Review: Starters by Lissa Price

A list of things I would do if I were in someone else’s body:

*Moon nunneries
*Spend a day doing nekkid performance art in illegal locales
*Yell at people randomly that they can’t handle the truth
*Trick various people into skinny dipping with people and then steal their clothes.
*Randomly strip on trams and use the pole to dance

A list of things old people would apparently do in my body:

*Drink/Club
*Sports
*Sex
*Bungee Jumping

If anything is representative of the generation gap – I think that is.

See Dad, first I mooned the nuns while a friend took pictures.  Then we uploaded the photo to fifteen different social media sites.  Then we photoshopped their faces to meme rage faces, loaded it to our blog, monetized it and made a fortune from all the clicks.  Now I’ll show you how I paid my own college fund by replying to popular youtube videos and turned a Republican candidate’s name into a euphemism for something you’ll ground me for describing.  This is how we have fun!

This is not a bad novel – but nor is it a perfect one.

Price has strengths, which make this book an enjoyable read, but she also has marked weaknesses.  It is those weaknesses, unchecked, that ruin an otherwise enjoyable tale.

The story, a futuristic dystopian Body Snatchers of sorts, is a fast paced, thrilling read.  It has a great cast of characters, an interesting story-line, and a tight plot.

Price’s strengths lean toward the adrenaline-pumping action, the intriguing plot side of things.  Where the novel falls apart is all related to the relationships and how her characters interact.

I’m quite sure Michael plays some pivotal role in a future book – but for this book he felt entirely unnecessary and his relationship with Carlie felt baseless and meaningless.

Similarly, Blake’s reactions and relationship with Carlie felt forced, inauthentic and completely unbelievable.  Whatever spark Price wanted us to feel, just wasn’t there for me.

Perhaps the biggest factor that crippled the novel for me was in the M. Night Shyamalan like story telling.  Everything was a twist!

When your villain is always one step ahead, it’s fascinating and exhilarating.  When your villain is 2,568 steps ahead, it starts to look a little comical and super villainy with twisty mustache included.  Or like the author is giving him inhuman powers of foresight to act as a deus ex machina.

I really, really wanted to like this novel.  Despite the low rating, I would be interested in reading the sequel to see where Price takes some of the themes and storylines and to see if she improves on the weaker elements of her writing.

Until then I’ll be over here planking, splanking and plankouring.

My generation makes no sense.  Planks can’t parkour!