Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Title: Reboot

Author: Amy Tintera

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: 5.7.2013

Pages: 352

Genre: SciFi

Series: Reboot #1

Source: ARC from publisher

Rating: A-

Summary (from Goodreads):

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.

Review:

Hold onto your seats kids, because this is one of the best rides I’ve been on in a long time. In her debut novel, Amy Tintera blew me away. Reboot is the book I feel like I’ve been searching for, and now I finally have it. I’m kind of in love with the (fictional) idea of super soldiers and have been for quite some time.

Wren took a bit of getting used to. I warmed to her as she warmed as a person. Rule of thumb is that the longer you’re dead (Wren was dead 178 minutes) the less human you are when you reboot. Wren is the soldier with the longest reboot time and believes herself to be almost completely inhuman, without emotion or empathy. Watching her discover she not only feels but feel intensely and deeply was fascinating and wonderful.

And Callum. How I love Callum. This is the boy that makes Wren realize she isn’t a mindless soldier, but still a person with opinions and morals and feelings. He is painfully, beautifully, still human and I was immediately drawn to him and his dual strength and compassion.

Tintera does a superb job of revealing enough information to keep the reader satisfied while simultaneously piquing their curiosity about the reboots and the facility their housed in. She sets up the entire series in book one, and I cannot wait to see how everything unfolds for the rest of the series.

While the end might be construed as somewhat of a cliffhanger, it felt more like a solid end of book 1. I could almost hear a director yell, “Scene!” from the sidelines as the curtain shut. This story is far from over, and I cannot wait to see where this goes next and what happens to the Reboots. Thankfully I didn’t have the same sharp sense of panic I frequently have at the conclusion of the first book in a series. Tintera clearly cares about the sanity of her readers and I love her all the more for it.

Buy: Amazon | The Book Depository

Reviewer: Hannah