Altered by Jennifer Rush

(4 stars)

Altered

Published: January 1st 2013

Synopsis: Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them. Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities. Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

The first thing to know about Altered – absolutely nothing is as it seems.

My first reaction upon finishing Altered was just, well, wow. It seems the YA books I'm reading this year are constantly surprising me, in the best way.

Upon starting the book, I was one hundred pages in before I stopped and put it down for a day or so. Not because it was bad, but because sometimes I get frustrated with books where EVERY SINGLE THING is a complete secret – even though I know it'll be worth it when I find out the truth. Eventually, I picked it back up and finished it in that sitting. I'm glad that I did.

At first, I found it hard to differentiate between the boys. We were given a description of them early on in the book and then I totally ended up forgetting who was who when it came to Cas and Trev, and just went along with it. It didn't matter too much in the end, because the book was so fast paced and entertaining. Eventually I was able to see all of their individual personalities easily and that wasn't a problem anymore. I ended up loving Anna and all of the boys for their own reasons. The light romance was enough and didn't take away from the main plot, which was nice. Anna's crush on Sam was pretty realistic for a teenage girl, compared to other books. Although Anna is so confused and guilty about what she has been forced to do in order to help the boys, she is always likeable and real.

(On a less serious note, I find it weird I kind of want to see a romance between Nick and Anna? Maybe it's the idea of it turning from hate to love. I like Sam and think he's a wonderfully interesting character, but I just can't tell how much he really likes Anna?)

Finally, the action was so well written that it never seemed boring, it gave me serious writer envy. The twists and turns kept me going and it seemed every other page I was proven wrong about something that I had thought to be true, which is a pretty rare thing with the books I've read lately. It was stunningly obvious that a lot of very detailed planning went into the plot of Altered and into each character. I can only imagine what else will be turned on its head in the next book and I am really excited to find out. Hopefully I will be soon be reading the second book in the series, Erased.

4 stars for Altered, I would definitely recommend it.

“That's what hope was. Clinging to something you weren't sure would ever be yours. But you had to hold on anyway, because without it, what was the point?”

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