Review: Reboot

Author: Amy Tintera
Date of Publication: May 7, 2013
Pages: 365
Source: Library

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.

AMAZON/ GOODREADS

Review:
When I first caught wind of Reboot, it's an understatement to say that I was excited. I told everyone who asked about this epic new terminator-esque book. For the most part, Reboot lived up to the hype but not fully.

In a war-torn and disease ridden future Texas, Reboots are a common occurrence; a side-effect of a disease that has wiped out the rest of the states. Reboots are people who rise from the dead, but all at different times. The minutes between death and rebooting dictates the amount of humanity left. Wren 178 is a Reboot; she was dead for 178 minutes and she has no more humanity left (or so she says). Enter Callum 22, the lowest number, but somehow he gets Wren's attention. After a series of events, Wren is left with the decision; Callum's life for hers as she knows it.

I introduced the book previously as 'terminator-esque' and it was to a degree, which worked out quite well for it. I love the idea of people rebooting from the dead and the response that they would get from the humans. To be honest, the book had everything going for it: it had a great new idea, plot and possible characters, but it failed to deliver.

We read about this mysterious corporation, HARC, that acts as the government of this post-apocalyptic world but I found the amount of history offered insufficient. I still have questions in my mind. "Why are there Reboots? Why was there a Reboot War? How did Reboots go from warring to serving?" Maybe Tintera plans on answering all these questions in her future books, but it took away from this one as I felt like the explanations didn't keep up with the story.

On the other hand, what really dampened the read for me was Wren and Callum. Wren is introduced as 178, the strongest, least emotional and all in all, badass reboot. Yet, somehow within five minutes of meeting Callum, a 22 no less, she is blushing, displaying emotions, and disobeying orders. I found her to be really inconsistent. She kept talking about how tough and asexual she was, then Callum would look at her and she would start blushing. As for Callum, I personally did not like him. I found him to be really average and uninteresting. I didn't see what Wren saw in him and their relationship felt like it popped out of nowhere. More specifically, he had no personality. We get that he is supposed to be righteous but his one liners, "No, I won't do it!", got annoying fast. How did he see his refusal of a direct order as righteous when he was putting other people in danger in his pursuit to not let "them" change him.

Reboot was an action book with lots of great action scenes and adventures but the romance got in the way. It was uninteresting, meaningless and unnecessary. They would be running for their lives and hiding somewhere and then all of the sudden they were kissing. This is one of the few books in which I disliked the romance. I usually think of romance as the cherry on top of the cake. That cherry was present but it was not edible

Overall, Reboot was a great new action packed dystopian but the characters and relationships fell flat. It was still enjoyable for the most part and I can see why many enjoyed it. I personally wouldn't recommend it but we all have different opinions, so if you like action, adventure, undead soldiers, and romance then this could be the book for you.

-MARI