Review : Altered by Jennifer Rush

Summary (from Goodreads)
Title : Altered (Altered #1)
Author : Jennifer Rush
Publisher : Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date : January 1st 2013
Goodreads - The Book Depository

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.

Personal Thoughts

As shallow as this may seem, I only wanted to read this book because of the cover. Yeah, I'm a cover whore. Shoot me! Even then, I went into this book with much trepidation because too often I've been betrayed by pretty covers. Fortunately for me, Altered was not that kind of book.

Anna's father works for the very secretive organization, the Branch. As part his project, he has four genetically engineered boys in his basement. Anna works with her dad in his lab, helping him out. Over the years, Anna has grown close to the boys, especially to Sam, with whom she seems to have a deep emotional connection. When Sam makes an attempt to escape the Branch, Anna is also forced to run with the boys. While on the run, she comes to realize that her past is shrouded with secrets.

I enjoyed the characters in Altered very much. Well fleshed-out and distinct, they were an interesting blend of personalities. Watching them interact was a fascinating experience for me. Jennifer Rush has done a fabulous job at giving each of the boys a different personality, making it easier to distinguish between them. There was a total of 4 boys ; Trevor, the bookish and quiet one, Cas, the clown of the group, Nick, the angry and broody one and Sam, the quiet but strong one. Now, you would think that with such a vast range in personalities, the characters wouldn't work well together, but they did. I ,personally, thought that they meshed really well and I enjoyed reading about each boy. As far as the main character, Anna, goes, she was a little hard for me to figure out at first. She was really sweet and it was clear that she had strong bonds with each of the boys. She tried her best to make things comfortable for them by bringing them goods they might like and constantly interacted with them, making them feel at home. I really liked the fact that she didn't treat the boys as experiments, but instead considered them to be her friends. Over the course of the book, Anna grew from an almost naive young girl to a headstrong girl who knew when to make the right decision. You also see her become braver than she was when she comes to realize that her past wasn't what she thought it was. All in all, the characters in Altered were an interesting and very enjoyable cast.

Altered was action-packed from start to finish. You would expect that from a book that deals with 5 people on the run. Rush did a fantastic job at making the book incredibly thrilling. Altered was the kind of book that gave me an adrenaline-rush while reading. It was also the kind of book that made me want to finish the book in one sitting or else I would be very frustrated. She managed to weave science-fiction and action in such a way that made the book engaging. Reading this book felt almost like watching an action movie. The chase was definitely not without obstacles. These 5 characters encountered danger after danger and watching them try to get out of these situations kept me on the  edge. What made this one epic book was the twists, turns and revelations that I did not see coming! Jennifer Rush had the ability to shock me endlessly with her surprises from start to finish. Honestly, there were so many revelations that I never could have predicted, my jaw was constantly dropping to floor. There was also a slight romance in the book. From the beginning, it was clear that Anna had a bit of an obsession with Sam. It annoyed me a little, but after a while I let it go because the author made sure that the plot was the focus of the book. The romance between Sam and Anna was tension-filled, but very satisfying. In the end, I thought Altered was a great debut novel from Jennifer Rush and I'm excited to read more in this series.

A cast of characters that will have you rooting for them, a nail-biting plot and a tender, but deep romance are what you can expect out of this new series. Rush will engross you in her story line and make sure that you never stop reading the book until you reach the end!

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters : 4/5
Writing : 4/5