Starters- Lissa Price

                I finished this book last week but had to wait to post a review until closer to the books release date.  I got this book from NetGalley.com it’s published by Random House Children’s Books and here are my thoughts on it.

                This book is futuristic fantasy.  It’s a world after The Spore Wars.  Wars that wiped out everyone between the ages of 20-60.  You have children/teens (Starters) and elderly (Enders) who by the way easily live to be 200.  The main character Callie is an unclaimed starter which means that because she is basically screwed.  No rights and no ability to get a job (it’s illegal) but she has to take care of herself and most importantly her sick little brother Tyler and even their good friend Michael.

                Always scraping by they hear about a place that isn’t exactly legal but is a way for starters to make money.  Prime Destinations.  A creepy place, a body bank, where rich enders can pay to rent out bodies of starters so they can feel young again for a time.  Desperate for money to keep what’s left of her family safe she agrees to be a donor.  But the chip implanted in her brain malfunctions and she wakes up during a rental living the life of her renter.  Though she soon finds the woman renting her body had more in mind than simply partying and having fun and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than Callie could have imagined.

                Are you really intrigued?  I know I was reading the summary and let me say the book itself kept that feeling.  I was so mesmerized by this world the author created, where young adults if they weren’t claimed they had to live like stray dogs.  A world where someone could decide they had enough money and too much free time that they could simply take over someone else’s body and be young and skilled again.  I felt like I was there. 

                The characters were amazingly well fleshed out.  Our main character Callie is struggling with so much through this book.  Fear, confusion, loss, defeat, guilt, excitement, everything is there and it’s so easy to understand through the character there is no question about why she feels the way she does.  Even the Enders who Callie meets along the way, those she’s spent the last few years fearing they’d turn her into the institution, we see multiple sides and layers to almost all of the characters.

                I was completely caught up in the book and the fact that it took me so long to read with life getting in the way made me want to read it more.  Now I am anxiously awaiting it’s sequel Enders.

                Starters comes out March 13, 2012.  Check it out.  Tell me what you think in the comments.