Starters by Lissa Price: The Review

Title: Starters
Author: Lissa Price
Publisher: Random House
Buy This Book: Book Depository


Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie.
Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter.
Callie soon discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than she could ever have imagined. . . .


I'd seen this when it first came out, but it had the white UK cover and seemed a little young to me. After seeing the Enders cover on Netgalley and realising it was the sequel, I decided that I wanted to try this series. It has a really fast-paced plot, but at times it did feel like a younger read.

I really enjoyed the premise of this book, that only the young and the very old are left - everyone between the age of twenty and sixty is now dead. When modern medicine is making it possible for people to live to be two hundred years old, there is a big age gap between the population. Any unclaimed Starters, like Callie, who have no grandparents and no home, the world is a tough place. Callie turns to Prime Destinations, a body bank that rents out Starters bodies to the Enders in exchange for a large cash payout. Callie sees it as the only way to take care of her little brother Tyler and provide him with a real home.

The plot moves along really quickly and it's easy to get caught up in the story. Callie wakes up halfway through one of her rentals, in her own body and the realisation that something has gone wrong. This is where the plot really begins to pick up, but I found myself wanting to see what Helena got up to in Callie's body, because it seemed like it would be a lot of fun to read.With the storyline moving along at full pace, I really found myself interested in the story and staying up late into the night to keep reading. My main issue was that things felt a little too easy, for example if Callie needed to escape from somewhere then she just escaped. There didn't seem to be as much struggle in situations where I felt it was probably needed.

Characters are really important to me, and they can really make or break a book. For me, great characters was one thing that Starters was lacking. Callie was an okay character, but I didn't find myself as invested with her as I like to be with my main characters. Other characters were lacking as well, especially the love interest Blake. I didn't feel like the story needed a love interest, but if it had to have one, I would much rather it be one with a personality, something Blake was really lacking. He sort of appears out of nowhere and his relationship with Callie just moves along really quickly. But the whole time I just couldn't get him as a character at all, what he was like or why Callie seemed to like him. Michael and Tyler were characters I felt I could like, but Callie spends no time with them in the book and it's hard to get to know them.

3/5 Stars

It's an easy, fast-paced read with a great premise and I would still recommend it. I will be reading my ARC of Enders and hope it's better than Starters. I just felt Starters wasn't everything I was looking for and that the characters were lacking. I really hope Enders is better, but I fear a love triangle is imminent.