Review: Altered

 

 

 
Altered
Author: Jennifer Rush
Publication Date: January 1st 2013        
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

 

When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

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 flee, 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.

 
 

 

Altered, you were perfect in every way, my friend. Let's check the criteria, shall we?

·         4 hot guys in your basement? Check.

·         Well rounded characters that suck you in but hold their mysteriousness? Check.

·         Mystery? Check.

·         Badass fight scenes? Check.

·         Secrets? Check.

·         Betrayal? Check.

·         On the run? Check.

·         Danger?

·         Romance? Check.

·         Insta-Romance? Negative. (Though, you could argue that it is, but, there's 1) it's set after years of her finding the boys in the basement, so the romance with Sam, is not insta- and then there's that other reason.

·         Love triangle? Halle-freaking-ujah. Negative.

 

Now, elaboration time.

Anna finds Sam, Cas, Nick and Trev in glass rooms in her basement, which is not a basement, but a lab. They've been genetically altered by a drug called, you guessed it, Altered. Besides the initial shock, who wouldn't want to find four hot guys in your basement? ;) Just saying. Not that I have a basement or anything, but still. Did I mention four hot guys? Okay, I'm never like this, but seriously, I'm being a fangirl, I just. These. Characters.

 

 

 

The plot itself is still one you have to figure out, it's fast paced, with an intricately  little bits placed just so. It's hard to talk about because it's hard not to spoil it, if I start saying anything else about it. It's fragile that way. But our four hot guys and our MC, Anna go on the run after  escaping the lab, and almost being killed by the Branch, who are now hunting them. I love books involving road trips, and anything to do with going on the run, it's always fun, and it's fun to read on the habits they pick up, it's the ultimate character assessor, and Altered owned it. It also kind of reminds me of Dark Angel, anybody remember that?

Speaking of...

The most fun, and important thing about Altered is the characters. Being able to create fleshed out, strong charismatic  characters, characters that don't know much about their pasts or themselves, while still holding their intrigue, deserves praise all on its own. I can't even pick one of the characters for my favourite. I would say Cas, because he's freaking hilarious, but then I'd say Trev because of the friendship with Anna *cough*, maybe Nick because he's an ass, but he's...just Nick. Or Sam, because well, yum. The growth goes to Anna, no doubt, she sucks you in right away and you can see the changes she takes on throughout it, and since Altered is a short book, well done.

Altered was a powerful punch of sarcasm, badassery, secrets and betrayal, so let it hit you in the face.

 

Rating: 5/5