Saturday, February 8, 2014

Review of Uninvited by Sophie Jordan


Title/Author: Uninvited (Uninvited #1) by Sophie Jordan
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, January 28th 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she's destined to become a murderer.

When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS) - aka the kill gene - she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

So you guys may or may not know that I love Sophie Jordan. Or at least, I love her historical romances, as I haven't in fact read her Firelight series, I should get on that... BUT I know she writes amazing ALL the feels historical romance, and Uninvited totally triggered all my GIVE IT TO ME impulses, so we were off to a good start.

And Uninvited totally gave me what I wanted! The whole genetic testing thing was tickling all my science geek parts, I'm fascinated by this and the possiblities for the future, I guess it's a side effect of being a doctor, but I could just talk about this all day. Seriously. I'm actually kinda creeped out by what we can already find out about someone by their DNA, and don't even get me started about the genetic testing done on babies while they're still in the mother's uterus. I mean, there have been some amazing discoveries and some that I think we might have been better off without.

Erm... I'll get off my soap box now.

SO. What I meant to say was that I could completely see how society would be distorted by finding a kill gene. I can SEE people reacting to it the way they did in Uninvited, the whole mass panicking and putting these people in camps and just generally not being welcome anymore. I mean, doesn't it reflect how some people deal with people infected with HIV? I thought Sophie Jordan did an amazing job portraying the atmosphere and just the sheer madness of it all.

And I have to say that I really liked Davy. I could really connect with her and shared her disbelief at finding out she was a carrier and watching her life fall apart was heartbreaking. I mean, man, that is a lot to loose. Seriously. And how bad did I want to punch some of the people in her life! Ugh, her boyfriend and her dad! Just UGH! And her so-called best friend. I HATE that girl. Triple UGH! The hypocritic way in which people were constantly pushing people with the kill gene and then they'd go all righteous if they lashed out. I mean, SERIOUSLY? What did you expect?
Davy learns the hard way that she has to toughen up, but she does it. She fights for her place and I loved watching her go through all of it, though it often wasn't pretty.

There's a romance. And I knew Sophie Jordan wouldn't disappoint me in this area and guys, I really liked it! It wasn't the thing that impressed me most about this book and that is just as it should be. But I do love the boy.

Guys, basically what I'm saying is: you need to read this book. It is full of scientific brilliance, a whole lot of madness and an easily believable world that has gone crazy, paired with a main character that I could relate to and a good romance and JUST GO READ IT OK??? I've been trying not to go all caps on this, cause I want to convince you and not just go ALL THE FEELS, but seriously, if you're even the teensiest bit interested after you read the summary I'd say GO FOR IT. You will not regret it.

My rating: 5 stars

2 comments:

  1. Haha, I think I'll be very excited about the science part too! I'm always geeky when it comes to that, so I look forward to explore it in Uninvited :D

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  2. Honestly? I wasn't very excited about reading Uninvited originally. But all these reviews are making me very curious! I do think the idea of being able to detect that gene is fodder for a good story.

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