YA Week: Joint Review: Starters by Lissa Price

by:  Lissa Price
published by:  Delacourte Books for Young Readers
publish date:  March 13, 2012

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.

I've had this one in my TBR pile for a while and when the audio became available I decided it was time to listen.  When I asked Autumn what she thought of it, as she had read it first, she said it was your typical YA dystopian.  I have to agree.  I was a little underwhelmed by Starters.  I thought the beginning was a little slow.  I also felt like there wasn't enough explanation as to why the "middle" generation was gone.

I did like the characters in the book, especially Callie.  The Old Man was very creepy and every time he was mentioned I cringed a little.  The term "dirty old man" comes very much into play here.  The book ends with the potential for the dreaded YA love triangle.  (Authors, can we stop with those, please?) The next book, Enders, comes out some time next year.  Will I read it?  Probably.  But I won't rush out to get it.

I was also underwhelmed by this book.  It had so much hype, I was expecting great things.  It ended up being just a fairly average YA dystopian.  Female protagonist, no parents, having to take care of a younger sibling, government conspiracy, love triangle.  How much more could have been thrown into this book??

I thought Callie was an ok character.  I though all the old people were really just kinda gross and mean.  I thought the Old Man was totally creepy and his actions in the book were just disgusting.  By the end, I was completely icked out by him.

Will I read Enders when it comes out?  Probably not, unless that's the last book in this series.  I'll wait until the series is over and read them back to back because I want to know were it goes, but I don't want to drag it out.   I'm really really over these trilogies and short series.