Enders by Lissa Price
Genre: Sci-Fi, Dsytopia
Published by: Delcorte Press
Pages: 288
Format: e-book
Rating: ★★
Series: Starters (#1)

I have to say that I was slightly confused upon starting Enders since it’s been such a long time since I read Starters. I couldn’t quite remember who the main character was outside of her enhanced body and how was the evil again? Why is this Old Man’s voice in her head? This book didn’t do a great job of quickly summarising the first book, but eventually I found my way back.

Enders was a whirlwind of action and accusations. It nicely tied up any loose ends, and desperately tried to answer any of our lingering questions. It was quite a bit different from Starters and didn’t have that same contemporary/sci-fi blend that I love so much.

I don’t think Enders was as character based as its predecessor, it certainly didn’t go out of its way to create new relationships, or even develop much on the ones already established. Where was Michael, where was the tense love triangle? (Although I don’t lament that loss too much!) I though Michael was going to turn into a major love interest, and as for Blake, there was promise there too. Neither of these developments came to much and romantic undertones were definitely missing. Unless you count Hayden, which I don’t, because it was completely ridiculous.

The main mystery of this book is who is the Old Man? Oh, and what ever happened to Callie’s dad? I wish I could say that I didn’t see either of these answers coming, but to be honest, they were pretty predictable. Also, Emma. What was the point of that arc? It came to nothing and was underwhelming anyway. I never got a sense that Callie was overly invested in her new objectives, and as a result, neither was I!

Callie also seems to try and become the face of a rebellion and I was so frustrated that she thought it was her personal responsibility to save the world? Where did this come from? The whole saving the kids thing seemed way too easy and the ending was probably too neat for my liking. The world building wasn’t great and there could’ve been a much more diverse range of characters, but if you can forgive a few things then it’s only a duology and probably worth investing the time in – or at least the first one is…