARC via NetGalley

Summary from Goodreads:

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. . . .

My Thoughts:

The Good:
Price certainly knows how to write a compelling story. I think I finished the entire book in about 2 days. She has an interesting idea with body renting and with the general population being so split, everyone either being a “Starter” or an “Ender”. She knows how to give a story a good twist and toy with our emotions, leaving us wondering “what the heck is going to happen in book 2!”

The Bad:
I feel as if there is a bit of a pattern happening with dystopians. There is some kind of war that has happened, there are homeless kids living on the streets, the MC has a younger sibling who is somewhat sickly that the MC will do anything to protect. Starters certainly fits the bill, but it easily manages originality.

The Gist:
Starters is not a book to be missed. There is a reason it has been getting the hype it has. Check it out if you love dystopian and adventure! I can’t wait for book 2 (which I believe is called Enders?) to come out!

4.5 out of 5 stars!

Review: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Summary from Goodreads:

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood.


By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn.


How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

My Thoughts:

It’s not very often that I read a book that isn’t YA. It’s even more infrequent that I read a book that wasn’t written in the last 2 years. I Am Legend was first published in 1954… So why did I pick it up? Well, mostly because I really liked the movie, and that’s mostly because Will Smith is one of my favorite actors, if not my favorite.

I Am Legend was certainly an interesting read. Matheson did an amazing job of getting the reader to feel the emotions the main character is reading, loneliness, craziness, despair, determination. The author has a fantastic understanding of basic human nature.

I’d heard the book was quite a bit different than the movie, but I wasn’t prepared for HOW different it would be! Aside from the main character being on his own most of the time, nothing was the same. I was really surprised when I realized the book was about vampires, not zombie like creepy creatures! Don’t even compare the two, just let them be their own separate awesome.

For a book that is almost 60 years old, there really wasn’t a whole lot that made it feel old. Except for one word that was used… which starts with a “N” (I won’t say more than that, it was offensive)… I wouldn’t have guessed it was written so long ago.

Highly recommend if you want something with a MC who isn’t a teenager, but something still with paranormal elements.

4.5 out of 5 stars!