Author: Jennifer Rush
Series: Altered, #1
Genres: Dystopian, Sci-Fi, Paranormal
Publication/Year: Little Brown Books • 2013
Page Numbers: 336
Synopsis from Goodreads:
"When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?My Rating: ★★★★.5
Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart.
When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them. Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to go, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.
Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away."
Quote(s) I Like:
"With my pencil, I could set us both free" - Anna
"Damn, you're cranky. We're free! You should be doing the Hokey-frickin'-Pokey!" - Cas
"You and I are the sum of a void left by the absence of someone we love." - Trev
"Who said I was trying to make you feel better? Fact: Sam's got swagger. Fact: I'm straight. Fact: Even though I'm straight, I sorta love the dude. So I can't say I blame you." - Cas
My Thoughts:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish! Anna's whole life was a lie. Discovering how the boys got to be apart of the Branch was interesting. Finding out that Anna was the key to the boys was even more crazy. Definitely a plot twist I was not expecting at all.
Nick's attitude towards Anna at the beginning irked me. He was completely rude, disrespectful and just harsh to her. He should have not been so mean, but in the end he definitely started to "respect" her a bit more.
Sam...what can I say -- he is a strong piece of work. Strong minded, stubborn, sweet and serious all in one. For a guy that has been altered several times, he still has part of his humanity and a pure heart.
Cas and Trev were totally sweet -- I definitely loved their characters. Finding out about Trev working for the Branch kind of devastated me a bit, but then finding out they altered him several times broke my heart. I just hope things turn out better with him in the next book.
Anna finding out the truth about her parents and her sister Dani was a great semi-ending. I'm glad she found out the truth because now I'm hoping something fires up in her to really fight back with the boys.
My favorite part: Connor getting shot by Anna. It definitely had a huge significance in her shooting him over any of the boys doing so.
Overall Conclusion:
Great storyline, awesome writing style, kept me pulled in and I'm just ready to find out if Sam and Anna find more people like them and who will take over the Branch since they killed off Connor.
Have you read this book?