Book Review: Reboot

Alright, so I bought Reboot quite a while ago, but I hadn’t had the chance to read it until now. Now I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner. Without further ado, here is...
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.
Series: Reboot, #1
Age: 14 years and up
Review: 5 butterflies
Reboot starts off en medias res, which is one of my favorite ways of beginning a book. Wren is on assignment, which means she’s doing the HARC’s—the government’s—dirty work, bringing what the HARC deems a “criminal.” She’s emotionless and follows all orders, because that’s what she’s been trained to do. It also helps that she’s a 178, which means she was dead for one-hundred seventy-eight minutes before she “rebooted.”

You see, the cool (and extremely original) thing about this book is that some humans—mostly young ones—die and, if they had the KDH virus at some point in their lives, they reboot. Reboots are faster, stronger, and heal quicker than humans, but there’s a catch. They feel less emotion than humans do. In other words, they’re less human. The more time between your death and your reboot, the less human you are. Because of this, humans shunned them and the HARC made them into their little soldiers. Humans are still terrified of Reboots, but because of the fact that they outweigh Reboots in number, they have control over them.

For now.

That’s when the story comes in. Wren is the highest number Reboot, which means she’s special to the HARC. She’s stronger, faster, and less human than any other Reboot, which makes her the perfect soldier. She never questions orders, and why should she? The HARC has given her a better life than she had as a child.

Wren is really relatable, which is funny to say because she’s supposed to be the least human out of all of the characters. But she’s been trained to be less human, trained to kill without thought, and trained to stamp down any emotion she does have. I can completely understand why she does what she does, and I never once judge her. Her backstory is truly devastating, and I love that she isn’t perfect—that she has issues—because it makes her even more realistic.

Callum is a 22. This means he’s practically still human, which makes him undesirable to the HARC, but they still give him a shot. He’s essentially the comic relief of the whole novel, as well as the spark that lit the fire under Wren. Because of Callum, Wren is beginning to question the HARC, as well as wonder if she’s doing the right thing. However, when one of Wren’s friends suffers the consequences of the HARC’s choices, Wren must face a difficult choice that will change her life and many others around her.

I loved the characters in this novel. They were all extremely relatable, and it was super interesting to see the humans as the “bad guys” in this novel, while the Reboots were just victims in everything. Some humans are okay, like Len, but others are downright despicable and believe all the lies the HARC ever told them. All of the characters’ backstories—Wren’s especially—made them truly three-dimensional, which is something I definitely love in a novel.

I found myself not wanting to stop reading and constantly turning the pages to see what happened next. The book was action-packed, but not to an extreme, which allowed me to keep reading hours at a time. Tintera truly found a way to balance everything in the novel, which made for a fantastic read. I definitely look forward to any more novels of hers.

Though this book is part of a series, it doesn’t end in a true cliffhanger. Some might still want to know what happens, but I found myself perfectly satisfied with the ending this novel had. I will still be on the lookout for the next books in the series, but it’s not completely necessary if you feel comfortable with the ending.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone who loves science fiction, action, relatable characters, and romance. Even if you generally don’t like romance, I still recommend this book for you, because there are still enough of other elements to not make this a romance novel, but the romance is an important factor in it. In general, if you like losing yourself in a book, this book is for you.
Book links: Goodreads * Amazon * B&N * IndieBound

Yours,

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