Review: Starters

Starters by Lissa Price

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



GoodReads Synopsis: 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: I still chuckle about my reactions to the whole “body rental” thing…my first thought was “ewwww!” and my second thought was “holy hell – I know how I treat a rental car, I hope those Seniors treat the rental body better!”…Guess what, they didn’t.

This was a really interesting and thought provoking read. The story had all the elements…mystery, survival, teen angst, drama, lots of secrets and lies. Price created an interesting world where the population is at one end or the other of the age spectrum…add to that the fact that seniors are living well into late 100s and even 200s. So they are the majority and have had no qualms about putting their needs first and foremost. That leaves everyone under the age of 20 with no basic rights.

Callie was easy to like, she was responsible in caring for her sick brother and doing anything she could to provide him with a stable environment in a very unstable world. Callie is also forced to trust people she would normally hide from. There was a pretty big cliffhanger and hints as to who the “Old Man” might really be…so I will definitely be on the lookout for the next installment.




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