"Starters (Starters and Enders, #1)" by Lissa Price

5 out of 5 stars

Read April 12 to 20, 2013

Pages: 352
Published: March 13, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Can I just start off by saying that this cover is really creepy.




But I think that it connects well with the story. The girl on the cover is kind of blank and empty, and that's all that the teenagers are to the Enders, people over the age of 60. They use the bodies of the Starters to be young again. It's so creepy, the thought of having someone else inhabit your body. And you're pretty much in a coma.

Callie is an orphan, with her sick brother, Tyler, and their friend, Michael. They need money to survive, and the only way Callie can think if getting it is going to Prime Destinations, a company for Enders to stay in a Starters body and be a teenager again. Callie signs up. Everything is going well, until she wakes up in her body. She wasn't supposed to yet.

She realizes that she can control her own body now. She meets a boy, Blake, a senator's grandson. But she doesn't always have control, somehow the woman who's in her body can sometimes get control. After getting close to this woman who tells her the truth about Prime Destinations, the woman dies, leaving Callie with more questions.

With the help of some other Enders, Callie exposes the truth about Prime Destinations, but the Old Man, the man in charge, gets away. When Callie goes to visit Blake, he has no recollection of her or any of the dates they went on. It turns out that the Old Man was using Blake to get close to Callie.


I really wanted to cry. I'm not sure why that made me so sad, but it did.

Callie, Tyler, and Michael get to stay in the Ender's house, as she left it to Callie in her will. Everything is going well. Until Callie hears the Old Man's voice in her head.

CREEPY

Callie
Lets her body be used by Prime Destinations. She learns what really happens there and helps put an end to it. She is an orphan with her little brother Tyler and their friend Michael. She thinks everything is fine until she hears the Old Man's voice in her head.

Blake
Pretty much the only other main character. He is the grandson of the senator that the Ender in Callie's body hates. Callie believes that he likes her until she finds out that he doesn't remember anything and that the Old Man was inside her body.

Overall, it was amazing. It was such a cool idea and I think Ms. Price did a great job executing it. I can't wait for the sequel! It was supposed to come out last year, but has now been pushed to 2014.