Reading Response #1: Starters

 

In a future Los Angeles, sixteen-year-old Callie discovers the body bank. Seniors from all over rent the bodies of teenagers so they can feel young again. Callie realizes that not everything is as it seems, and is wrapped up in a plan that is much larger than the want for a carefree lifestyle.

This book begs the question “What is the value of a life?” or “What is considered murder?”

                                “If you or I are in someone’s body, it means that girl will never get a break. It’s not like she’s out for a month and then gets her life back. She’ll never know what it’s like to go to college, fall in love, get married, have children. You might have those experiences –again- but she won’t. Her brain will be asleep- forever.” (Page 209)

As the story progressed, I didn’t think twice that the teens were selling their lives. Even more so, I never stopped to think that people were purchasing lives.

In the story, Callie is in a unique situation in which her renter can communicate through her thoughts. She learns about her renters story and begins to question her motives as well as the body banks.  Callie begins to wonder which side is the good side.

I related this story to a movie I saw as a kid. Howl’s Moving Castle is an animated Japanese film where the main character, Sophie, is turned into a 90-year-old woman by the Witch of the Waste. She travels with Howl, Markl, and Calcifer, the fire demon, to find a way to break her curse. Sophie, like Callie, can still think freely and has to go through an adventure to get her original body back.

 

 

Starters is so far one of my favorite gateways this year. Overall the book was fast paced and very well balanced. It had the perfect amount of slow, thinking moments and packed, heavy moments. There were surprises and plot twists all along the way, but I was happy to see where the book brought me in the end. The book was genuinely interesting and thought provoking.  It’s almost hard for me to move on to a new book after I’ve had the taste of this one.