Uninvited #1
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Publisher (Edelweiss)
Rating: ★★★
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.
Having heard a lot of negative reviews about Jordan's first YA series, Firelight, I was hesitant to read Uninvited... but also kind of curious. The synopsis is what ultimately made up my mind, because I love a good dystopian where the government claims to be able to detect Kill Genes or Kill Instincts, or anything of the sort. This happened in The Forsaken as well, and it's always intriguing to see how the government deals with it.
I thought that the world building itself was good, although nothing special. We've seen it before with Minority Report and The Forsaken. Like I said, though, I love this idea, and found it intriguing. Jordan did a good job of explaining the dystopian world gradually without having it become overbearing. It fit in with the fast-paced plot nicely, and the whole beginning of the novel flowed well.
It took a while for me to connect with Davy, the main character. She starts off as very spoilt and rather snobby, but when she tests positive for the gene she gets pulled down to Earth. Of course, this character growth takes a while, which is fantastic. We see Davy start a new school, meet a bunch of teenagers who have been accused of having this gene, get into trouble, and eventually leave her hometown to go elsewhere.
I thought that the romance started out quite well. I was with Davy as she was feeling equal amounts of intrigue and terror when it came to Sean at first. Wait, did I say that the romance started out well? Okay, I have weird taste. I mean that Sean was, to begin with, slightly scary, with his HTS-related tattoo that makes it evident that he's broken the rules of his agreement with the government before. However, as we get to know him, we realise that he's actually quite nice. And Davy soon realises that you don't actually have to do anything wrong to earn a tattoo from the government.
As the novel progressed, the romance became boring. There was no instalove there, but I got fed up with how Sean was constantly protecting Davy and saving her. I wanted her to be able to save herself, which would probably have been slightly unrealistic in certain situations that she got herself into, but maybe the author should have written different situations to empower her female protagonist.
Overall I was very pleased with my first Sophie Jordan book. Uninvited draws you in, and introduces you to a creepy future where the government controls everything, down to your DNA. I'm glad that this series is a duology, and I hope it will stay that way, because while I enjoyed the plot, I don't think there's enough to stretch it out over any more than two books. But who knows what Jordan has in mind? Hopefully a more exciting romance *cough*
I'm so fascinated by the idea of scanning someone's DNA and labelling them after you get the result. It really makes me wonder if that would end up with a higher percent of killers.. I'm glad to hear that there is enough character growth in Davy, but the boring romance is probably going to bother me. We'll see :D
ReplyDeleteMe too! It raises the question as to whether these people would actually have killed people, or if the fact that they're labelled as murderers and treated poorly by society leads them to it.
DeleteI didn't find the romance boring, it just wasn't the focus, and that's OK. I really enjoyed this one, but I also really liked the Firelight series.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to trying Firelight now!
DeleteI'm pretty keen to read this one! I confess, I got it confused with Panic by Lauren Oliver, and I ended up reading Panic thinking it as going to be about murderers and genes. Heh. That was a pretty dumb mistake on my part! lol >_< But the covers ARE pretty similar! I still want to read this one, but I'm definitely wary of boring romances. I like it when the girl characters aren't under the protection all the time of some guy. I like it when they are really smart/strong/cool and fight for themselves as well!
ReplyDeleteHaha, understandable! They do look very similar. Me too, girls don't always need a guy's protection! Although I can understand that the guy would stick up for his girlfriend in a physical fight, I would love it if there were more scenes with Davy sticking up for herself in the sequel.
DeleteI liked this one a lot more than you did, I think and I actually enjoyed the romance. I thought the premise was fascinating and the reaction from the government and the public was done very realistically (unlike in The Forsaken, which was so extreme). I agree with you...so glad it's a duology, so many times the second book in a trilogy is pretty worthless. ~Pam
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, The Forsaken is very unrealistic compared to this.
DeleteI definitely see what you mean now about Davy and Sean, hopefully we see more Davy stepping up more in the sequel. I was quite surprised I quite liked the romance actually and Sean as well, I thought he was going to be one of those bad boy types but he really wasn't.
ReplyDeleteI hope she does step up more, because that would be fantastic. I was so over Sean fighting for Davy by the end of the book. I thought he was nice though, and I'm glad Jordan didn't go with the whole bad boy/rude bastard thing.
DeleteI haven't read this one yet but hope to within the first couple of months. I actually started it a while back but was so annoyed with Davvy within the first few pages that I had to take a break. :/
ReplyDelete