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A review by amandapearl2
Starters by Lissa Price
2.0
I began Starters with high hopes. It has a striking cover and a very interesting premise. However as I read more I became increasingly disappointed. See, I love dystopian, when it makes scientific sense. That's the key phrase, but sadly Starters's world building was under developed which really detracted from my reading experience.
The world building gave me the same problems that I had with Lauren DeStefano's Wither. I don't understand the age principle used as the crux of the story. It doesn't make sense that the youngest and oldest would get vaccinated first. The richest and most important would. It's not age so much as status and power. I find it extremely hard to believe that important military, political, economic, and medical personal wouldn't get vaccinated before some 100 year old grandma. I also found it very difficult to believe that since EVERY child in America (or maybe the whole world, that wasn't clear) became an orphan at the same time that any kid who didn't happen to have living grandparents would be forced to live on the street or sent to what is basically a prison. I mean, it's every single child, the future of the country. I don't believe the enders who are now running the country wouldn't set up some sort of care system that would raise the orphans to be productive members of society.
The other problem I had was the first 75% of the book. It has a promising start, but then quickly fell into the oh so common YA dystopian trap of thinly veiled girls in pretty dresses meeting cute boys. And the middle chunk of this book dragged. I just couldn't care about the night clubs, costumes, or parties. The book did pick up in the final 25% and I think that if I had cared more about the characters I could have really enjoyed the ending. However even parts of that felt rushed and just too convenient.
I think my biggest frustration is I loved half the premise and was really annoyed by the other half. I loved reading about Callie's body being taken over and how she tries to figure out what is going on with Prime Destinations. I liked the conspiracy theory and there were some great plot twists that I didn't see coming. I just really disliked the world building that puts the characters in their situations. Now, I did read an egalley, so there is a great chance this book has gone through another round of editing that could smooth out some of the rushed and unsupported parts, but for me Starters was a book with great potential that focused too much on trivial details.
The world building gave me the same problems that I had with Lauren DeStefano's Wither. I don't understand the age principle used as the crux of the story. It doesn't make sense that the youngest and oldest would get vaccinated first. The richest and most important would. It's not age so much as status and power. I find it extremely hard to believe that important military, political, economic, and medical personal wouldn't get vaccinated before some 100 year old grandma. I also found it very difficult to believe that since EVERY child in America (or maybe the whole world, that wasn't clear) became an orphan at the same time that any kid who didn't happen to have living grandparents would be forced to live on the street or sent to what is basically a prison. I mean, it's every single child, the future of the country. I don't believe the enders who are now running the country wouldn't set up some sort of care system that would raise the orphans to be productive members of society.
The other problem I had was the first 75% of the book. It has a promising start, but then quickly fell into the oh so common YA dystopian trap of thinly veiled girls in pretty dresses meeting cute boys. And the middle chunk of this book dragged. I just couldn't care about the night clubs, costumes, or parties. The book did pick up in the final 25% and I think that if I had cared more about the characters I could have really enjoyed the ending. However even parts of that felt rushed and just too convenient.
I think my biggest frustration is I loved half the premise and was really annoyed by the other half. I loved reading about Callie's body being taken over and how she tries to figure out what is going on with Prime Destinations. I liked the conspiracy theory and there were some great plot twists that I didn't see coming. I just really disliked the world building that puts the characters in their situations. Now, I did read an egalley, so there is a great chance this book has gone through another round of editing that could smooth out some of the rushed and unsupported parts, but for me Starters was a book with great potential that focused too much on trivial details.