Reboot by Amy Tintera
4/5 stars
HarperTeen, 2013
352 pages
YA Dystopia
Scheduled to release May 7
Source: Received an e-ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
This book grabbed me with its blurb about humans "rebooting" after a set period of time-what sounded like a really cool twist on zombies, a paranormal creature I've never really cared about. I also loved the simple cover. Personally I like pretty dresses and lots of color but this one has a starkness that appealed (and the fact that 1-7-8 stands out is appropriate).
That reason is because our main character rebooted after 178 minutes, gifting her with exceptional abilities. She is known as 178 or alternately Wren. The longer it takes someone to reboot, the stronger they are. Because of that, she has been very talented at the work she has been assigned, providing support to the government and training new reboots. Wren has little patience for the lower numbers until 22 (or Callum) comes along and blows past all her defenses entwining them in romance and drastically changing the course of her rebooted life.
If you've read some of my recent reviews for HarperTeen books, this next statement will come as no surprise. I found the writing incredibly engaging and compulsively readable. I easily read this all in one day and had a tremendous amount of fun.
More surprising is that the romance was actually kind of my favorite part. Callum is super charming and I love the way he works his way under Wren's skin. She has been so tough for so long with everyone else afraid and intimidated by her but he doesn't have the good sense to fear her abilities, instead dancing with her and saying just the right things. He doesn't care that she's better than him at their job; he doesn't care that she's a brutal and merciless fighter/killer. He just loves her for who she is.
I'm less enthusiastic about everything else. This is a pretty dark dystopia with a lot of violence and death. I have no problem with that-it just paled compared to how the romance charmed me. Lingering questions include how this virus started as the beginnings of this dystopia world are sketchy. I am also wondering about the experiments the government's scientists are practicing on the lower numbered Reboots. We get a lot of hints at what's going on but not the full picture. The book also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger-who knows what will come next?
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