Origin by Jessica Khoury

Publication Date: Sept 4, 2012 (and I’ve finally read it!)

Series: Corpus (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Sci-fi/Romance

Subjects: experiments, genetic engineering, immortality, rainforests,

Setting: In the Amazon Rainforest in a facility called Little Cam

POV/Tense: 1^st person, present tense: Pia

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 394 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover/Paperback

Publisher: Penguin: Razorbill

Summary/ product description: “Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home―and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin―a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

My Review:  Almost three years since this book has come out and it’s been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. Maybe I would have read it sooner if I got it from the library instead of buying it. Anyways, I’m glad I read it. It’s a very unique book. It’s set in the Amazon Rainforest on a medical research facility called Little Cam. It’s a secret place because it’s where Pia was made. She’s the first immortal, and the only one.

The love interest of Pia is a boy named Eio. His father is a scientist at Little Cam, but his mother was a native. He was raised by the native, though he looks different from them. Pia meets him when she finds a hole in the fence that keeps her out of the jungle and finally goes into the jungle. Eio seems charming and sweet and even has a sense of humor. He’s kind of like Tarzan, but not completely wild. He’s pretty smart because his father taught him English and about the world. Pia’s been sheltered and doesn’t know anything about the world outside Little Cam.

Pia reminds me of Seraphina from the Unremembered series by Jessica Brody. She’s has a photographic memory, enhance reflexes and speed, but not much upper-body strength. She cannot be cut open, shot or impaled in anyway. She indestructible, but still feels pain. She was born, not created in a lab. The deadly nector of a flower was combined with something and then injected into her ancestors over 5 generation to make Pia an immortal. It’s a really interesting sci-fi idea. I’d recommend this book to fans of Unremembered, Maximum Ride, Altered by Jennifer Rush, The Rules by Stacy Kade and other books with genetic engineering and mad science.

Cover Art Review: I love the cover. The rainforest texture is pretty and the flower and the outline with the title.

Amazon Burning by Victoria Griffith

Publication Date: October 1, 2014

Series: Standalone

Genera(s): Thriller/Mystery/Romance

Subjects: reporters, rainforests, murder, suspense, adventure, travel, wildlife

Setting: Brazil: The Amazon Rainforest, Rio de Janeiro and Boa Vista

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV, past tense: Emma

Age/Grade Level: New Adult (17+)

Length: 338 pgs. (in the Paperback ARC copy the gave me)

HC/PB: Ebook & Paperback

List Price: $4.49/$11.05

Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions

Summary/ product description: "ASPIRING JOURNALIST SWEPT INTO HIGH PROFILE MURDER MYSTERY IN THE AMAZON"

"Victoria Griffith’s debut novel is a triumph! Amazon Burning is a spellbinding tale of love, intrigue, and murder set in the imperiled Amazon rainforest. A young woman’s coming of age story is deftly woven into this vast ecological conflict, as indigenous tribes struggle to defend their land against the loggers, ranchers, and miners who are destroying it. A nonstop thrill ride that will leave you wanting more."

--Courtney Farrell, author of Enhanced

 “When 22-year-old aspiring journalist, Emma Cohen, is forced to flee the comforts of her NYU student life, she maneuvers an internship from her father at his newspaper in Rio de Janeiro. There, Emma is immediately swept into a major news story--and a life-threatening situation--when a famous jungle environmentalist, Milton Silva, is mysteriously murdered.

Emma must now enter the Amazon rainforest with her father to investigate; both awed by the enormity and beauty of the Amazon, and appalled by its reckless destruction. Not only will Emma have to brave the primal world of the Amazon, she must fight to survive the kidnappers, villains, corrupt activists, and indigenous tribes that lay in wait along the ever-twisting trail of the murder case. Stretched to the brink, it s up to Emma, her father and the dreamy news photographer, Jimmy, to unravel the mystery and live to tell the tale. 

Amazon Burning by Victoria Griffith is a spectacular debut Young Adult novel. Griffith's powerful rendering of the Amazon rainforest forms the perfect, wildly exotic backdrop for this extraordinary tale of a young urban woman coming of age in the midst of intense conflict.”

My Review:  This book is different from what I usually read. I usually only read paranormal, fantasy and sci-fi books. The only realist thrillers I’ve read recently were murder mysteries or about hackers. In Amazon Burning the main character Emma is an aspiring reporter and is interning with her reporter father in Brazil. I really enjoyed the setting in this book. It was the most appealing thing and the reason why I said I was interested. The different animals and plants that I’ve only seen in picture or in movies like Rio (the animated movie about a blue Macaw). The setting and atmosphere was well written. It was like a mental vacation to a place I may never get to go to.

The plot was interesting enough. I never guess who killed Milton. The book entwined other issues related to the Amazon, including illegal poaching and trafficking of exotic animals as pets or for “magical” properties. Deforestation and burnings for ranchers was also brought up. There were indigenous people described in the book. They had strange ideas and traditions, but are not savages. They are called the Yanomami and they like in the rainforest and hunt and plant small farms to survive. Some have horrible diseases like malaria.

The romance between Emma and Jimmy is supposed to be a big part of the book, but to me it felt minor. I was turned off by the part that mentioned oral sex. As someone who ever only reads YA, NA is still pretty new and I don’t like erotic stuff or thing that I going to disgust me. I basically skipped through those because I did not want the mental image. I like kissing and there’s some of that. I feel like the romance is kind of unrealistic though. Emma’s personality seems all over the place. Is she really so hot for someone when she has more important things going on? I think the author should have taken it slower with the romance. Plus Emma’s having issues with a professor at NYU who sexually harassed her and is trying not to look slutty in case someone’s watching her.

This book did have some entertainment value and it’s worth a read for anyone who’s a fan of thriller movie or like books about travel and social and environmental issue. It’s thoughtful and anthropological. I still feel like there are some things that could have been improved. The characters felt kind of flat and not worked out. Maybe it’s just the 3^rd person POV in this case. It was a change of pace and different from my usual genera.

Cover Art Review: The cover is good for a romantic thriller, but that girl looks nothing like the main character Emma.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Amazon Burning, then you can get at at the following online retailers:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Burning-Victoria-Griffith/dp/1938231945

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/amazon-burning-victoria-griffith/1118945099?ean=9781938231940

Astor + Blue Publishing Company: http://www.astorandblue.com

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

Series: Fire & Flood (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Thriller

Subjects: survival, rainforests, deserts, animals, races, contests, adventure

Setting: Montana, and then the rainforest and then desert

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV present tense: Tella Holloway

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 305 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Summary/ product description: “A modern day thrill ride, where a teen girl and her animal companion must participate in a breathtaking race to save her brother's life—and her own.

Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.

Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.

The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?”

My Review:  Fire & Flood is a unique take on a competition. It’s nothing like the Hunger Games beside the survival stuff. It’s not set in the future. Fire & Flood is set in the present, but it has sci-fi elements and action. I enjoyed the narrator. Tella is hilarious and says and thinks the funniest thing. She’s very realistic and not at all boring. She’s nothing like Katniss. She complains about being in the rainforest and the desert in head and has an inner commentary on her situation. She’s quirky, like makeup and massages and hates her curly hair and freckles .

Fire & Flood also had something I haven’t had enough of in YA books: Animal companions. Every contender in the Brimstone Bleed gets a Pandora Companion. A genetically altered animal that hatches from a egg and has special abilities that will help their Contenders survive. I really liked Maddox, Tella fox companion. He seemed really adorable and had a few tricks up his sleeve.

I also liked Guy. He has such and odd name. Tella didn’t like him at all at first. She said he had serial killer eyes, but he turned out to be really kind and helpful. Tella joins a group of contender and pandoras to help each other out. They have to make it to the base camp. Guy has a lion, Harper has and eagle and twin brothers Ransom and Levi have a raccoon and ram. It’s so cool seeing what these creatures can do. There’s a bit of romances. There’s also this character name Titus who’s not a nice guy.

There were a few crazy twists along the way. There’s action and thrills. I also thought it was cool that the first half of the book is set in a rainforest and the second half is in a desert. I have no clue if this is a trilogy or a duology, but I’m sure they’ll make it to Ocean and Mountains in the next book. Maybe even over throw the people who run the game. Who knows?

I do of course recommend this to fans of the Hunger Games trilogy, especially Catching Fire. Also, The Forsaken by Lisa M Stasse, Origin by Jessica Khoury and other sci-fi books.

Cover Art Review: I like the cover. The typography is pretty cool with the water puddling like on glass. I like the burning feather.