Enders

Rating: 3/5

Author: Lissa Price

Pages: 272

Sequel to: Starters

Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction/Dystopian

Synopsis:

This is the second and last book of the Starters series. Not much time has passed since the ending of the previous book, and Callie is still hearing the voice of the Old Man in her head, but things are getting worse than Callie could have ever imagined—even with the destruction of Prime Destinations, the Old Man seeks to take control of everyone with chips in their head and sell them to the highest bidder as a weapon.

With a new found friend, Hyden, that Callie can’t be sure is trustworthy, Callie endeavors to stop the Old Man once and for all before he takes over her body and never gives it back!

My Reaction:

I must say, I liked this book a little bit better than the first one. Parts toward the end seemed to draw me in a little bit more. However, I was also tempted not to finish reading it because for the first bits of the book I was still in the, “Meh, this isn’t bad but not super awesome,” frame of mind. So if you liked the first one, definitely read this one, and just like I said with the first story, there’s definitely a market for this book and readers who will absolutely love it.

It still has some good action and mystery and a killer twist at the end that made me rethink everything about the first book. I did not see that coming! This book doesn’t really feel like the end though. It almost seems like there should be one more book. Maybe we’ll have another one in the future, or maybe it’s one of those cases where the author leaves the audience to fill in the blank. Things are wrapped up well enough so you won’t be like, “What the heck?! That’s the end!” It just seems setup for another book.

I think there was only really one, maybe two things that bugged me, and it’s just a personal preference. I’m sure other readers eat this stuff up! Number one: “He was good-looking in such an intense way, it almost scared me” (page 39). Yeah, apparently that’s just not my style of writing. I think I may have bought it in high school, but now I read it and think, “That’s not even real! Who thinks like that?!” Maybe I just don’t understand passion and romance in the world of books. Or perhaps I’m a sucker for a different sort of romance. Later on, there was a moment with the same fellow where he takes her hand and puts it on his abs for her to feel (page 86), and again I was just kind of like, “Okay?”

Like I said, I’m pretty sure that’s just reader preference. If you read the post about Starters, you’ll now know that I don’t really care for make out scenes in books or what I deem to be crazy, unrealistic romantic thoughts. I just can’t relate to that! I’ve never looked at a guy and thought he was so intensely handsome that it scared me. Nope.

Reader Guidance:

I’ll try to do this spoiler free, but here’s your spoiler warning just in case.

• There are two instances where chips in people’s brains blow up. In one case, a man’s arm is severely injured (the pain on his face is described and the fact that his arm is completely black).
• There are a few people who get shot. Some die, some don’t.
• A guy is crushed and killed by a garage door.
• There are some cases of slapping or punching people.
• A character stabs herself in the arm with a letter opener.
• In one test to control a character with a chip, the testers have the character shoot targets of harmless people, including a friend. Then the actual people are brought in and the test is repeated on them with blanks, not real bullets.
• A character has a condition where every time he touches someone he has extreme pain.
• One character remembers how his renter wanted to use his artistic abilities to draw girls naked.
• When one character is hacked, she is forced to do a strip tease. She removes her shirt and camisole so she is in her bra, but they don’t go any farther than that.
• This one is kind of a spoiler: Blake asks what he and Callie did while someone else was taking control of his body in the last book. He asks if they did anything more. Callie tells him that they just kissed giving the impression that what he was trying to ask was if they’d had sex.

Similar Books:

The Host by Stephanie Meyer

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

Next Book:

First off, let me say that it may be a little bit before you get another book review on here. I have the next book in mind, so I’ll go ahead and put that here. However, as you saw from my last post, I’m trying to stick in NaNoWriMo mode. Not only that, my husband and I are in the processes of getting things packed up and moved to a new place which should all be said and done in a few weeks. So I might not get a lot of reading done! But the next book with be Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin by Liesl Shurtlipp.

Starters

Rating: 3/5

Author: Lissa Price

Pages: 336

Genre: Young Adult/Science Fiction/Dystopian

Synopsis:

Callie has never felt more desperate. The Spore Wars left her world in devastation as it resulted in the deaths of everyone from their twenties to their sixties. With her parents dead and no other family to speak off, she is forced to roam the streets with her sick brother and their friend, Michael. With danger at every turn, their very lives are at stake.

When Callie gets word on the street about a company called Prime Destinations, a place willing to pay teens more money than Callie could ever dream of having. This could be her one way ticket out of the slums. All she has to do is allow an Ender (the society’s senior citizens) to occupy her body for a time, giving them a chance to feel young again. It’s all as easy as falling asleep.

But when Callie wakes up in the middle of her rental session in a place she’s never been before, she soon finds out that her renter had more on her mind than a few nights on the town, and that Prime Destinations has a much bigger, sinister plan up their sleeves.

My Reaction:

I liked the unique concept of this book. I’ve read a good handful of these sorts of books, and although I was reminded of some of them, I feel like as a whole this is an idea I haven’t seen before. This is definitely an action packed, thrilling ride. There’s a lot of mystery that slowly unfolds, but things aren’t all completely satisfied which leads us into the sequel, Enders.

Something that made the book relatable is that we have somewhat familiar settings and objects that make this world seem like it really could happen at some point in our future. Hopefully not though…

Overall, this book kind of fell in the middle of the scale for me. It wasn’t bad, in fact I think I’d say it was a good story, but it wasn’t necessarily a book that will land on my all time favorites list. I’m curious enough to check out the second book just to see how a couple details play out, but at the same time I feel like I could walk away from it. Like I said, it isn’t bad read, and I do think there are some readers who will absolutely love it.

I didn’t necessarily care for one of Callie’s relationships with one of the characters. The one good thing that came out of it was an interesting twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. I won’t say anymore. Once you get to the end of the book, you’ll know who I’m talking about.

The style and feel of this book reminded me of a number of other popular dystopian books out there. For that reason alone, I feel that there is definitely an audience for this book, and if you enjoyed any of the similar books listed below, you should pick this one up and give it a go.

Reader Guidance:

• There were a couple of things worth mentioning. If this were made into a movie, I could see it being rated PG-13.
•  There are a few cases of mild profanity, as well as someone giving the finger.
•  When Callie first goes to Prime Destinations to find out how it all works, she asks if there’s any chance her renter would have sex while in her body, and she’s told that’s strictly prohibited. Later on, she’s reminded by another character that no sex is allowed.
• There’s a couple of instances where some guys check out girls and it’s referred to as “undressing us with their eyes.”
• There are two small make out scenes (Nothing too major. Nothing past kissing and talking about the thrill and touching “my face, my neck, my hair.” Honestly, I didn’t care for those scenes because it’s just slightly enough to make me shy and start to get a little uncomfortable, but I’m extra sensitive to those sorts of scenes. I realize this. If a small make out doesn’t bother you, you’ve nothing to fear!)
• There is some violence. Note that this may contain some SPOILERS:

o   Chips inserted in the brain are setup in such a way that if you try to remove them they will explode (this doesn’t actually happen to anyone).

o   There are a couple instances of physical fighting. The more intense one involves a girl with what sounds like brass knuckles. She gives quite a beating the requires a stitched up face afterwards.

o   A 12 year old girl is killed while acting as a diversion.

o   A small car crash leaves a character with a lovely gash in her head.

o   Okay, here’s a SPOILER: Callie tries to kill someone. They are pushed out of the way by another character, so he isn’t killed, but the shot still hits him in the arm.

o   The marshals (cops) use a sort of enhanced, sometimes lethal taser to help hunt down unclaimed minors.

o   Another SPOILER: Callie’s renter is killed. We aren’t witness to it, so we don’t really know details except for that she’s murdered.

Similar Books:

While there were a number of books I thought of, there were two in particular that came to mind.

The Host by Stephanie Myer—The main reason I was reminded of this book was because of the similarity of essentially two beings in one brain that can communicate with each other. Also as I recall, there was a bigger make out scene in this book that also made me uncomfortable. I tell you, I have a hard time reading that sort of thing. What can I say? (If you’re looking at the screen incredulously, would it help you to know that I’m chuckling a little at myself right now?)

Uglies by Scott Westerfield—This one is the first book of a series. I was reminded of it because of the fact that there’s a lot of work done on Callie in the beginning to make her look physically perfect and therefore more appealing to renters. But there’s not so much emphasis on this as there is in where a huge point of the plot is that once you turn a certain age you are made pretty and get to go live the good life with all the pretty people. As with Starters, everything is not what it seems. There was probably making out in this book too. HA! It’s been too long for me too remember specifically, but I do remember a love interest, so, you know, make out potential there.

Next Book:

We’ll go ahead with the next book in the series, Enders. After all, we have to figure out the rest of the answers to the mystery. Besides, sometimes you like stories better as a whole than just as one book. Let’s give it a go!