Altered

Title: Altered
Author: Jennifer Rush
Series: Altered #1
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Date Published: January 1, 2013
Buy: Amazon

Goodreads Summary
When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

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.

“Hope is a waking dream.’ I let the words echo in my head. The quote reminded me of that feeling you get when you start to wake from a dream you don’t want to leave. That crushing sensation in the center of your chest, like you are losing an important piece of yourself you won’t ever get back.”

I read the summary to this book a while ago and I got only this far “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” before I knew this book and I, we were meant to be.

I wasn’t wrong. It has all the elements I crave for. Everything I love. People on the run, lives built on lies, trying to rediscover the past, people genetically altered, etc. I am a science fiction geek and I am happy to say this book doesn’t disappoint in the least.

I lot of people think this book has a lot of cliches in it and it probably does but the whole idea of the book and the constant feeling of being on the edge totally made me forget about those. There is this thrill to reading this book. It kind of makes me feel like a thrill junkie.

I am always on the look out for books like this one and I don’t come across them often so maybe that’s why I didn’t notice the cliches but I loved every second to it. The book has a good opening. The first 2-3 chapters aren’t full of action but give us a look into what these kids are dealing with, the next few is where the action begins.

Anna as our main character is great, at first I was a bit annoyed with her because of her obsession with Sam. It’s not exactly an obsession but you know how YA girls are always trying to get noticed by the guy they like? Yeah that was Anna in the beginning. But she changed. I think she wants to be trusted by these guys more than anything else. She knows that she has to depend on them for her safety but if they don’t trust her, where would that leave her?

As you can tell, there are 4 guys. You’d think that this would mean that there would be a love triangle-I did, but there isn’t. I am glad for that. She thinks of the other guys as her friends and well Nick hates her guts for some reason unknown to her. But what if another guy is interested in her and she is too blinded by her love for Sam to see it? Nope, we don’t have any of that either. I am really glad for that because then I can pay attention to each individual character and appreciate them.

Now the said 4 guys, namely Sam-the love interest, Trev-the best friend, Cas-the guy everybody loves and Nick-the bad/tortured boy.

Sam is the ultimate leader. He isn’t your bad boy but rather your responsible one. He loves Trev, Cas and Nick and puts there needs above everything else. He keeps them together. He acts like their guardian and their friend. It’s what makes me love him, his loyalty to these 3 guys and Anna. Trev is the best friend. Someone all of us like. He is a great friend and even after the fact that Anna feels cheated by them, he tries to make her understand that he is still the same person. He is always there for her, listening to her problems. Cas. Cas. Cas. I cannot say anything about him. He is the most hilarious person ever. He may or may not have ADD, he cannot seem to concentrate on anything for long enough and he loves food. And the last of the boys, Nick, I find him unique, despite everything, you can see his love for Sam, how much he respects him. Nick is an angry person. He may not have his memories but what happened to him in his earlier life left an impression on him forever. This however doesn’t make him incapable of loyalty. He is extremely loyal to Sam and to his fellow “brothers”.

The characters however aren’t the only great thing about this book, so is the plot. I love how everything is unraveled slowly and how the clues are discovered one by one. I never found the clues to have the “way too obvious” vibe to them. They were actually pretty cool. Plus they helped me understand what was happening on the cover of this book.

I was glad by how the author ended the book. There is going to be a second book but the author didn’t feel the need to end it with a cliffhanger, she shouldn’t, the book is awesome and people should want to come back for more. I had loads of fun reading this book and I look forward to reading the sequel.