Review: Adaptation by Malinda Lo

Author: Malinda Lo

Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Date of publication: April 2014

Flocks of birds are hurling themselves at aeroplanes across America. Thousands of people die. Millions are stranded. Everyone knows the world will never be the same.

On Reese's long drive home, along a stretch of empty highway at night, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won't tell them what happened.

For Reese, though, this is just the start. She can't remember anything from the time between her accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: she's different now. Torn between longtime crush David and new girl Amber, the real question is: who can she trust?


As you probably can tell and if you've been following the blog lately, I have been trying to dig deep into my TBR and read some of the older stuff I have had in my pile.  Adaptation is one of those books.  Adaptation is a fast paced YA sci-fi thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.  Reese and her debate partner David are on their way home from losing a match in Phoenix when birds start falling out of the sky.  Planes crash and general chaos and panic sweeps the country.  Racing to get home to San Francisco, they are in a car accident and wake up a month later with no memory of what happened  to them. Once they get home, hey both begin to suspect they are different in some way.

I really enjoyed this one.  I read it in one sitting.  It was a pretty refreshing sci-fi YA with some romance in it.  I'm not going to give away much of the plot other than whet is written in the synopsis.  It would ruin the reveals at the end. The characters were fun and interesting.  There is kind of a love triangle, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out in the sequel. The whole story is told through Reese's perspective as she and David try to figure out what happened to the both of them.  I thought the author did a great job of portraying Reese as someone who is questioning being Bi-sexual.  It came across as genuine and not cliche.   Honestly, I'm not sure who I am rooting for, Amber or David.

The book ends in a huge cliffhanger, so I must seek out the sequel to see what happens next.    I would probably keep it to older YA readers as there is a bit of mature exploratory content.  I definitely recommend this one.