Book Review: Starters by Lissa Price

Title: Starters 

Author: Lissa Price
Series: Starters, #1
Pages: 336
Publisher: Doubleday
Date of Publication: 5th April 2012
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis 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:
Having read a whole bunch of mediocre dystopian recently, my expectations for Starters really weren't very high. I'd heard it was good, but then I'd also heard that other books like it were good, and then I read those and they weren't as good as I'd hoped so for this I didn't really expect much. And maybe it was because of that, I don't know, but I was blown away by this. I absolutely, one hundred percent, loved every second of reading this. Ah-maze-ing.

The concept of Starters is weird. Very, very weird. I don't know whether it's been done before, but I've never read anything like it. People in the future can live until they're 150, maybe 200 (I can't remember exactly). Of course, their bodies get all wrinkly and old and withered, so they've discovered a way in which they can use their mind to hire out teenagers bodies and go skiing, clubbing, climbing, etc. I don't know about you, but I'd HATE for an old person to be inhabiting my body for a day, let alone a week or a month... :S

With Callie, something goes wrong, and that's where the story begins. She wakes up inside her body, one week into a month long rental. Something's gone wrong, and she doesn't know what, and then she finds out that her body is being used for murder. This whole idea fascinated me. I was so intrigued by how everything worked that I could have quite happily read up about it, if it were actually possible, because the nerdy side of me really wanted to understand, to see if I could work out what went wrong and how they could fix it. Super nerdy, and rather sad, I know, but whatever ;P

I really liked Callie. She had a mind of her own, even when she was being rented by Helena, and she stood up for herself when she needed to. She didn't let Helena control her, and despite being scared out of her mind when she woke up for the first time in her own body, she kept up the appearance of being a rental and made sure that noone suspected anything, which must have taken a lot of guts and a lot of brains. Her love for her brother was awesome - she looked out for him and thought of him in everything she did, and she did what she could to make sure he was safe and as healthy as possible.

The plot was fast paced and exciting, and literally, there was always something happening. There was no time for dawdling - I found it difficult to put down because I couldn't leave it hanging, I NEEDED to know what happened next, what the outcome of this would be, who was REALLY in the body of a sixteen-year-old boy over there. Had I not had a mountain of homework and revision, I would have read it in one sitting, definitely.

Starters was an amazing read, and I can't believe it's a debut. I'm now eagerly awaiting the sequel, Enders - the ending is awful (cliffhanger!!)! I MUST know what happens next... ;P I'd recommend this to any fans of YA dystopian - especially if you're a bit bored of it right now, I found it read more like a thriller that happened to be dystopian, than a book with dystopia as the main focus, if that makes sense. Also, if you go and see The Hunger Games, the book trailer plays before the film, so look out for it! :D

*Huge thanks to Random House for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book.
Also big thanks to NetGalley for allowing me access to the egalley! :)