Category: YA

YA

Review: Rebel by Amy Tintera

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Reboot #2

rebel -amy tinteraWren Connolly thought she’d left her human side behind when she dies five years ago and came back 178 minutes later as a Reboot. With her new abilities of strength, speed, and healing—along with a lack of emotions—Wren 178 became the perfect soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation). Then Callum 22 came along and changed everything.

Now that they’ve both escaped, they’re ready to start a new life in peace on the Reboot reservation. But Micah 163, the Reboot running the reservation, has darker plans in mind: to wipe out the humans. All of them. Micah has been building a Reboot army for years and is now ready to launch his attack on the cities. Callum wants to stick around and protect the humans. Wren wants nothing more than to leave all the fighting behind them.

With Micah on one side, HARC on the other, and Wren and Callum at odds in the middle, there’s only one option left…

It’s time for Reboots to become rebels.

4 Drink Me Potions

What I love about this story is that it really makes you think. My all-time favourite book is The Host, so this is a huge compliment when I say that like it, Rebel centres on one huge question.

What makes someone a human? Is it their physical make-up or how they go about making their decisions? Is it their ability to love or their ability to bring down such destruction upon themselves? Is being human even a good thing?

Wren struggled with this in Reboot, the first book in this duology. I thought she came a long way in finding a piece of humanity in her. However, the true progress came through here. It wasn’t black and white for her. Kill humans who never treated her kindly? Or risk everything to save a species who were, logically, the less evolved group and may not hesitate to kill a Reboot?

So throughout Rebel, Wren had to take a good look at herself and figure out why she wasn’t like Callum with his way of thinking. Was it really just because of her high number that made her feel less guilt over what she’s done or could do? Or is it just, at the end of the day, something that was solely because of her? She was still this amazing kick-ass character who, unbeknownst to her, was worthy of admiration and respect from the other Reboots, not only due to her 178 number. She wasn’t some weak and fragile heroine who couldn’t take care of herself. But she wasn’t just some heartless monster desperate to find herself either. And that’s what always made her POV very interesting to read.

Likewise, Callum had his own POV in this book and went through a similar, fleshed-out character development. I love that his role as Wren’s love interest never just stopped at that. Some books carry their male leads like some fancy toy that’s nice to admire and have around, but don’t really have anything unique or interesting about them on their own without the girl they supposedly like/love.

Callum was this happy-go-lucky kinda guy in Reboot. I loved that about him. I personally think his quick smile and attitude while facing hostile Reboots in the HARC facility was what touched Wren enough to fall for him so hard. But he realistically had to face challenges after escaping that affected his ideologies. After all, he was only rebooted a short while ago. Everything wasn’t great for them most of the time. Humans feared them or wanted nothing to do with them. He only touched the surface of the hardships he’d have to face as a Reboot now.

As for the action and romance, there were plenty of both. And they balanced each other out. Rebel started literally right where Reboot ended, dumped at the doorstep of a potentially new future for escaped Reboots. The pacing was always on point. It never dragged out a scene and there were always suspicious things going on to ponder about.

The only thing I’d complain about is one anticlimactic point near the end where I personally thought Tintera could’ve made a more action-packed sequence for it. Like, the plot of the story kinda built it up and it just….fizzled down. When I read it, I was like, “wait, what just happened? Hold on. You gotta be kidding me…”. But ah well. I guess it could’ve been worse.

The romance didn’t take up centre stage this time, but it was always evident that Callum and Wren dearly cared for each other. And their relationship was realistic too. Their personalities were so different and although they complemented each other in a lot of ways, sometimes those ideologies can cause disagreements as well. I loved that Tintera fleshed out and explored where they were headed now that the initial “I like you, I think you totally dig me too” kinda phase has passed. She didn’t need to bring in some awful love triangle or some stupid thing that to cause a rift between them to make the book “exciting” in the romance department. (You can totally see how big of a fan I am with love triangles…).

As I look around on the news, you can see what humanity can be like. So to wrap things up, this brings me back to what I pointed in the beginning as the central theme of Rebel. I think Tintera pointed it out perfectly. It’s not that we are good and emotional. We’re by far not. Human beings can do the worst, unimaginable horrors to each other. But there’s always a choice. I think that’s what being human looks like. Choosing which path to go and accepting the consequences. It’s not always black and white in the decisions that are made, but hopefully, at the end of the day, the more moral and loving choice was picked. I think Rebel really touched down on such an essential part of humanity.

Overall Recommendation:
Rebel was equal parts action and equal parts character development with romance sprinkled in between to glue it all together. The pacing never dragged out as new characters and new plotlines picked up. Likewise, we really get to see what humanity looks like through the POVs of both Wren and Callum. Although they may be Reboots now, what separates them from humans? Have they really lost their sense of morality and guilt? Are humans even worth saving? These are all questions explored through both their narratives and I think Tintera did an amazing job at trying to answer this through the eyes of two realistic characters. Definitely check this duology out.

YA

Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Reboot #1

reboot -amy tinteraFive years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

4 Drink Me Potions

Wren Connolly, otherwise known by her branded number as 178, having “rebooted” to life after 178 minutes after dying.

She should have lost more of her humanity than anyone else, but it seems all it needed to surface was a push in the right direction.

I held off reading Reboot for a long time. I’m not really sure why. But oh boy, I’m so glad I finally picked it up. This story follows a beautiful protagonist who truly feels that emotions and other trivial human things are just a part of her ill-spent childhood. I love that Wren is such a complicated character. She feels emotions, but she doesn’t believe she’s really human anymore. Even she believes she can be a monster, mindlessly following even the cruelest of orders coming from HARC. After all, she’s 178, right? How much humanity could have been left in her after being dead for so long?

In a way, this inner conflict against her own personal demons reminded me a lot of Rosamund Hodge’s Crimson Bound. I admired the protagonist for the complexity in which her character couldn’t be defined as strictly good or bad. Although Wren wasn’t as monstrous or as dark of a character (for which I am grateful, ’cause poor me can only handle so much darkness at a time), she definitely went through a similar struggle. She killed people. People who were supposedly bad. And she enjoyed the hunt.

Enter Callum, with his wee number of 22 minutes. You would think that a guy like him, who was barely a Reboot and probably retained most of his humanity, would have nothing in common with someone like Wren, who scared even most of the other Reboots in the facility. But he did. With his contagious smile and hopeful attitude, he showed her that there was still a large piece of humanity in her.

Man, this just makes me want to find a Callum for myself.

The romance was sweet and slow-progressing. Reboot as a whole was an extremely fast read, gobbled up in a few sittings, and the romance still felt like it was written in a nice, even pace. And it wasn’t just the romance, but the pacing of the action sequences was well-done. Things weren’t as normal back in the facility, leading Wren to question her role with HARC for probably the very first time.

The world building and setting was definitely interesting. A new virus caused a major outbreak in the area known as today’s Texas. But it had strange effects. It killed a ton of people, but it also “rebooted” some young people after a range of minutes from death. Hence, a new and stronger species of humans called Reboots started roaming. The world building was familiar, in a sense, but with familiar cities remodelled to fit with this fallen world after the virus. I do wish Tintera let us explore a little more into the world she’s created, so that’s something to look forward to in the sequel.

I’ll keep this review short and sweet, closing off with this. The romance does give a lot of weight to Reboot, probably more so than other novels in this genre, but I think it’s well-placed alongside the fighting and the rebellion against the higher order. It connects us to Wren and to Callum in such a strong way that it’ll have you rooting for their survival way before the end of it.

Overall Recommendation:
For a synopsis that suggests rebellion and loads of action, Reboot also has a fair share of romance, as well as diving into the inner conflict that Wren has to deal with. Is she a monster now that she’s a Reboot, having been dead for so long? Could she find a piece of humanity left in her? All that is explored alongside her growing friendship and attraction for newbie Callum, someone she normally would never give a second thought about. I loved that it explored her character like this to give us a sense of who she really is and to let us connect with her, whether she be a monster or not. That’s not to say the novel isn’t exciting and still full of some ass-kicking. I’d say Reboot has something to offer for everyone.

YA

Review: The Body Electric by Beth Revis

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

the body electric -beth revisThe future world is at peace.

Ella Shepherd has dedicated her life to using her unique gift—the ability to enter people’s dreams and memories using technology developed by her mother—to help others relive their happy memories.

But not all is at it seems.

Ella starts seeing impossible things—images of her dead father, warnings of who she cannot trust. Her government recruits her to spy on a rebel group, using her ability to experience—and influence—the memories of traitors. But the leader of the rebels claims they used to be in love—even though Ella’s never met him before in her life. Which can only mean one thing…

Someone’s altered her memory.

Ella’s gift is enough to overthrow a corrupt government or crush a growing rebel group. She is the key to stopping a war she didn’t even know was happening. But if someone else has been inside Ella’s head, she cannot trust her own memories, thoughts, or feelings.

So who can she trust?

2.5 Drink Me Potions

A potentially corrupt government system that’s apparently always watching through the tiniest lens? Uh, Big Brother, anyone?

The Body Electric has left me with amazingly conflicted feelings by the end of it. This is a story that follows a conspiracy that takes everything to a whole new, futuristic level set in the 22nd century. I liked Beth Revis’ Across the Universe trilogy and was excited to see another standalone book from her. I love the fact that the science fiction doesn’t go all techy and hard to follow. It enhances the experience of this futuristic setting but doesn’t take centre stage and grabs all the attention away from the central plot. For the most part.

But, for the first two-thirds of the book, I was half driven insane by our dear, dear protagonist, Ella. Sometimes I complain about protagonists who are just SO special that only they can save the world. As if no one else is capable of doing the same thing ’cause they just don’t have that intrinsic ability in them.

This girl? Ella Shepherd? She’s just plain boring and tiresome to follow. Ok, so she may not be entirely unspecial, as she plays an interesting role in the story, but she definitely lacks something.

And that something is courage.

She wavers ALL the time about not starting another war. Not trusting Jack, the guy she supposedly loved but couldn’t remember. Not wanting blood on her hands. She tries my patience to the very extreme. She’s weak and clearly not cut out of the same fabric as heroes with “saving the world” as their destinies. She leads trouble to the very group of people who may be the only thing standing in the way against the government. She’s the liability. And even she knows this.

“My nanobot count, the tracker bots that were inside of me, my abilities…I don’t know if I can’t be trusted because of what I am or because Jack doubts what side I’m on, but at the end of the day — I’m a liability.”

Even when it’s clear the government isn’t what they appear to be, she’s willing to set Jack up for them on a golden platter all like “Oh hey, maybe I can trick some details out of him to give to the person RULING this entire world”. You’re damn right she’s not special. She’s downright cowardly. And I absolutely DETEST following a character like that.

That’s not to say Jack doesn’t annoy me either, with his devil-may-care kinda attitude. His many flippant remarks about just “how devilishly handsome he is” makes me wanna slap him whether or not he was serious or joking. The time and place for those comments weren’t ever appropriate in the context of the situation. I couldn’t take him seriously saying those things.

But for a love interest, for a girl like Ella, he could’ve done SO much better than her. For the most part, he was at least courageous and believed strongly in his cause for fixing up the government’s mistakes. Looking out for the people the government has forgotten. And if his only flaw was calling Ella “love”, then he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her. Too bad she couldn’t see that and just acted like some petulant child.

“Jack looks up and notices my nervous face. “I don’t bite, love.”
I whip around. “I told you to quit calling me that. I don’t care what kind of person I am in your memory. Because I’m not that person now.”

Clearly, she’s not the easiest person to be around. To be fair, she did have her memory wiped of him, but still.

Anyway, if you can stick it to the last 1/3 of The Body Electric, it does get a little exciting. I could never quite figure out where Revis was going with the plot, or how this whole conspiracy thing was going to end.

I don’t want to ruin anything, but I will say this. It confused the crap out of me. Like, seeing as Revis’ inspiration for “reveries” and Ella’s ability to slip into other people’s dreamscapes was based on Total Recall (if you know what that is), it was hard to determine what was reality or not in the end. However, the overall conclusion was satisfactory and didn’t leave any loose ends hanging. Although the romance never really quite hit it for me, even after Ella started falling for Jack again.

Overall, it really makes one think. With the way science and technology is going, what would the difference really be between an Artificial Intelligent cybernetic android and a human?

A soul, maybe? That’s something to think about.

Overall Recommendation:
The Body Electric presented a really unique futuristic setting on Earth with technology that was believable and concerns that seem quite real with how governments and people would use such technology. If it hadn’t been for a heroine that just seemed more like a liability than a, well, hero, for most of the story, I think I would’ve rated this a lot higher. Unfortunately, Ella doesn’t really mold into her own until far too late, but if the central conspiracy theme has hooked you in from the start, I’d say this novel can still be saved by its very reflective (and slightly confusing) ending.