Altered by Jennifer Rush

Series: Altered (bk. 1)

Genera: Sci-fi Adventure/ Romance/ Thriller

Subjects: genetic engineering, government agencies, experiments, memory

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 323 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Hachette: Little, Brown

Summary/ product description: “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.”

My Rating: êêêê1/2

My Review: This sci-fi was a nice change of pace after reading so many paranormal romances lately. It’s NOT dystopian, no matter what it says on Goodreads. It’s about genetically modified guys, and a girl who love one of them. And then there’s the Branch, which is kind of like Itex in Maximum Ride. The sci-fi elements reminded me so much of False Memory by Dan Krokos, and also like Revived by Kat Patrick. If you’re a fan of the Maximum Ride series, you might also like this series. It’s fast-paced. Pages will fly by without you even realizing it.

I loved that most of this book was set in Michigan, even if it started out in New York. It was an adventure with lot of action. Anna, which seemed kind of sheltered at first, turned into a kick butt heroine, and she even learned some important things about her past. There’s the four boys with genetic alterations living in her basement. Cas is probably my favorite. Sam seems too intense. Trev is really smart, and Nick sounds good looking. But Cas, he’s funny and awesome. I love everything he says in this book. When comparing them to the guy of Under The Never Sky, Cas is Roar to Sam’s Perry-like intensity. Nick is mean to Anna, and she think of Trev as her best friend. She visits them in her basement a lot, but she doesn’t seem to have any other friends beside the boys. She takes combat lesson and loves to draw. I can kind of relate to her in the drawing part (and I also took karate for a few years). I draw, and paint.

There’s a lot of mystery and clue and stuff the lead to other things. I love books that keep you guessing. Ones you can make predictions about. This was full of twists and turns and awesome realizations. It’s hard to review this book without spoiling everything, but I was surprised with what I found out. There were some thing I already figured out, but I did not expect this. Read it and find out.

Cover Art Review: Good typography, and a very sexy looking guy. It’s pretty minimal, and I wish there was more on it, but it’s okay.

 

~Haley G