Review: Uninvited

UNINVITED
Uninvited #1
Sophie Jordan
Young Adult/Dystopian
384 pages
HarperTeen
Available Now
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

MY THOUGHTS
Uninvited is a story that forces us to ask ourselves difficult questions; questions as to whether or not we would simply believe what we're told or if we'd dare to go against the grain and see things from an angle of our own choosing. Protagonist Davy's world and her government present us with a much darker version of the chicken or the egg question: Are those with the Homicidal Tendency Syndrome gene monsters receiving their due punishment in order to protect society, or through an unjust punishment are monsters being created? Those in power would have everyone believe the former, but as readers seeing things through young Davy's eyes we can't help but consider the latter, knowing full well that any person, no matter their genetic makeup, is capable of violence under the right circumstances. Ms. Jordan does a beautiful job of ensuring we never get too comfortable with our stance however, our confidence that nature has nothing on nurture shaken a number of times as those with the HTS gene prove themselves to be what everyone already believes, but questioning ourselves at every turn is what keeps us riveted throughout, hoping for the best yet fearing the worst.

Davy is that wonderful type of character who undergoes substantial growth mentally and emotionally as the story progresses, starting out content to believe the HTS propaganda and feeling safe with the knowledge she'll never have reason to think otherwise. When her DNA test results reveal her as a carrier though, we have the pleasure of watching as Davy slowly begins to wonder just how accurate a predictor of violence the gene truly is, forced to see the people themselves through the label with which they're burdened. She clings to the idea that she is an aberration initially, a single mistaken diagnosis in a sea of dangerous criminals, but we can hardly blame her for her denial in the beginning, sure that our minds would be singling us out as flaws in the system as well. Luckily, she doesn't drown herself in denial for long, moving forward slowly but surely into a grim acceptance of her new life, and then finally into the much stronger mindset in which she sets out to prove who she is cannot be dictated by a single gene.

The romance between Davy and fellow carrier Sean is beautifully executed, things between them so very fragile in the weeks following Davy's DNA test as she struggles to reconcile everything she's believed with what she now knows to be true. Their relationship is an important part of the story but it's also stunningly subtle, never hijacking the focus and allowing Davy and her progression to remain the highlight throughout. Their moments together are painful and raw, and though we instantly like Sean for the protectiveness that fairly radiates from him, we don't know all that much about him in the end, something that proves to be a positive rather than a negative. Knowing all Sean's secrets would ruin the mystery of who he really is and what he did to earn himself an imprint, but instead what we're left with is endless possibility; the chance for us as readers to fill in the blanks and make Sean what we ourselves most want him to be, and it's in this gray area between being in the dark and fully informed that Sean truly shines.

Overall, Uninvited is a dark and at times deeply moving start to this new series by Ms. Jordan, our minds forced to work overtime as numerous moral and ethical dilemmas are laid out before us in brutal detail, begging us to weigh in and challenging us at every turn. We're left not necessarily with a cliffhanger per se, it's more of an abrupt halt to the action that has us wishing this series could have magically been made into a one thousand-plus page book rather than several multi-hundred page ones. Though it is a bit of a sudden stop, it's also a very logical place for the break between books to be, so we find ourselves content to step away from Davy and Sean even as we greatly anticipate returning to them in the sequel.

Rating: 4/5
 

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This book was sent to me by the publisher free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.