ARC Review: Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Series: Uninvited #1
Release Date: January 28th, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pre-Order: Amazon | 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.

The first in a two-book series, Uninvited tackles intriguing questions about free will, identity, and human nature. Steeped in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan's trademark mix of gripping action and breathless romance, this suspenseful tale is perfect for fans of James Patterson, Michelle Hodkin, and Lisa McMann.

This book. Is just. It’s hard to form words because it is just so damn good. I am stunned. I was a little wary going into this because I had NOT enjoyed Jordan’s Firelight. Maja’s review did re-assure me to a certain degree and gave me the push I needed to finally read the book.

Which I am really glad I did because otherwise I would have been missing out on a lot of awesome.

The book reels you in right from the start. It has a powerful opening that makes you want to read more. You have the main character finding out she has the kill gene and her life turns upside down. Her friends don’t want to be associated with her anymore, her boyfriend, who had claimed to love her, tries to work things out but even he cannot overlook the fact that his girlfriend may be a killer. What is even worse is that even her own parents turn on her. They treat her like she is bomb waiting to be triggered, like she is some kind of monster and not their child.

My heart broke for this wonderful young girl who had everything snatched from her because there was a ‘possibility’ that she would go all bzerk and kill people. It hurt when I had to see her friends shun her and treat her like crap. It hurt when her parents refused to discuss what was going on and instead avoided it. It broke when her dreams were snatched away from her.

Jordan manages to capture the cruelty of the human nature. She is shunned by society because of something that she had no control over. All these innocent people (and some not so innocent people) were treated like livestock. But humans did what they do best; they blamed a whole group for the crime of certain individuals.

The characters in this book are wonderful. From Davy (whose name reminded me of Captain Davy Jones, it still does) to Sean to Mitchell.

I believe it was Mitchell’s character that stuck out the most of me. He was the one person who didn’t turn his back on his younger sister. The one person who would have had more reason to do so then everyone else (siblings rivalry), but he didn’t. He stuck with her. His own heart breaking at how his sister was being treated. I was actually surprised by how sincere his character was. I do hope we get to see more of him in the next book.

 

Davy herself was a very strong main character. She starts of as a naïve privileged girl who cannot quite wrap her head around what just happened to her but she slowly grows as a character. She starts accepting her situation even while seeing the injustice of it. She pays close attention to her instincts and learns to navigate in this new world she has been thrust into.

I don’t have much to say about Sean though, the romance between the two lurks in the background but that isn’t the focus of the book. He was a good enough love interest, I could find no fault with him (I am not implying he is perfect). I’ll have to admit to being initially annoyed with the fact that he seemed to be a cliché (he was closed off) but when he was the first one to make a move, I decided that didn’t matter. At least he didn’t pull the ‘you’re not safe with me’ card.

Their relationship is slow to develop and *gasp* there is no insta-love (unlike in Firelight).

But in the end the book wasn’t about romance. It was about how a girl adjusts into her new life as a possible killer.

This wonderful book reminded me why I love YA and why I was once obsessed with the Dystopia genre.

A book with a strong message and a psychological undercurrent I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good gritty and powerful YA.