Review: Altered by Jennifer Rush

Hardcover, 336 pages
Expected Publication: January 2, 2013 by Little, Brown & Co.

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When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?
Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them.
Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.
Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

First and foremost, I don’t think the cover fits the story. Yes, there is a hot shirtless guy, and yes the trees are symbolic. However, in my opinion it makes it seem as if this is a more….boyish story. When in reality, it’s basically your typical girl fawning over the male lead for the majority of the book.

Altered started out strong. It begins with a lot of unanswered questions and I was engrossed while finding the answers. However, the second half of the book kind of went downhill for me, and I found myself not finding much of it believable.

I’m still unclear on the point of the altering, and I’m not sure this is something I want to wait to find out in a sequel. It’s an important part of the world that Rush has built, and I still don’t see the purpose. I think this should have been addressed more clearly. I also think their “connection” is kind of rocky and could have used some ironing out, or further explanation.

I never really felt a connection between Sam and Anna, and I didn’t care much for either of them as characters. I couldn’t figure out what exactly made Anna so obsessed with Sam, or if Sam even liked her at all. There wasn’t much romance, despite Anna’s feelings being in our faces all the time, and I wished we could have seen more one on one interaction between the two of them.

I really liked the other boys. Their interaction was the best part of the story, I think. Cas and Nick were probably my favorites, but I don’t like the fact that neither of the two characters who actually had personality were the leading characters.

There were a lot of other issues I had with the story. Some things don’t add up, there are small details that are unbelievable, and I thought there were some plot devices that were completely unnecessary. However, despite all of my issues with Altered, it was a quick read and it was engrossing. There are a lot of twists and non-stop action. I couldn’t put it down, and I do recommend people give it a shot.

3/5 Stars