Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

My Review:

Reboot is a fantastically plotted dystopian story about people who come back from the dead as Reboots.  I loved how the characters grew and changed as the story progressed.  I will definitely be reading the 2nd book when it releases next year.  Also, I checked this out from the library, but since I loved this book so much, I'm probably going to buy my own copy.  

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

Wren's character development is done fantastically.  She starts as a character who thinks she has no emotions at all since she has the highest Reboot number, 178.  It becomes obvious early in the book that she does, in fact, have emotions.  One of my favorite scenes is one when Wren really shows that she has emotions, and not always necessarily positive emotions.  It is the scene when she is returning to her former hometown, and it brings traumatic memories from her past into the forefront of her mind.

The romance that develops between Wren and Callum is sweet and just a completely awesome romance.  She takes him on as her newest trainee after he says that maybe a low number could be better if he had Wren as his trainer.  Their relationship starts off rocky, with Wren determined to make Callum obey the rules.  As she grows closer to him, she has even more reason for wanting him to obey.  HARC will order Wren to eliminate Callum if he continues to step out of line.  They really make a perfect couple.  They are so sweet and adorable together, and they make each other better.

I really loved the world in this story.  I thought the concept of Reboots was interesting, and I liked how the numbers affected if the Reboot ended up being more or less human-like.  The idea of HARC making the Reboots into slaves was a fascinating idea as well.  In the story, we got to learn what was being done to the under-sixties by HARC.  I think it will be interesting to find out more about life on the Reboot reservation in the next book.

If you like YA dystopian, read this book.

Katie