Ravishing Review: Starters by Lissa Price

A Quick Introduction
Title: Starters
Author: Lissa Price
Publisher: Ember
Publishing Date: 23rd July 2013
Number of Pages: 384 (including the short story Portrait of a Spore)

The Synopsis (by Goodreads)
You can’t get them out of your head.

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.

Callie soon discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than she could ever have imagined.

The Review

*insert sparkles here* ta-daaah! 4 kawaii Vaporeons for this novel!

These days, I'm really having a hard time finding and reading books that are really worth my time. I've stumbled across lots and lots of books that people claim as "outstanding" and "perfect" and "definitely worth a reread" but all I feel after reading those books is meh.

However, Starters is (yes, present tense) not one of those overrated books. Why so? First of all, its plot is original. Second, the main character is a girl. Not that I have anything against the main characters being girls, but let me just say that most of the time, when girls are the main characters, the story's a bit too... damsel in distress-y? I can safely say that Starters is the first book I can label as a "favorite" that has a female lead, who also narrates the story in her point of view.

Now, going to the review, I just can't grasp the right words for this book. It was so well-written, and the way the story unravels is so thrilling, I just couldn't put the book down.

The story starts after the Spore Wars, which wiped out the entire population between the ages of 20 and 60. It was sort of confusing at first because why just the people between the ages of 20 and 60? The next thing that happened was Callie entered Prime Destinations. It's a place where the Starters, or the young people, go to "donate" their body to Enders-- the elderly-- so that they can earn money. The Enders then use these Starters' bodies to live a young, wild, and free life again, but only for a short time. Being in a world with only young people and old people-- nothing in between-- young people only have their grandparents with them. If their grandparents are still alive. In Callie's case, she lost both of her parents and her grandparents already. She only has Tyler, her brother, and Michael, her friend, with her. She struggles everyday with the uncertainty of life in the slums, trespassing properties to have a place to stay the night, learning how to steal food just to make their stomachs satisfied. She became tired of it. Plus, Tyler's rare lung disease only made things worse. Callie's love for her brother and for the people around her pushed her to make a decision that she thought she'd never even consider-- donating her body to Prime Destinations.

Sounds interesting, right? Well, I thought so too at first. After reading the book, all I could think was holy cows, this book was so interesting. I couldn't wait to buy the second (and unfortunately, last) book.

Callie's character development was so astounding, this is probably the second time I've loved a female main character. First time for a female character in a book. The way she sacrificed a lot of things for her brother, and to fight for what's right was so heartwarming and touching, I just sort of see myself in her.

It might have a number of plotholes, but overall, I really, really liked the story, the characters, the setting, and basically everything. 4 Vaporeons to this wonderful piece of literature! Kudos to Lissa Price for making such an amazing book.

By the way, I have the signed copy of this book!! I'm thanking my friend for making this achievement happen. Thanks to Eccentric Everything too!

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