In some previous reviews of mine, I might’ve ranted been a tad upset about a few YA dystopian novels I’ve had the misfortune of reading. And it’s come to my attention that these thinly veiled romance dystopian novels are clearly a hot-button topic for moi. For the simple reason that world building is nonexistent brushed over. And clearly that upsets me tremendously. Speculative fiction/dystopian rules, if you’re building your book around a whole new society due to a war, a breakdown of a government, etc., it would be great to explain what caused the ending of society as you know it, the war. Just sayin’.

I’m bringing up this subject matter because I went into Starters with much trepidation. Even pondering whether I should read it because others have been irked by the serious lack of world building. Irksome matters: What caused the Spore Wars? Why was there a wall built separating the U.S. from Mexico, just to name a few? And I just knew that I’d have the exact same issues. So imagine my surprise to find that I was truly digging this tome. I skimmed over the Spore Wars, shrugging my shoulders and uttering whatevs. Here’s why . . . .

I've just completely given up, all sense of reason zapped away. I kid, I kid. Back to business. I really don’t think this book is dystopian in nature. To me it’s a mystery/thriller set in a science fiction world. The science fiction is basically a backdrop where as the overall mystery is the shining star. Here's my thought process: If this were truly dystopian, I’d have a mad understanding of everything Spore Wars, of why there’s a wall separating two countries, how it is that only the “middle-aged” died (supposedly because of spore-laden missiles, which I’m hella confused about to begin with), leaving a society populated by teens and the elderly or Enders. (By the by, if people live to the ripe old age of 150, why is 60 considered elderly and therefore in need of renting a youngin’s body to be young again? Wouldn’t that age figure to be around 30ish in our reality?) That didn’t make sense, same goes for the rest of the aforementioned. But you know what? Still, I shrugged said questions off because the mystery held my attention. Big time. 


The MC, Callie, rents out her body à la Dollhouse. Her consciousness is somehow replaced with a high-paying renters consciousness. Renters or Enders (seniors who want to be young again) pay big bucks to consciously enter the body of teens. Only something goes terribly wrong. While in a club, Callie somehow becomes conscious and finds herself in the middle of a possible assassination plot. With no time to spare, Callie has to ferret out vital info all the while pretending to be her renter.

I won’t bore you fellow Goodreaders with the book description (you’re welcome), but I will say that, all in all, Starters is thrilling and exciting and would make a kick-ass movie.

Things that did make me go hmm . . . Why would Callie leave her brother, Tyler, whom she loves more than anything in the world, with a complete stranger? Why wouldn’t she have hidden him in her renter’s home? And for the majority of the story it’s as if he didn't exist. Not even sure why he's in the book to begin with. Whatevs. Mystery's calling my name.

While the ending did peter out for me a tad, I am definitely going to continue on with this series.