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Corpus #1
Origin
Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home―and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.
Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin―a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.
Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.
Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin―a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.
Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.
395 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2012
382 people are currently reading
23443 people want to read
About the author
Jessica Khoury
25 books2,681 followersJessica Khoury wrote her first book at age 4, a fan fic sequel to Syd Hoff's Danny and the Dinosaur, which she scribbled on notebook paper, stapled together, and placed on the bookshelf of her preschool classroom. Since that day, she's dreamed of being an author.
When not writing, Jess enjoys spending time with family, playing video games, and oil and watercolor painting. She is also a professional mapmaker, and spends far too much time scribbling tiny trees and mountains for fictional worlds.
Jess currently lives in Greenville, South Carolina. She is the author of the Corpus trilogy, The Forbidden Wish, Last of Her Name, and The Mystwick School of Musicraft.
When not writing, Jess enjoys spending time with family, playing video games, and oil and watercolor painting. She is also a professional mapmaker, and spends far too much time scribbling tiny trees and mountains for fictional worlds.
Jess currently lives in Greenville, South Carolina. She is the author of the Corpus trilogy, The Forbidden Wish, Last of Her Name, and The Mystwick School of Musicraft.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,990 reviews
August 13, 2012
There are a lot of things I expected from Origin. Mystery, a jungle backdrop and even a bit of romance. But, wow. I did not expect to be grabbing the edge of my seat, turning page after page in anticipation. However, this novel is not for the faint of heart due to a few shocking scenes. But carefully placed gentler moments are woven in with the call of the jungle. Between the bitter-sweet blossom of first love and the nail-biting storyline, I was robbed of precious sleep... I was captivated.
The Characters:
Pia, our main character, is immortal. She was created and raised by a group of scientist with the intent to create a new human race at any cost. Nothing can pierce her skin. She has heightened hearing, sight, smell and speed. At first glance it may seem like she's just going to turn out to be your run of the mill Mary Sue, but Pia has her weakness, normal strength and endurance along with her stubbornness that at times really frustrated me, but I enjoyed seeing her grow. She lives a very sheltered life because she has never left Little Cam and she is curious about the outside world. Unfortunately, the scientist never allow her to know anything about the world. She's never seen a map, TV, Internet, heard music, etc. She's been told that all those things are a distraction from her destiny: To create even more immortals like her for the betterment of the human race. And for a time she believes them until one day an opportunity presents itself, she explores the jungle and meets Eio, who makes her completely question everything she has been taught.
Speaking of Eio, when we are first introduced to him he immediately reminded me of someone. Remember Mimi-Siku, A.K.A. "Cat Piss", from Jungle 2 Jungle?
Eio, the love interest, jungle boy, half Ai'oan. He's honest and kind. And unlike Pia, he sees the danger of Little Cam and urges her to abandon the facility. Even when she resists over and over, determined to remain there, he doesn't abandon her. He shows her things she's never seen, things that don't fit into her perceived perfect, scientific ideals. And while he does make a statement early on that could be seen as misogynistic (telling Pia she needed a big strong man to walk her through the jungle), to me it felt more like him trying to make a good impression and be chivalrous. He's from a culture that is virtually cut off from modern society (Little Cambridge excluded), so the intention of the statement never felt insulting. I could always tell he truly cared about her. Every time Eio spoke to Pia, I could hear Mimi's voice in my head. I could just picture his raw, honest facial expressions behind every sentence. They were so simple, but so much emotion was packed into it.
"I will climb that fence, if you ask it of me, and I will bring you out."
Romance:
This was an interesting reading journey for me because Origin technically has a big thing that I usually hate in books: Insta-love. I can only remember one other book where it didn't bother me and that was Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Tayler, which I LOVED. Books like these really affirm my belief that there isn't necessarily anything *wrong* with a story that features fast building love as long as the relationship is believable to the reader. For me it was. Even though the book does take place in perhaps a little over a week, it felt much longer than that. Pia and Eio meet in a very unique circumstance so it's hard to compare their courtship to, say, Patch and Nora of Hush, Hush. -_- Because unlike other YA couples, I felt that Eio and Pia really loved each other.
I think a big part of me believing in the romance was due to Khoury's prose. The scenes between Pia and Eio were delicately crafted and I'm a sucker for pretty prose. It wasn't the dreaded purple prose. It was simple and its subtlety in the heat of the moment had me feeling some kinda way.
I think of my eternal people. Of brothers and sisters and friends who will never die. An immortal family, untouched by pain and death, knowing only life and love and beauty. I try to imagine it, try to see their faces in my mind... but all I see is a blue-eyed boy sitting by the river, giving me the stars.
It was like watching Mimi-Siku giving Karen the pot. *wipes tear*
World building:
The beginning of Origin definitely sets the tone for the rest of the book and if the first scene bothers you, chances are this book will not be for you. There are a few animal testing scenes where animals are harmed. But the general tone of the MC and book was that this was frowned upon so it wasn't endorsed. But since Pia lives in that kind of environment where the scientist are looking for immortality, it makes sense that they would have animal test subjects. Pia hated that they ran those tests on animals and never wanted to be apart of it. Nevertheless, it is there and it is disturbing.
I love when I can tell that an author has done their homework and Khoury did just that. The Amazonian rainforest is well-developed and vivid. You can see the detail used especially when plants and insects are described. At one point I had to google one of the insects mention, the titan beetle (don't click the link if you are squeamish), and then I was like:
*shudders* I'll never look at a beetle the same way again.
By the end of Origin I realized something about myself. I often complain and complain about how standalones are almost non-existent in YA Land, but this time I actually found myself wishing it was a series. The jungle was done with me, but I wasn't done with the jungle. So if you are looking for a Sci-Fi type mystery, I'd say give Origin a try. It just might surprise you.
ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review. Thank you, Razorbill!
More reviews and other fantastical things at Cuddlebuggery Book Blog.
February 20, 2013
It's done? It's finally fucking done?
Thank god.
Now, die book.
Wanna know why I despised this book so much? Check my status updates below for more info. Nearly everything that I hated about it is there.
Thank god.
Now, die book.
Wanna know why I despised this book so much? Check my status updates below for more info. Nearly everything that I hated about it is there.
Read
November 6, 2015I had the opportunity to blurb this book. Here it is.
ORIGIN is a startling mystery played out in the vivid and lush Amazon jungle. In this deadly clash of science and nature, a heroine emerges. Pia clawed her way through the pages and left her mark on the landscape of my imagination as the almost tangible danger left me breathless.
ORIGIN is a startling mystery played out in the vivid and lush Amazon jungle. In this deadly clash of science and nature, a heroine emerges. Pia clawed her way through the pages and left her mark on the landscape of my imagination as the almost tangible danger left me breathless.
December 4, 2013
Originally reviewed on A Reader of Fictions.
You guys, I have been so excited to read Origin. Unfortunately, just because I think a book sounds awesome does not mean that it actually will be. Sadly, I found Origin to be an entirely disappointing read for me, full of mistreatment of animal, bitching, and unsurprising plot twists.
Origin kicks off with animal torture. Yup. They believe in animal testing in Little Cam, the scientific community where Pia has lived all of her life. In the first chapter, she and Uncle Paolo (not really her uncle, but she calls everyone there Uncle or Aunt, since they all aided in her creation) put a sparrow through a cruel test. This is not the last instance of animal abuse in the book. If you're an animal lover, be warned that this book will make you extra super sad. I didn't like that and it set the tone for the novel.
The next thing that turned me off to Origin was Pia, our heroine. In novels, so much hinges on one's relationship to the main characters; there are some authors that can interest you in horrible characters, but that is rare and difficult to do. In theory, Pia is just the kind of person I would totally want to read about, since she, through the power of scientific inquiry, has been rendered immortal. Blades cannot cut her and she has crazy stamina. I love people with powers, people beyond human.
However, the scientists raised Pia for all of her seventeen years telling her how perfect she is. Well, after being told that for so long, she believes it, and acts accordingly. Perfect Pia is, in my opinion, a perfectly pretentious prat. Ugh. I just wanted to slap her for the whole of the opening of the novel. After helping with the torture/research of the sparrow and constantly thinking about how completely gorgeous and wonderful she is, Pia's little paradise is thrown into chaos with the arrival of a new female scientist. Pia immediately hates this woman for being too alluring and taking attention away from Pia. She refers to the woman as Dr. Klutz for half the book, even though the doctor has done nothing to garner her hatred. Later that night, at the fancy birthday party she insisted upon, Pia is upset that everyone's dancing but her, even though she turns down an offer to dance with someone she deems unworthy.
Pia is, simply put, one of the snottiest heroines I have encountered. Though she does grow up through the book, her transformation did not balance out my hatred for her earlier self. Honestly, if I didn't feel compelled to finish this for reviewing reasons, I might have DNFed. Another annoying habit of Pia's is her habit of referring to Wild Pia, her internal self that wants to go crazy in the jungle and reminded me unfavorably of 50 Shades' inner goddess.
Things got worse during the initial scenes after she met her love interest, aka the only boy her age she has EVER MET IN HER LIFE. Sorry if I don't swoon over the romance when she LITERALLY has never had any other options. Her standards are pretty low at this point. Anyway, they meet and she says racist things, assuming he's an idiot because he's a native, and he says sexist things, because she's a girl, AND EVERYONE'S OKAY WITH THAT. Except for me. Here's a sample (though keep in mind that this comes from the ARC and could be changed in the final version):
"'How do you know English? Uncle Paolo told me you natives were ignorant about everything outside your own villages.'
'I'm not ignorant,' Eio objects. 'It is you who are ignorant, Pia bird. My father taught me English.'"
And a bit later, misogyny:
"'I will take you back,' Eio announces, rising to his feet.
'I can find the way,' I say.
'I will take you back,' he repeats in a firmer tone. 'It's not good for a woman to walk alone in the jungle without a man to protect her.'
He thinks I'm a woman. I stand a little taller. 'Well, all right. If you want.'"
So now, they've bonded and she still is judging him:
"I feel like I've discovered some fascinating new species. Homo ferus: wild human. An unpredictable, nocturnal creature usually found in trees. Caution: may cause bewilderment and disorientation. Also, prone to teasing."
Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but since I don't tend to be the most touchy or PC person in the world, I'm guessing that some other readers will probably be irritated by these exchanges as well. I just found most of the book to be in rather poor taste, and the characters, at best, to be meh. I had very little interest in Eio or anyone else.
The bad guys and the good guys were clearly demarcated from the very beginning with no surprises. Everything was completely black and white, so things that should have been twists I saw coming from a long way off.
As far the dystopian stuff goes, it's definitely not especially dystopian. It's more dystopian in a microcosm. Certainly, Pia has discovered that her little world might not be what she always thought it was. There is some hinting that perhaps the corporation involved controls governments too, so it could be large-scale dystopian, but the focus is really on Pia (no wonder she's so vain) and not so much on the dystopian elements.
Despite all of that, I'm sure some people will enjoy this book, but it was not for me. I would probably be willing to try another Khoury book down the road, assuming I heard good things about the heroine. If you think you can handle Pia, then you might want to try Origin; if she sounds awful to you too, you may want to pass on this one.
You guys, I have been so excited to read Origin. Unfortunately, just because I think a book sounds awesome does not mean that it actually will be. Sadly, I found Origin to be an entirely disappointing read for me, full of mistreatment of animal, bitching, and unsurprising plot twists.
Origin kicks off with animal torture. Yup. They believe in animal testing in Little Cam, the scientific community where Pia has lived all of her life. In the first chapter, she and Uncle Paolo (not really her uncle, but she calls everyone there Uncle or Aunt, since they all aided in her creation) put a sparrow through a cruel test. This is not the last instance of animal abuse in the book. If you're an animal lover, be warned that this book will make you extra super sad. I didn't like that and it set the tone for the novel.
The next thing that turned me off to Origin was Pia, our heroine. In novels, so much hinges on one's relationship to the main characters; there are some authors that can interest you in horrible characters, but that is rare and difficult to do. In theory, Pia is just the kind of person I would totally want to read about, since she, through the power of scientific inquiry, has been rendered immortal. Blades cannot cut her and she has crazy stamina. I love people with powers, people beyond human.
However, the scientists raised Pia for all of her seventeen years telling her how perfect she is. Well, after being told that for so long, she believes it, and acts accordingly. Perfect Pia is, in my opinion, a perfectly pretentious prat. Ugh. I just wanted to slap her for the whole of the opening of the novel. After helping with the torture/research of the sparrow and constantly thinking about how completely gorgeous and wonderful she is, Pia's little paradise is thrown into chaos with the arrival of a new female scientist. Pia immediately hates this woman for being too alluring and taking attention away from Pia. She refers to the woman as Dr. Klutz for half the book, even though the doctor has done nothing to garner her hatred. Later that night, at the fancy birthday party she insisted upon, Pia is upset that everyone's dancing but her, even though she turns down an offer to dance with someone she deems unworthy.
Pia is, simply put, one of the snottiest heroines I have encountered. Though she does grow up through the book, her transformation did not balance out my hatred for her earlier self. Honestly, if I didn't feel compelled to finish this for reviewing reasons, I might have DNFed. Another annoying habit of Pia's is her habit of referring to Wild Pia, her internal self that wants to go crazy in the jungle and reminded me unfavorably of 50 Shades' inner goddess.
Things got worse during the initial scenes after she met her love interest, aka the only boy her age she has EVER MET IN HER LIFE. Sorry if I don't swoon over the romance when she LITERALLY has never had any other options. Her standards are pretty low at this point. Anyway, they meet and she says racist things, assuming he's an idiot because he's a native, and he says sexist things, because she's a girl, AND EVERYONE'S OKAY WITH THAT. Except for me. Here's a sample (though keep in mind that this comes from the ARC and could be changed in the final version):
"'How do you know English? Uncle Paolo told me you natives were ignorant about everything outside your own villages.'
'I'm not ignorant,' Eio objects. 'It is you who are ignorant, Pia bird. My father taught me English.'"
And a bit later, misogyny:
"'I will take you back,' Eio announces, rising to his feet.
'I can find the way,' I say.
'I will take you back,' he repeats in a firmer tone. 'It's not good for a woman to walk alone in the jungle without a man to protect her.'
He thinks I'm a woman. I stand a little taller. 'Well, all right. If you want.'"
So now, they've bonded and she still is judging him:
"I feel like I've discovered some fascinating new species. Homo ferus: wild human. An unpredictable, nocturnal creature usually found in trees. Caution: may cause bewilderment and disorientation. Also, prone to teasing."
Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but since I don't tend to be the most touchy or PC person in the world, I'm guessing that some other readers will probably be irritated by these exchanges as well. I just found most of the book to be in rather poor taste, and the characters, at best, to be meh. I had very little interest in Eio or anyone else.
The bad guys and the good guys were clearly demarcated from the very beginning with no surprises. Everything was completely black and white, so things that should have been twists I saw coming from a long way off.
As far the dystopian stuff goes, it's definitely not especially dystopian. It's more dystopian in a microcosm. Certainly, Pia has discovered that her little world might not be what she always thought it was. There is some hinting that perhaps the corporation involved controls governments too, so it could be large-scale dystopian, but the focus is really on Pia (no wonder she's so vain) and not so much on the dystopian elements.
Despite all of that, I'm sure some people will enjoy this book, but it was not for me. I would probably be willing to try another Khoury book down the road, assuming I heard good things about the heroine. If you think you can handle Pia, then you might want to try Origin; if she sounds awful to you too, you may want to pass on this one.
August 3, 2012
3.5 stars Liked this one overall, though I wish some things had been fleshed out a little better. Also, if you're going to have a pet jaguar, I think you should at least ride him at some point. I would!
Review to come.
Review to come.
August 28, 2012
Reminiscent of Lost, Origin takes place in the Amazon Rainforest where scientists are experimenting, and Pia is their most prized subject. Born and raised in a small secret village, Pia has never left the compound, has never seen anything other than the same old faces, the same old sterile labs and homes... until now.
Fascinating in itself, this story is told in a wonderfully vivid setting that sets the perfect mood for the reclusiveness of this secret scientific project. I can't say that I'm very familiar with that part of the world, and I think this fact played a large part in how mesmerizing it was for me. Exotic animals, plants, and cultures create an atmosphere that is both unique and enchanting. The jungle is not just the setting, it's an ambiance with sounds, smells, visualizations that come alive when you're reading this book. Then, when you add hidden laboratories and secret experiments, it compels you even further. When I wasn't immersed in the beauty of the Rainforest, I was contemplating the secrets and lies that run rampant within it. This encompasses immortality, science, magic, forbidden romance, betrayals, conspiracies, and evil plans, which are sure ways to create an exciting plot; Origin is definitely no exception.
Fast paced and energetic, the plot in Origin is set at just the right pace to keep you vigilant, while letting you absorb and savor the atmosphere. Pia, our protagonist, is a very peculiar character; her evident naiveté, lack of experience, and -- surprisingly for someone immortal -- vulnerability, would usually make for an unlikeable character, but because of her circumstance I found her quite compelling. Although I won't admit to being completely in tune with her, she provoked a lot of wonderment and thought about her situation and what it would be like to know you will outlive everyone you love. Soon, she meets a native outside the fence - a boy named Eio (do not ask me to pronounce this, it sounds like I stubbed my toe O_O). Raised in the jungle, Eio is much more suited for the outdoors than Pia; he's resourceful and strong. I liked him as a character. I didn't find he and Pia had a whole lot of chemistry flowing between them, though. They develop a relationship that progresses fairly quickly; before I had time to register their attraction for each other, they were already falling in love. I never felt it, this alleged burning affection. Still, it was cute, it was definitely cute, maybe even sweet.
Overall, with an incredibly beautiful and imaginative setting, Origin's enticing premise is sure to captivate fans of science fiction/fantasy. Plus, it's all in a fabulous standalone self!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
Fascinating in itself, this story is told in a wonderfully vivid setting that sets the perfect mood for the reclusiveness of this secret scientific project. I can't say that I'm very familiar with that part of the world, and I think this fact played a large part in how mesmerizing it was for me. Exotic animals, plants, and cultures create an atmosphere that is both unique and enchanting. The jungle is not just the setting, it's an ambiance with sounds, smells, visualizations that come alive when you're reading this book. Then, when you add hidden laboratories and secret experiments, it compels you even further. When I wasn't immersed in the beauty of the Rainforest, I was contemplating the secrets and lies that run rampant within it. This encompasses immortality, science, magic, forbidden romance, betrayals, conspiracies, and evil plans, which are sure ways to create an exciting plot; Origin is definitely no exception.
Fast paced and energetic, the plot in Origin is set at just the right pace to keep you vigilant, while letting you absorb and savor the atmosphere. Pia, our protagonist, is a very peculiar character; her evident naiveté, lack of experience, and -- surprisingly for someone immortal -- vulnerability, would usually make for an unlikeable character, but because of her circumstance I found her quite compelling. Although I won't admit to being completely in tune with her, she provoked a lot of wonderment and thought about her situation and what it would be like to know you will outlive everyone you love. Soon, she meets a native outside the fence - a boy named Eio (do not ask me to pronounce this, it sounds like I stubbed my toe O_O). Raised in the jungle, Eio is much more suited for the outdoors than Pia; he's resourceful and strong. I liked him as a character. I didn't find he and Pia had a whole lot of chemistry flowing between them, though. They develop a relationship that progresses fairly quickly; before I had time to register their attraction for each other, they were already falling in love. I never felt it, this alleged burning affection. Still, it was cute, it was definitely cute, maybe even sweet.
Overall, with an incredibly beautiful and imaginative setting, Origin's enticing premise is sure to captivate fans of science fiction/fantasy. Plus, it's all in a fabulous standalone self!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
May 29, 2012
I was lucky to read an ARC of "Origin" but am unable to recommend this book.
Pia, a generically beautiful and "perfect" immortal has been raised in a science lab hidden in the Amazon jungle. She hopes to one day create her own race of immortal beings and have lifetime-long companions. When a hole in her electric fence appears, Pia enters the jungle for the first time and meets Eio, a beautiful indigenous teen who is the first person Pia has met who is her own age. While "Origin" has elements that flirt with dystopia, it's really a teen romance.
First time author, Jessica Khoury, packs some interesting ideas and good description here but I was dismayed by the flatness of her characters and unfortunate overtones of the "indigenous" people. How has Pia reached her 17th birthday without ever questioning her existence or her relationship to the outside world? Pia is surprisingly incurious and unintellectual for someone raised by with a cadre of brilliant scientists. Her passivity and naivety keeps the novel from delving deeply into some thought-provoking questions. Eio and his tribe are incredibly problematic as well. Not only is he a shirtless half-white/ half-native (more palatable than an all-native character?) teen but he is the only person Pia can talk to in the outside world. Khoury's reliance on stereotypical evil-corporate-scientists vs. moral-native-savages does her novel significant harm. This cultural insensitivity will keep "Origin" off my shelves.
Pia, a generically beautiful and "perfect" immortal has been raised in a science lab hidden in the Amazon jungle. She hopes to one day create her own race of immortal beings and have lifetime-long companions. When a hole in her electric fence appears, Pia enters the jungle for the first time and meets Eio, a beautiful indigenous teen who is the first person Pia has met who is her own age. While "Origin" has elements that flirt with dystopia, it's really a teen romance.
First time author, Jessica Khoury, packs some interesting ideas and good description here but I was dismayed by the flatness of her characters and unfortunate overtones of the "indigenous" people. How has Pia reached her 17th birthday without ever questioning her existence or her relationship to the outside world? Pia is surprisingly incurious and unintellectual for someone raised by with a cadre of brilliant scientists. Her passivity and naivety keeps the novel from delving deeply into some thought-provoking questions. Eio and his tribe are incredibly problematic as well. Not only is he a shirtless half-white/ half-native (more palatable than an all-native character?) teen but he is the only person Pia can talk to in the outside world. Khoury's reliance on stereotypical evil-corporate-scientists vs. moral-native-savages does her novel significant harm. This cultural insensitivity will keep "Origin" off my shelves.
September 11, 2012
Other than the prose, there is only one element of the book that was well-done: Pia. Her thoughts and emotions came across as very real, and never once did her actions feel forced.
But as for everything else? Ugh, where to begin? We'll start with Eio--a romantic hunk and too stupid to live. Sure, I get that he's in love, but some of his actions are just bona fide idiotic. And his conversations with Pia? The progression of dialogue is far from realistic. And it doesn't help that his community is full of the archetypical noble savages. None of the Ai'oans actually felt like real characters. Outside of their relationship to Pia, the scientists, and the mythical immortality-granting flower, these characters hardly seemed to have any identities of their own. Oh yeah, and the way they welcome Pia into their community as a savior, despite the fact that she's an outsider? They knew about the scientists' experiments on immortality flowers, as well the deep, dark secret behind that immortality. Their response to meeting her shouldn't have been "Oh, hey, an immortal girl came to save us!" I'm thinking something more along the lines of "Fuck, fuck, fuck. This girl was made immortal by crazy scientists who discovered the deep, dark secret!"
Oh, and speaking of crazy scientists, what's the deal with all of these books portraying researchers as cold, emotionless wannabe robots? Or at least that's what I thought by the end of the first chapter. But by the time I finished the book, it was very clear that the scientists here go beyond simply "cold." In fact, in order for Pia to become a scientist in the Immortis project, she has to pass what are called Wickham tests, which basically measure how much of a sociopath you are.
Some background on real-life scientists: We're not sociopaths. We're not emotionless eugenicists. We have quirks, feelings, and familial affections, and yes, we listen to music. Some of us are religious, and believe it or not, we even have morals! (Two of the principle investigators I have worked for were vegetarians, even though both worked in labs that performed research on animals.) And although we do kill and maim animals, we try to do it painlessly, and with a greater good in mind.
The scientists in Origin claim they follow a similar "ends justify the means" philosophy, but while the book makes it very clear what the "means" are, I'm a little hazy on the "ends." From the sound of it, all the Immortis project is meant to accomplish is to prove to the world that SCIENCE IZ TEH AWESOME. They will not be saving lives, curing diseases, or even making any money. (And this also brings up the question of why they need to create a whole race of immortals? Isn't just one immortal enough to suit their purposes?)
I expected this blog post to come out very angry like my Insurgent review did, (at least Insurgent tried to show examples of decent scientists) but the anger has passed and now all I'm left with is a feeling of puzzlement. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that somebody actually wrote this.
But while I'm at it, let me point out two more things: a) What's with delaying the big reveal? Sure, it's more dramatic, but would the characters actually do that? When I want to warn someone of great evil and impending doom, I don't get all cryptic about it. I give them the details, and I do so as quickly as possible. b) Pia can't bleed, but she can bruise--which doesn't make any sense, because bruises are caused by internal bleeding. c) I'm fairly certain Jessica Khoury has no idea what cerebral palsy is--a problem that could have been fixed with a two-minute Google search. (If you're really going to throw in a token fatal disease without doing any research, just use cancer.)
Don't waste your time on Origin. Or, if you insist on being masochistic, just get a copy from the library rather than spending actual money on this anti-intellectual tripe.
But as for everything else? Ugh, where to begin? We'll start with Eio--a romantic hunk and too stupid to live. Sure, I get that he's in love, but some of his actions are just bona fide idiotic. And his conversations with Pia? The progression of dialogue is far from realistic. And it doesn't help that his community is full of the archetypical noble savages. None of the Ai'oans actually felt like real characters. Outside of their relationship to Pia, the scientists, and the mythical immortality-granting flower, these characters hardly seemed to have any identities of their own. Oh yeah, and the way they welcome Pia into their community as a savior, despite the fact that she's an outsider? They knew about the scientists' experiments on immortality flowers, as well the deep, dark secret behind that immortality. Their response to meeting her shouldn't have been "Oh, hey, an immortal girl came to save us!" I'm thinking something more along the lines of "Fuck, fuck, fuck. This girl was made immortal by crazy scientists who discovered the deep, dark secret!"
Oh, and speaking of crazy scientists, what's the deal with all of these books portraying researchers as cold, emotionless wannabe robots? Or at least that's what I thought by the end of the first chapter. But by the time I finished the book, it was very clear that the scientists here go beyond simply "cold." In fact, in order for Pia to become a scientist in the Immortis project, she has to pass what are called Wickham tests, which basically measure how much of a sociopath you are.
Some background on real-life scientists: We're not sociopaths. We're not emotionless eugenicists. We have quirks, feelings, and familial affections, and yes, we listen to music. Some of us are religious, and believe it or not, we even have morals! (Two of the principle investigators I have worked for were vegetarians, even though both worked in labs that performed research on animals.) And although we do kill and maim animals, we try to do it painlessly, and with a greater good in mind.
The scientists in Origin claim they follow a similar "ends justify the means" philosophy, but while the book makes it very clear what the "means" are, I'm a little hazy on the "ends." From the sound of it, all the Immortis project is meant to accomplish is to prove to the world that SCIENCE IZ TEH AWESOME. They will not be saving lives, curing diseases, or even making any money. (And this also brings up the question of why they need to create a whole race of immortals? Isn't just one immortal enough to suit their purposes?)
I expected this blog post to come out very angry like my Insurgent review did, (at least Insurgent tried to show examples of decent scientists) but the anger has passed and now all I'm left with is a feeling of puzzlement. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that somebody actually wrote this.
But while I'm at it, let me point out two more things: a) What's with delaying the big reveal? Sure, it's more dramatic, but would the characters actually do that? When I want to warn someone of great evil and impending doom, I don't get all cryptic about it. I give them the details, and I do so as quickly as possible. b) Pia can't bleed, but she can bruise--which doesn't make any sense, because bruises are caused by internal bleeding. c) I'm fairly certain Jessica Khoury has no idea what cerebral palsy is--a problem that could have been fixed with a two-minute Google search. (If you're really going to throw in a token fatal disease without doing any research, just use cancer.)
Don't waste your time on Origin. Or, if you insist on being masochistic, just get a copy from the library rather than spending actual money on this anti-intellectual tripe.
August 26, 2012
Goodness! This was… Whoa!
Rating: 4.5 stars
Origin was… pretty spectacular!
It is hard to believe now, after I’m done, to think that I wasn’t even planning on reading it anytime soon. In fact I was completely skeptical towards it. I don’t know what it was, really, that made me hesitate. All I know is that after I saw the book trailer I thought: why not? I could give it a try. In fact, damn! It was a good book trailer, alright? It caught my attention and it got me to read the book, and I’m so very glad I did.
So, on to the book now.
Pia is perfect. She’s beautiful beyond belief, she’s incredibly intelligent, her skin is impenetrable, her memory flawless, her senses acute, and her life endless. Pia is immortal. The one and only of her kind. Humanity’s most precious possession. But she’s locked away.
She lives in a compound in the middle of the Amazon rainforest with a group of scientist, hidden away by the thickness of the forest. There, in Little Cam, they run tests after tests. Their goal: create a race of immortals, and Pia is the key to their success.
But they need her to be ready for the day she will run the place. She’s immortal, they are not. She’s the only chance they have of ever creating more like her. The thing is, she’s not ready. They run test after test on her. How good her senses are, how fast she can run, how much she can learn, and how emotionless she can be. Because that’s what they want of her, objectiveness, not an emotion driven creature. They need her to be undistracted.
And she complies. She does all the tests they want of her; she gives them all the answers she knows they want. But inside her head, inside her heart there’s another story.
She might have the intellect, but if you don’t give her something to learn, then it’s a waste. Pia might know every single tree species known by mankind; she may know every single plant in the forest by its scientific name. But that’s all she knows. She never left the compound; she has no knowledge of the outside world. She doesn’t know what cities are, she doesn’t know how big the planet is, she doesn’t know a shred of history. She never watched tv, or listened to music, she doesn't know about internet or cellphones. She knows nothing, and no one besides the scientist that created her, that raised her, and what they allow her to learn.
Pia doesn’t know better, so she complies. They are her family, what they say and do is all she knows. And as far she they tell her, it’s what’s right.
But there’s a war within her. She’s fighting against what she knows as right, and what she feels is so. She’s fighting against her need to go outside and discover the world. No! That’s wrong, you can’t do that! The rational part of her brain screams at her to stop thinking about it, she needs to focus on her dream, on her goal (but is it her goal?), create more immortals so she won’t be alone forever. But the other part of her is pushing, demanding attention and giving her the chance to know the outside world.
So when she sees a hole in the fence she let’s go of her rational side, and goes outside. Just for a little while, just a peek, she tells herself. There’s not much out there other than the forest anyway, or there wasn’t. Not until she runs into a boy.
I liked Pia for so many different reasons. She was strong, and even though she gave in sort of easily sometimes, she was determined, and kindhearted. I understood her, too. She had no one. Wait, she had her “family,” but knowing that at some point everyone you know will die and you will be left alone… well I would have done anything to have someone just like me, someone that could live forever too. But to do that Pia needed to know the secret, the secret behind Little Cam, the secret behind her origin.
How to do it, though? How to find the secrets when everyone around them was so keen on hiding them from her?
She had two choices. Either wait until she was ready, wait until they thought she was ready to know and so they would tell her. Or she could find them herself. A little help won’t hurt either.
Meet Eio. The jungle boy.
Uh, swoon? Hell yeah! Wait, I know ‘jungle boy’ might not sound so swoon worthy, but trust me he is. Oh, he is!
Eio lives in a nearby village called Ai'oa. Drawn by the sound of a jaguar deep into the forest, he follows the sound and runs into Pia. She’s beautiful, and so unlike anything he’s ever seen. You see, the thing is that Eio, in a way, is an outsider in his own village, just like her. He’s different, not the immortal kind of different, but still. He’s a part of the jungle, just as much as the jungle is a part of him. He blends in it, he breathes it. And he knows far more than he lets on.
So one night when he finds this beautiful girl wandering in the forest in a pretty dress, who knows nothing of his world he’s intent on showing it to her. He wants her to know everything she’s missing by living her life in a cage, because whether she sees it or not, that’s how she lives. And so a bond is formed.
I admit I found myself skimming through the pages at the beginning. I was an anxious (and a little impatiently bored) wreck for around seventy pages, until we meet Eio. No need to scold at me, though! I just wanted what the trailer had sold to me, and that was… well, Eio.
So. I was skimming through the pages, and waiting anxiously for Eio to show up. I think it (the bored/anxious part) might have been because of the science terminology and endless experiments. I despise biology, I truly do. It probably has to do with the fact that most my family is somehow involved with it, so I developed a bit of an aversion to it. Anyway. When he came along the story started getting exciting. And not only because he was there, mind you. But because the action was picking up, and yeah, Eio wasn’t on every scene, so no accusing me of anything here!
Boy! There was so much suspense in this book! I really wasn’t expecting that. The suspense and secrecy, the action and romance. It was so good! The last hundred pages were the hardest ever. Honestly, I didn’t expect this book to have me on edge for so long, nor did I expect it to make me gasp so much! It was crazy, and full of surprises!
Now, can we stop on the romance a little longer? I hope you don’t mind. Because… swoon. Eio was so sweet! So very sweet, and he had a way of saying things that just completely melted me. I was a giggling fool sometimes.
But then we have Pia and her need to push him away. She had a dream, a porpoise to fulfill, and she was really blind to what was happening around her. Well, she was seeing it, she just didn’t want to accept it; she didn’t want to believe it. And she knew she couldn’t have both, she would either stay in Little Cam to achieve her dream –whatever that entailed, or she would stay with Eio and the Ai'oans (that’s how people from Eio’s village are called), and discover a new life.
And I loved the fact that, even though she pushed him away –and broke my heart in the process –he never gave up on her. He had promised to protect her, and he would do everything in his power to keep his promise.
Origin is a very intense book. It has some strong scenes, scenes that were very difficult for me to read. It was frustrating and infuriating sometimes (mainly when the scientist where involved. I was surprised at the anger I felt towards them). It was sweet and heartwarming. It was filled with surprises and turns. It was fascinating.
If you’re anything like me, then I would encourage you to ignore whatever voice in your head that’s telling you not to read this book, because you won’t like it. Because if you’re anything like me, you’ll love it. It will break your heart and make you cry, it will surprise you and make you wish you could read faster. It will have you on edge and wide eyed. Because if you’re anything like me you’ll feel for this characters as they face their fears, as they face the truth, as they fall in love.
Because if you’re anything like me, you won’t let this book pass you by. It is definitely worth a try.
For this and more reviews please visit my blog.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Origin was… pretty spectacular!
It is hard to believe now, after I’m done, to think that I wasn’t even planning on reading it anytime soon. In fact I was completely skeptical towards it. I don’t know what it was, really, that made me hesitate. All I know is that after I saw the book trailer I thought: why not? I could give it a try. In fact, damn! It was a good book trailer, alright? It caught my attention and it got me to read the book, and I’m so very glad I did.
So, on to the book now.
Pia is perfect. She’s beautiful beyond belief, she’s incredibly intelligent, her skin is impenetrable, her memory flawless, her senses acute, and her life endless. Pia is immortal. The one and only of her kind. Humanity’s most precious possession. But she’s locked away.
She lives in a compound in the middle of the Amazon rainforest with a group of scientist, hidden away by the thickness of the forest. There, in Little Cam, they run tests after tests. Their goal: create a race of immortals, and Pia is the key to their success.
But they need her to be ready for the day she will run the place. She’s immortal, they are not. She’s the only chance they have of ever creating more like her. The thing is, she’s not ready. They run test after test on her. How good her senses are, how fast she can run, how much she can learn, and how emotionless she can be. Because that’s what they want of her, objectiveness, not an emotion driven creature. They need her to be undistracted.
And she complies. She does all the tests they want of her; she gives them all the answers she knows they want. But inside her head, inside her heart there’s another story.
She might have the intellect, but if you don’t give her something to learn, then it’s a waste. Pia might know every single tree species known by mankind; she may know every single plant in the forest by its scientific name. But that’s all she knows. She never left the compound; she has no knowledge of the outside world. She doesn’t know what cities are, she doesn’t know how big the planet is, she doesn’t know a shred of history. She never watched tv, or listened to music, she doesn't know about internet or cellphones. She knows nothing, and no one besides the scientist that created her, that raised her, and what they allow her to learn.
Pia doesn’t know better, so she complies. They are her family, what they say and do is all she knows. And as far she they tell her, it’s what’s right.
But there’s a war within her. She’s fighting against what she knows as right, and what she feels is so. She’s fighting against her need to go outside and discover the world. No! That’s wrong, you can’t do that! The rational part of her brain screams at her to stop thinking about it, she needs to focus on her dream, on her goal (but is it her goal?), create more immortals so she won’t be alone forever. But the other part of her is pushing, demanding attention and giving her the chance to know the outside world.
So when she sees a hole in the fence she let’s go of her rational side, and goes outside. Just for a little while, just a peek, she tells herself. There’s not much out there other than the forest anyway, or there wasn’t. Not until she runs into a boy.
I liked Pia for so many different reasons. She was strong, and even though she gave in sort of easily sometimes, she was determined, and kindhearted. I understood her, too. She had no one. Wait, she had her “family,” but knowing that at some point everyone you know will die and you will be left alone… well I would have done anything to have someone just like me, someone that could live forever too. But to do that Pia needed to know the secret, the secret behind Little Cam, the secret behind her origin.
How to do it, though? How to find the secrets when everyone around them was so keen on hiding them from her?
She had two choices. Either wait until she was ready, wait until they thought she was ready to know and so they would tell her. Or she could find them herself. A little help won’t hurt either.
Meet Eio. The jungle boy.
Uh, swoon? Hell yeah! Wait, I know ‘jungle boy’ might not sound so swoon worthy, but trust me he is. Oh, he is!
Eio lives in a nearby village called Ai'oa. Drawn by the sound of a jaguar deep into the forest, he follows the sound and runs into Pia. She’s beautiful, and so unlike anything he’s ever seen. You see, the thing is that Eio, in a way, is an outsider in his own village, just like her. He’s different, not the immortal kind of different, but still. He’s a part of the jungle, just as much as the jungle is a part of him. He blends in it, he breathes it. And he knows far more than he lets on.
So one night when he finds this beautiful girl wandering in the forest in a pretty dress, who knows nothing of his world he’s intent on showing it to her. He wants her to know everything she’s missing by living her life in a cage, because whether she sees it or not, that’s how she lives. And so a bond is formed.
I admit I found myself skimming through the pages at the beginning. I was an anxious (and a little impatiently bored) wreck for around seventy pages, until we meet Eio. No need to scold at me, though! I just wanted what the trailer had sold to me, and that was… well, Eio.
So. I was skimming through the pages, and waiting anxiously for Eio to show up. I think it (the bored/anxious part) might have been because of the science terminology and endless experiments. I despise biology, I truly do. It probably has to do with the fact that most my family is somehow involved with it, so I developed a bit of an aversion to it. Anyway. When he came along the story started getting exciting. And not only because he was there, mind you. But because the action was picking up, and yeah, Eio wasn’t on every scene, so no accusing me of anything here!
Boy! There was so much suspense in this book! I really wasn’t expecting that. The suspense and secrecy, the action and romance. It was so good! The last hundred pages were the hardest ever. Honestly, I didn’t expect this book to have me on edge for so long, nor did I expect it to make me gasp so much! It was crazy, and full of surprises!
Now, can we stop on the romance a little longer? I hope you don’t mind. Because… swoon. Eio was so sweet! So very sweet, and he had a way of saying things that just completely melted me. I was a giggling fool sometimes.
But then we have Pia and her need to push him away. She had a dream, a porpoise to fulfill, and she was really blind to what was happening around her. Well, she was seeing it, she just didn’t want to accept it; she didn’t want to believe it. And she knew she couldn’t have both, she would either stay in Little Cam to achieve her dream –whatever that entailed, or she would stay with Eio and the Ai'oans (that’s how people from Eio’s village are called), and discover a new life.
And I loved the fact that, even though she pushed him away –and broke my heart in the process –he never gave up on her. He had promised to protect her, and he would do everything in his power to keep his promise.
"Trying to push Eio out of my heart would be like trying to hide a shadow by turning off the light. The harder I resist, the deeper he falls into my heart."
Origin is a very intense book. It has some strong scenes, scenes that were very difficult for me to read. It was frustrating and infuriating sometimes (mainly when the scientist where involved. I was surprised at the anger I felt towards them). It was sweet and heartwarming. It was filled with surprises and turns. It was fascinating.
If you’re anything like me, then I would encourage you to ignore whatever voice in your head that’s telling you not to read this book, because you won’t like it. Because if you’re anything like me, you’ll love it. It will break your heart and make you cry, it will surprise you and make you wish you could read faster. It will have you on edge and wide eyed. Because if you’re anything like me you’ll feel for this characters as they face their fears, as they face the truth, as they fall in love.
Because if you’re anything like me, you won’t let this book pass you by. It is definitely worth a try.
For this and more reviews please visit my blog.
November 13, 2014
This reminded me a great deal of Matched. Although this story is more well organized and fully developed compared to Matched, certain things in it made me not enjoy it as much. But then I remember Eio and I want to give it several more stars. :P Jessica Khoury is definitely an author I will be keeping an eye on.
I really enjoyed this book although a lot about it made me very uncomfortable. The lengths people would go for science. It was really disturbing and nearly nauseated me at times when they really explored what the scientists had done. In that regard, it somewhat reminded me of Wither.
It definitely had a dystopian feel above all else, although its set in modern day. But within the world of Little Cambridge, the research facility hidden in the depths of the Amazon, there are so many secrets and hidden evils, it easily overshadows every aspect of the story. It was a very interesting world and setting.
Pia was a very unique heroine. She was created by scientists, and has never been outside of the fence. She is expected to become a scientist herself one day soon, and continue their work. But Pia cant help but wonder what is on the other side of the fence, and beyond the jungle. The scientists avoid talking about the outside world around her, but once in a while a word slips. "San Francisco." "Shakespeare." This only makes her wonder more and more. Until one night, when a thunderstorm takes down a tree, and its roots push up the fence enough for her to crawl underneath. The scientist inside her knows that she shouldn't, but that is only what the other scientists want her to be, not who she really is. She spends the whole book struggling with the two versions of herself inside, waging their internal battle. And that is how she meets Eio. Whenever "Wild Pia" has the upper-hand, she sneaks out of the compound and meets the gorgeous jungle boy, and she has to decide between the only life she has ever known, and her feelings for Eio which she doesn't even understand.
Eio and the romance between him and Pia was beautiful. It was slow, but deep, and true, and... beautiful. The comparison to Matched and For Darkness Shows the Stars is perfect in that regard. Eio was a wonderful character who loved Pia and never saw the differences between them. He was so utterly dedicated to her and her safety and happiness. There is a scene in chapter 26 when he picks her a passionflower from behind a waterfall, and he just seemed like a miracle. Pia was the one that was told that she was perfect her whole life, but Eio is so beautiful and perfect inside and out, it nearly took my breathe away. I cant understand how Pia did what she did next, instead of throwing her arms around him and never letting go.
"Then he's here, emerging from the water like some kind of myth, some fabled Ai'oan god, his hand smoothing his wet hair back from his face, his chest and shoulders gleaming with water and moonlight. Behind him, a pale shimmering trail of blue light marks his passage through the water. His wet shorts hang a bit lower on his hips than they usually do, tempting my imagination. He extends the flower, which I take with trembling fingers.
He smiles a small, crooked smile, and I think he knows exactly how tightly he's bound my tongue in knots. I suspect fetching me the passionflower was only half his purpose in swimming through the glowing pool."
In the end I had a lot of anxious feelings, after discovering the truth about Little Cambridge, and not knowing if things would be ok. But the ending was great and there was a twist I didnt see coming. I wish I could see more of what happens to them next but they got their HEA.
I really enjoyed this book although a lot about it made me very uncomfortable. The lengths people would go for science. It was really disturbing and nearly nauseated me at times when they really explored what the scientists had done. In that regard, it somewhat reminded me of Wither.
It definitely had a dystopian feel above all else, although its set in modern day. But within the world of Little Cambridge, the research facility hidden in the depths of the Amazon, there are so many secrets and hidden evils, it easily overshadows every aspect of the story. It was a very interesting world and setting.
Pia was a very unique heroine. She was created by scientists, and has never been outside of the fence. She is expected to become a scientist herself one day soon, and continue their work. But Pia cant help but wonder what is on the other side of the fence, and beyond the jungle. The scientists avoid talking about the outside world around her, but once in a while a word slips. "San Francisco." "Shakespeare." This only makes her wonder more and more. Until one night, when a thunderstorm takes down a tree, and its roots push up the fence enough for her to crawl underneath. The scientist inside her knows that she shouldn't, but that is only what the other scientists want her to be, not who she really is. She spends the whole book struggling with the two versions of herself inside, waging their internal battle. And that is how she meets Eio. Whenever "Wild Pia" has the upper-hand, she sneaks out of the compound and meets the gorgeous jungle boy, and she has to decide between the only life she has ever known, and her feelings for Eio which she doesn't even understand.
Eio and the romance between him and Pia was beautiful. It was slow, but deep, and true, and... beautiful. The comparison to Matched and For Darkness Shows the Stars is perfect in that regard. Eio was a wonderful character who loved Pia and never saw the differences between them. He was so utterly dedicated to her and her safety and happiness. There is a scene in chapter 26 when he picks her a passionflower from behind a waterfall, and he just seemed like a miracle. Pia was the one that was told that she was perfect her whole life, but Eio is so beautiful and perfect inside and out, it nearly took my breathe away. I cant understand how Pia did what she did next, instead of throwing her arms around him and never letting go.
"Then he's here, emerging from the water like some kind of myth, some fabled Ai'oan god, his hand smoothing his wet hair back from his face, his chest and shoulders gleaming with water and moonlight. Behind him, a pale shimmering trail of blue light marks his passage through the water. His wet shorts hang a bit lower on his hips than they usually do, tempting my imagination. He extends the flower, which I take with trembling fingers.
He smiles a small, crooked smile, and I think he knows exactly how tightly he's bound my tongue in knots. I suspect fetching me the passionflower was only half his purpose in swimming through the glowing pool."
In the end I had a lot of anxious feelings, after discovering the truth about Little Cambridge, and not knowing if things would be ok. But the ending was great and there was a twist I didnt see coming. I wish I could see more of what happens to them next but they got their HEA.
May 20, 2015
4.5
A very special book. About a girl who knows too much...and nothing at the same time. It is not the best Sci-fi you will read, it doesn't have the best character or character development, but the plot and mystery are interesting and the lesson it teaches is worth it.
"La jungla esconde a una chica que no puede morir". Después de leer eso obviamente el libro pico mi curiosidad, debo decir que aunque no es la octava maravilla del mundo literario, la autora mezcla la ciencia y el mundo moderno con personajes primitivos y algo mitológicos de forma excelente. Y ese balance fue el mejor acierto de esta novela.
Me gusto sobretodo porque la idea central es muy sencilla y se expresa de forma correcta, y hoy en día es tan difícil encontrar eso :(
Todo es sencillo, la trama, la fluidez, el desenvolvimiento de los personajes principales y secundarios. Y tiene una presencia antagónica suficientemente bien elaborada.
Me gusto mucho el final y la historia contada por los aldeanos sobre el origen de esta flor que ayuda a crear a Pia, la chica inmortal. La mejor parte de la historia sin duda!
No tiene la máxima puntuación porque como todo buen libro YA, tiene romance....NO NO NO, no es malo, solo no convence mucho, y a mitad de libro intentan desarrollar el romance un poco y se cae la fluidez por varios capítulos, pero no como para arruinar el libro ;)
Les juro que la lección que intenta enseñar este libro es tan sencilla, y tan pura que no puedo creer lo bien planteado que estuvo todo para decirnos esas palabras tan comunes.
El toque perfecto de Ciencia ficción y humanidad. Super recomendable.
A very special book. About a girl who knows too much...and nothing at the same time. It is not the best Sci-fi you will read, it doesn't have the best character or character development, but the plot and mystery are interesting and the lesson it teaches is worth it.
We were too greedy, grasping for immortality too soon. Perhaps if we had only been patient, content to wait, we would all have forever in the end.
"La jungla esconde a una chica que no puede morir". Después de leer eso obviamente el libro pico mi curiosidad, debo decir que aunque no es la octava maravilla del mundo literario, la autora mezcla la ciencia y el mundo moderno con personajes primitivos y algo mitológicos de forma excelente. Y ese balance fue el mejor acierto de esta novela.
Me gusto sobretodo porque la idea central es muy sencilla y se expresa de forma correcta, y hoy en día es tan difícil encontrar eso :(
Todo es sencillo, la trama, la fluidez, el desenvolvimiento de los personajes principales y secundarios. Y tiene una presencia antagónica suficientemente bien elaborada.
Me gusto mucho el final y la historia contada por los aldeanos sobre el origen de esta flor que ayuda a crear a Pia, la chica inmortal. La mejor parte de la historia sin duda!
No tiene la máxima puntuación porque como todo buen libro YA, tiene romance....NO NO NO, no es malo, solo no convence mucho, y a mitad de libro intentan desarrollar el romance un poco y se cae la fluidez por varios capítulos, pero no como para arruinar el libro ;)
Les juro que la lección que intenta enseñar este libro es tan sencilla, y tan pura que no puedo creer lo bien planteado que estuvo todo para decirnos esas palabras tan comunes.
El toque perfecto de Ciencia ficción y humanidad. Super recomendable.
Because sooner or later, we must all face eternity.
September 24, 2013
I loved Origin's action, romance, and mystery--and I couldn't stop thinking about the questions it raised.
August 10, 2012
Rating: 2.5 Stars
I feel as if my journey with Origin has been a tough one. For starters, it took me nearly a week to finish, which may not seem very long, but for me it is looong. Not only that, but I was completely baffled and utterly torn over what rating I should ultimately bestow upon it. You see, Origin had a lot to love, but it had, in equal parts if not more, aspects of it which I didn’t enjoy. Unfortunately, I feel as if the negative aspects of this novel trumped the positive ones and I am forced to admit that Origin simply did not live up to the hype and could definitely do with a large dose of character-development, romantic flavor, and all-round editing.
Pia has grown up in Little Cam, an isolated laboratory in the heart of the Amazon Jungle where she has been created to start a new race of immortal beings. Now a teenager, all Pia has ever wanted is to join the Immortis Team and help create a race of immortals so that she won’t be alone. On the night of her seventeenth birthday, however, when a hole appears in the fence separating her compound from the jungle, Pia’s curiosity, newly instilled by the arrival of a lively new scientist, is aroused and she ventures away from her home for the first time. In the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a native of the forest, and as her excursions to visit him increase, so do the mass of swirling questions in her mind about what lies in the world outside. It is then that Pia slowly begins to uncover the deadly secret behind the basis of Little Cam – one that could change her life forever.
I have to admit, I was extremely impressed by the amount of research that Jessica Khoury put into this novel. Not only are her descriptions of the Amazon beautiful, atmospheric, and filled with languid prose, she truly made you feel as if you were there yourself. I love the feeling of becoming immersed within a setting and the exotic – and original – setting of this story has only made me want to go there someday myself. Yet, more than simple research on the habitat where she has placed her characters, Khoury did an enormous amount of research behind the concepts in her novel as well. While immortality remains to be an age-old mystery than mankind has often lusted after, Khoury explains her take on it in a simple and realistic manner, using previous ideals of biology and genetics to make her complex ideas plausible. Yet, despite its authentic premises, the characters and pace of Origin failed to draw me in.
In all honesty, I think I truly appreciated and connected with one – maybe two – characters in this entire tale. I feel as if the entire cast of Origin was vastly underdeveloped and those who did have some development, such as Pia, were distant and difficult to connect with. While I appreciated the ideas behind the character of Pia – a living experiment who had never asked to become a test subject but was forced to live with the results of her experimentation – I was disappointed by the execution of her character. Pia has the potential to be such an interesting character and while some of her thoughts and conversations were very deep, for the most part she is indecisive – constantly going back and forth between Little Cam and Eio in the jungle – and for all the desperation of her situation, is difficult to sympathize with. Furthermore, beyond mere curiosity, beauty, and the intelligence that comes from being immortal, I found it tough to really find who Pia was beneath all the labels she carried. I think Khoury tried to half-heartedly develop her in the second half of this story, throwing in situations that showed us Pia’s moral status, her kindness, and humanity, but it didn’t help me connect with her in the least. Thus, while I liked that we were able to see some of the dangerous affects of immortality through Pia, I still don’t feel as if I truly know her – or even want to actually – which prevented me from really enjoying this tale.
Now, looking back, my connection with Pia was broken in the first few chapters of this novel itself when I found it difficult to believe that Pia, a teenager who has grown up as a scientist and been raised to ask questions, was never curious about the outside world until the arrival of Aunt Harriet, the new scientist who gifts Pia with a map and encourages her to think beyond the walls she has known all her life. If that wasn’t enough to make me jump on the Skeptical Boat, the very fact that Eio was proclaiming his undying loyalty and love to her after just a few scarce meetings, definitely was. Eio, in my opinion, is the least developed of all the characters and while he did have a few interesting conversations with Pia, for the most part his entire character didn’t serve much of a purpose beyond that of a friend. I didn’t care for the romance in this story in the least and Eio is such a weak character than beyond his kindness and naivety, he is easily forgettable. Other forgettable characters include the scientists of Little Cam. While I found them to be deliciously evil, there wasn’t much to them beyond their inherent badness, which I disliked. I wish that the small bout of corporate/scientific politics that was thrown into this tale had been better developed and built around the personalities of the scientists that Pia grew up with, but instead these characters were simply written off as being greedy, corrupt, and power-hungry, which was a mistake as I am sure there is much more to them than just that; yet, we were unfortunately unable to see this side of them.
Origin, while not being a tale I would recommend to others, is, by no means, a bad novel. In fact, many of my most trusted reviewers have given this story high ratings and I am glad that they were able to fall in love with this unique story in a way that I wasn’t. For me, more than the slow pacing and bouts of extreme animal cruelty that tainted the pages of this book, the characters were a deciding factor on my negative rating. I simply did not enjoy reading this and while I was pleasantly surprised by the plot twists at the end, by that time it was simply too late to make me appreciate a story in which I didn’t feel anything for the characters or the difficult situations they found themselves in. As far as debut novels go, Origin is teeming with possibility and promise, but it simply fell flat in my opinion. Yet, I am quite confident that this is a story I will be seeing on many favorites shelves before the year is up. Once again, I seem to be the exception, not the rule, of general hype.
You can read this review and more on my blog, Ivy Book Bindings.
I feel as if my journey with Origin has been a tough one. For starters, it took me nearly a week to finish, which may not seem very long, but for me it is looong. Not only that, but I was completely baffled and utterly torn over what rating I should ultimately bestow upon it. You see, Origin had a lot to love, but it had, in equal parts if not more, aspects of it which I didn’t enjoy. Unfortunately, I feel as if the negative aspects of this novel trumped the positive ones and I am forced to admit that Origin simply did not live up to the hype and could definitely do with a large dose of character-development, romantic flavor, and all-round editing.
Pia has grown up in Little Cam, an isolated laboratory in the heart of the Amazon Jungle where she has been created to start a new race of immortal beings. Now a teenager, all Pia has ever wanted is to join the Immortis Team and help create a race of immortals so that she won’t be alone. On the night of her seventeenth birthday, however, when a hole appears in the fence separating her compound from the jungle, Pia’s curiosity, newly instilled by the arrival of a lively new scientist, is aroused and she ventures away from her home for the first time. In the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a native of the forest, and as her excursions to visit him increase, so do the mass of swirling questions in her mind about what lies in the world outside. It is then that Pia slowly begins to uncover the deadly secret behind the basis of Little Cam – one that could change her life forever.
I have to admit, I was extremely impressed by the amount of research that Jessica Khoury put into this novel. Not only are her descriptions of the Amazon beautiful, atmospheric, and filled with languid prose, she truly made you feel as if you were there yourself. I love the feeling of becoming immersed within a setting and the exotic – and original – setting of this story has only made me want to go there someday myself. Yet, more than simple research on the habitat where she has placed her characters, Khoury did an enormous amount of research behind the concepts in her novel as well. While immortality remains to be an age-old mystery than mankind has often lusted after, Khoury explains her take on it in a simple and realistic manner, using previous ideals of biology and genetics to make her complex ideas plausible. Yet, despite its authentic premises, the characters and pace of Origin failed to draw me in.
In all honesty, I think I truly appreciated and connected with one – maybe two – characters in this entire tale. I feel as if the entire cast of Origin was vastly underdeveloped and those who did have some development, such as Pia, were distant and difficult to connect with. While I appreciated the ideas behind the character of Pia – a living experiment who had never asked to become a test subject but was forced to live with the results of her experimentation – I was disappointed by the execution of her character. Pia has the potential to be such an interesting character and while some of her thoughts and conversations were very deep, for the most part she is indecisive – constantly going back and forth between Little Cam and Eio in the jungle – and for all the desperation of her situation, is difficult to sympathize with. Furthermore, beyond mere curiosity, beauty, and the intelligence that comes from being immortal, I found it tough to really find who Pia was beneath all the labels she carried. I think Khoury tried to half-heartedly develop her in the second half of this story, throwing in situations that showed us Pia’s moral status, her kindness, and humanity, but it didn’t help me connect with her in the least. Thus, while I liked that we were able to see some of the dangerous affects of immortality through Pia, I still don’t feel as if I truly know her – or even want to actually – which prevented me from really enjoying this tale.
Now, looking back, my connection with Pia was broken in the first few chapters of this novel itself when I found it difficult to believe that Pia, a teenager who has grown up as a scientist and been raised to ask questions, was never curious about the outside world until the arrival of Aunt Harriet, the new scientist who gifts Pia with a map and encourages her to think beyond the walls she has known all her life. If that wasn’t enough to make me jump on the Skeptical Boat, the very fact that Eio was proclaiming his undying loyalty and love to her after just a few scarce meetings, definitely was. Eio, in my opinion, is the least developed of all the characters and while he did have a few interesting conversations with Pia, for the most part his entire character didn’t serve much of a purpose beyond that of a friend. I didn’t care for the romance in this story in the least and Eio is such a weak character than beyond his kindness and naivety, he is easily forgettable. Other forgettable characters include the scientists of Little Cam. While I found them to be deliciously evil, there wasn’t much to them beyond their inherent badness, which I disliked. I wish that the small bout of corporate/scientific politics that was thrown into this tale had been better developed and built around the personalities of the scientists that Pia grew up with, but instead these characters were simply written off as being greedy, corrupt, and power-hungry, which was a mistake as I am sure there is much more to them than just that; yet, we were unfortunately unable to see this side of them.
Origin, while not being a tale I would recommend to others, is, by no means, a bad novel. In fact, many of my most trusted reviewers have given this story high ratings and I am glad that they were able to fall in love with this unique story in a way that I wasn’t. For me, more than the slow pacing and bouts of extreme animal cruelty that tainted the pages of this book, the characters were a deciding factor on my negative rating. I simply did not enjoy reading this and while I was pleasantly surprised by the plot twists at the end, by that time it was simply too late to make me appreciate a story in which I didn’t feel anything for the characters or the difficult situations they found themselves in. As far as debut novels go, Origin is teeming with possibility and promise, but it simply fell flat in my opinion. Yet, I am quite confident that this is a story I will be seeing on many favorites shelves before the year is up. Once again, I seem to be the exception, not the rule, of general hype.
You can read this review and more on my blog, Ivy Book Bindings.
September 10, 2012
Read through it again! The final print version is so amazing! It is so much more than just a story about boy meets girl!
....
I was lucky enough to be a BETA reader in the earlier stages of this book. Within the first few pages of the book I knew it was something special! I can't wait to read the final version of the book! This is going to be the next big thing in Young adult fiction!!! This book is truly original; you won't find any cliches here. Make sure you start reading when you can read the whole thing. There are no good stopping points because every page leaves you dying to find out what happens next!!!!
....
I was lucky enough to be a BETA reader in the earlier stages of this book. Within the first few pages of the book I knew it was something special! I can't wait to read the final version of the book! This is going to be the next big thing in Young adult fiction!!! This book is truly original; you won't find any cliches here. Make sure you start reading when you can read the whole thing. There are no good stopping points because every page leaves you dying to find out what happens next!!!!
August 29, 2012
Originally reviewed on The Book Smugglers
In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, there is a scientific lab and living compound called Little Cambridge. Little Cam houses some of the world's top scientific minds, including geneticists, biochemical engineers, botanists, and entomologists.
It also hides a girl named Pia - seventeen years old, immortal, and perfect.
The fruit of five generations of genetic experimentation and injection of a toxic, but immortality-giving extract from the rare bloom, elysia, Pia is the only one of her kind, and a scientific breakthrough that means the beginning of a new, immortal brand of humanity. Pia is the hope for humankind's future - she has perfect memory, razor-sharp reflexes, and superhuman speed and endurance. Her skin is impervious to harm, and cannot be penetrated by any blade, flame, or trauma. Every day of Pia's life, she has been told that she is perfect by the scientists that have raised her - yet, the thing she yearns for most of all, the right to join the Imortis Project and be embraced as a full-fledged scientist with the aim of creating a super-race of immortals like her, is still out of her reach. For all that Pia is perfect, she is not yet ready for whatever the Imortis Project entails, until she can pass a series of psychological and scientific tests.
On the eve of Pia's eighteenth birthday, she discovers that the electric fence that surrounds Little Cam has a hole - and she does something she's never even dreamed of doing before. Buoyed by the confidence and good spirits of her first ever birthday party, Pia sneaks through the hole and braves the jungle outside for the first time...and she runs into a boy named Eio, and discovers an entirely new world. As she learns more about Eio and his tribe, the Ai'oa, Pia's view of her destiny changes, irrevocably. At what cost does immortality come? And is Pia ready to pay the price for eternity?
The debut novel from an astonishingly young new author, Origin simultaneously succeeds and fails. There is no doubt that Jessica Khoury has a gift for writing and storytelling, as Origin is a compulsively readable and entertaining book. The novel begins on a high note, as we are introduced to our young immortal, impervious Pia: a perfect girl of "astonishing beauty" (as she is described by one character), whose very existence is the fruit of careful genetic selection and breeding for five consecutive generations. Pia is told, repeatedly, by almost everyone she knows, that she is perfect, and as such, she believes herself to be perfect. She's spoiled, self-entitled, and, well, bratty - especially to a perky new doctor that arrives on the scene, shortly before her eighteenth birthday. This initial characterization is immensely believable and well executed by Khoury - you can't help but feel exasperated with Pia's ingrained snobbery, but it rings as wholly genuine at the same time. When Pia chooses to escape the world of Little Cam - which has, for all intents and purposes, been a Pia-centered paradise as far as she is concerned - her world view radically changes, and she is challenged for the first time by her discovery of a boy named Eio and his tribe, the Ai'oa. This, unfortunately, is where the story slightly goes off the rails.
But before we get to the negatives, the positives. On the plus side, I love Pia's dedication to science, and her devotion to fulfilling her destiny by creating a race of immortals. After all, this is the goal to which she's been attuned her entire life, and the prospect of eternity alone is certainly no fun. There's a palpable tension throughout Origin, and Pia's struggle to reconcile her predetermined path with her own emotions is exceptionally well done. The small, insular world of Little Cam and all that Pia knows feels real; the obsession of the scientists that have raised her (and the inevitable dark secrets they guard) are also genuinely engaging. Ultimately, Origin kinda reads like a super-hyperbolized metaphor for overprotected you girl, growing up and breaking free of the constraints imposed on her by elders that are acting in her best interest...sort of. (Of course, this particular young girl is immortal and incandescently beautiful, so the actual applicability of said metaphor - or, more tritely, self-insertionism - is dubious at best.)
Praises said, Origin is not without some significant flaws. From a basic worldbuilding perspective, Origin is shaky, stumbling especially in its later chapters. This novel suffers from a problem of simplification and dichotomization - in Origin, this divide is (predictably) between SCIENCE and MORALITY . SCIENCE is presented initially as Pia's God and creed: she has never heard music with lyrics, she has never read a novel (nor has she heard of the likes of Shakespeare or Plato), she has no knowledge of the world outside Little Cam. She does know the genus and species of all the plants and animals that surround her in the jungle, she can perform large mathematical sums in her head (though the bulk of this prowess is limited to multiplication, for whatever reason), and...she can sketch flowers pretty quickly (seriously).* SCIENCE , of course, is revealed to be very, very bad, and Pia's immortality comes at the cost of countless lives - from the scientists who were forced to overcome their own moral compasses, and the blood literally shed to birth Pia.
By contrast, Eio and the Ai'oa (and a couple select scientists) are the counterpoint of MORALITY in the novel. The Ai'oa are rainforest NATIVES, and as such understand their immortality-giving flower better than the scientists ever could, and they teach Pia what it is to be a normal girl, to love, and to live. There's also a disturbing, continuing reference to the "natives" as being "ignorant," to the point where Eio (who is half-Ai'oan) repeatedly assets that he is not like his "ignorant" bretheren (i.e. "I know what electricity is...I am not an ignorant Ai'oan, Papi! Half of me belongs here in the jungle, yes, but half of me belongs on the other side of that fence with you and Pia!").
And, speaking of Eio, there's the romance. OF COURSE when Pia slips out of Little Cam for the first time, the very first boy she runs into is Staggeringly Gorgeous. OF COURSE he also is half-caucasian, with striking blue eyes, chiseled features, standing head and shoulders above his Ai'oan village-mates (of course, to the Ai'oans, he is UGLY as is Pia). OF COURSE, Pia and Eio fall in insta-love - and the reason why? As Eio tells Pia, the first night he meets her:
And then later:
Cue excessive eye-rolling.** While it makes sense that Pia (and to some extent, Eio) is stunningly gorgeous - the progeny of generations of hand-selected beautiful people - the impetus for this Great Romance, based solely on the attractiveness of Pia and Eio, is a little silly, and a little insulting of readers' intelligence.
Beyond these factors, consistency issues abound - Pia speaks in common slang and knows curses (e.g. she tells one character to screw himself at one point, she makes an internal joke about "going native" at another), but has never been around others who speak as such, nor has ever read a non-scientific book/seen a film before. The "science" in the later portion of the novel - the purpose of the tests that Pia has endured, the truth of the power of elysia and its catalyzing agent - are patently ridiculous, moving the book from dubious genetic possibility to complete science fantasy.
And yet. For all of these flaws, I finished the book and I generally enjoyed myself, in a guilty pleasure, I-shouldn't-like-this-as-much-as-I-do kind of way. As long as one approaches the novel understanding that there are copious amounts of cheese and ridiculousness, there's something compulsively well-paced and guiltily engaging about Origin. Recommended, but leave expectations at the door.
-------
*On a serious note, other than Pia's ididic memory and her ability to withstand sharp objects penetrating her skin, her skillset as an immortal heroine is somewhat disappointing.
**It doesn't help that these characters are named Pia and Eio. When I read "Eio," I think Michael Jackson's version at Disneyland - which is infinitely more awesome than our love-struck jungle boy, who seems tohave no character or purpose, other than to wait around for Pia.
In the heart of the Amazon rainforest, there is a scientific lab and living compound called Little Cambridge. Little Cam houses some of the world's top scientific minds, including geneticists, biochemical engineers, botanists, and entomologists.
It also hides a girl named Pia - seventeen years old, immortal, and perfect.
The fruit of five generations of genetic experimentation and injection of a toxic, but immortality-giving extract from the rare bloom, elysia, Pia is the only one of her kind, and a scientific breakthrough that means the beginning of a new, immortal brand of humanity. Pia is the hope for humankind's future - she has perfect memory, razor-sharp reflexes, and superhuman speed and endurance. Her skin is impervious to harm, and cannot be penetrated by any blade, flame, or trauma. Every day of Pia's life, she has been told that she is perfect by the scientists that have raised her - yet, the thing she yearns for most of all, the right to join the Imortis Project and be embraced as a full-fledged scientist with the aim of creating a super-race of immortals like her, is still out of her reach. For all that Pia is perfect, she is not yet ready for whatever the Imortis Project entails, until she can pass a series of psychological and scientific tests.
On the eve of Pia's eighteenth birthday, she discovers that the electric fence that surrounds Little Cam has a hole - and she does something she's never even dreamed of doing before. Buoyed by the confidence and good spirits of her first ever birthday party, Pia sneaks through the hole and braves the jungle outside for the first time...and she runs into a boy named Eio, and discovers an entirely new world. As she learns more about Eio and his tribe, the Ai'oa, Pia's view of her destiny changes, irrevocably. At what cost does immortality come? And is Pia ready to pay the price for eternity?
The debut novel from an astonishingly young new author, Origin simultaneously succeeds and fails. There is no doubt that Jessica Khoury has a gift for writing and storytelling, as Origin is a compulsively readable and entertaining book. The novel begins on a high note, as we are introduced to our young immortal, impervious Pia: a perfect girl of "astonishing beauty" (as she is described by one character), whose very existence is the fruit of careful genetic selection and breeding for five consecutive generations. Pia is told, repeatedly, by almost everyone she knows, that she is perfect, and as such, she believes herself to be perfect. She's spoiled, self-entitled, and, well, bratty - especially to a perky new doctor that arrives on the scene, shortly before her eighteenth birthday. This initial characterization is immensely believable and well executed by Khoury - you can't help but feel exasperated with Pia's ingrained snobbery, but it rings as wholly genuine at the same time. When Pia chooses to escape the world of Little Cam - which has, for all intents and purposes, been a Pia-centered paradise as far as she is concerned - her world view radically changes, and she is challenged for the first time by her discovery of a boy named Eio and his tribe, the Ai'oa. This, unfortunately, is where the story slightly goes off the rails.
But before we get to the negatives, the positives. On the plus side, I love Pia's dedication to science, and her devotion to fulfilling her destiny by creating a race of immortals. After all, this is the goal to which she's been attuned her entire life, and the prospect of eternity alone is certainly no fun. There's a palpable tension throughout Origin, and Pia's struggle to reconcile her predetermined path with her own emotions is exceptionally well done. The small, insular world of Little Cam and all that Pia knows feels real; the obsession of the scientists that have raised her (and the inevitable dark secrets they guard) are also genuinely engaging. Ultimately, Origin kinda reads like a super-hyperbolized metaphor for overprotected you girl, growing up and breaking free of the constraints imposed on her by elders that are acting in her best interest...sort of. (Of course, this particular young girl is immortal and incandescently beautiful, so the actual applicability of said metaphor - or, more tritely, self-insertionism - is dubious at best.)
Praises said, Origin is not without some significant flaws. From a basic worldbuilding perspective, Origin is shaky, stumbling especially in its later chapters. This novel suffers from a problem of simplification and dichotomization - in Origin, this divide is (predictably) between SCIENCE and MORALITY . SCIENCE is presented initially as Pia's God and creed: she has never heard music with lyrics, she has never read a novel (nor has she heard of the likes of Shakespeare or Plato), she has no knowledge of the world outside Little Cam. She does know the genus and species of all the plants and animals that surround her in the jungle, she can perform large mathematical sums in her head (though the bulk of this prowess is limited to multiplication, for whatever reason), and...she can sketch flowers pretty quickly (seriously).* SCIENCE , of course, is revealed to be very, very bad, and Pia's immortality comes at the cost of countless lives - from the scientists who were forced to overcome their own moral compasses, and the blood literally shed to birth Pia.
By contrast, Eio and the Ai'oa (and a couple select scientists) are the counterpoint of MORALITY in the novel. The Ai'oa are rainforest NATIVES, and as such understand their immortality-giving flower better than the scientists ever could, and they teach Pia what it is to be a normal girl, to love, and to live. There's also a disturbing, continuing reference to the "natives" as being "ignorant," to the point where Eio (who is half-Ai'oan) repeatedly assets that he is not like his "ignorant" bretheren (i.e. "I know what electricity is...I am not an ignorant Ai'oan, Papi! Half of me belongs here in the jungle, yes, but half of me belongs on the other side of that fence with you and Pia!").
And, speaking of Eio, there's the romance. OF COURSE when Pia slips out of Little Cam for the first time, the very first boy she runs into is Staggeringly Gorgeous. OF COURSE he also is half-caucasian, with striking blue eyes, chiseled features, standing head and shoulders above his Ai'oan village-mates (of course, to the Ai'oans, he is UGLY as is Pia). OF COURSE, Pia and Eio fall in insta-love - and the reason why? As Eio tells Pia, the first night he meets her:
"I lied when I said you were ugly. It is not true. You..."
He scrubs at his hair, and his discomfort makes me smile.
"You are in fact very beautiful. More beautiful than any girl I know."
And then later:
"Ever since the moment you first knocked me over, then shone your stupid flashlight in my eyes and set your jaguar on me. I was angry, but mostly because I was terrified."
"Am I really that scary?"
"Your beauty is," he whispers.
Cue excessive eye-rolling.** While it makes sense that Pia (and to some extent, Eio) is stunningly gorgeous - the progeny of generations of hand-selected beautiful people - the impetus for this Great Romance, based solely on the attractiveness of Pia and Eio, is a little silly, and a little insulting of readers' intelligence.
Beyond these factors, consistency issues abound - Pia speaks in common slang and knows curses (e.g. she tells one character to screw himself at one point, she makes an internal joke about "going native" at another), but has never been around others who speak as such, nor has ever read a non-scientific book/seen a film before. The "science" in the later portion of the novel - the purpose of the tests that Pia has endured, the truth of the power of elysia and its catalyzing agent - are patently ridiculous, moving the book from dubious genetic possibility to complete science fantasy.
And yet. For all of these flaws, I finished the book and I generally enjoyed myself, in a guilty pleasure, I-shouldn't-like-this-as-much-as-I-do kind of way. As long as one approaches the novel understanding that there are copious amounts of cheese and ridiculousness, there's something compulsively well-paced and guiltily engaging about Origin. Recommended, but leave expectations at the door.
-------
*On a serious note, other than Pia's ididic memory and her ability to withstand sharp objects penetrating her skin, her skillset as an immortal heroine is somewhat disappointing.
**It doesn't help that these characters are named Pia and Eio. When I read "Eio," I think Michael Jackson's version at Disneyland - which is infinitely more awesome than our love-struck jungle boy, who seems tohave no character or purpose, other than to wait around for Pia.
dnf
April 30, 2025From my blog Auntie Spinelli Reads
DNF
**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD**
I usually hate to include spoilers in any review, but the reason I put this down is based off of a spoiler, so that's most of what this review will entail.
I think my hopes for this one were much too high before I picked it up. The story was decent. The originality was great. The characters...eh.
I love the premise, really I do. A flower that can make people immortal and a perfect being with impenetrable skin is awesome. There was a lot of science involved (although most of it didn't really make a lot of sense, but oh well) and I like science. And Pia's friend is a jaguar. So cool.
The romance = instaluv. I understand that Pia has never seen a boy before, and OMGSH Eio's abs are just, like, soo sexy, but damn. Within a mere week of meeting they're all, 'I love you, you are my heart, I'd die without you' and it was just a little much for me. The L word could really have waited until the end, moving a little slower to let the romance truly develop. But whatever.
The whole Evil Scientist spiel was...interesting, but perhaps a little overdone. Rooms with chairs that have shackles on them, lies and cover ups, putting birds inside a cage with electrified bars to see how long they can stay in flight, keeping a nest of man-eating ants for examination, killing a kitten to pass a test of 'perfection'...Why? Because they're scientists and they only care about a means to an end?
Let's get to the real reason I marked this as DNF. Killing kittens in the name of science.
I bawled. Ugly cry does not even cover it. Not because the writing is good, or because the author is talented, but because the idea of someone purposely killing a kitten is just so horrific to me (I am a crazed cat fanatic) that I think a little piece of my soul died just reading about it.
I will never understand for the life of me why an author feels the need to put something like this into their novel. To get a rise out of the reader? To make an emotional connection? To create controversy? Unless the book is focused on animal abuse, there should be absolutely NO reason for it. Especially in fantasy/sci-fi novels. And with this particular reader, an appearance of said abuse is more likely to make me get angry, throw the book, and never pick it back up again than to make me give kudos for being ballsy enough to face such a controversial topic. Sorry, that's just my opinion. Actually no, I'm not sorry. I hate it when authors kill kittens fictionally, no matter what the reason. I am a cat lover, and any abuse or murder of a cat is enough to condemn any book in my eyes. I don't care if anyone thinks I'm overreacting. That's just the way it is for me. If a two-week-old kitten getting stabbed with a syringe full of poison and then thrown on the ground doesn't bother you, then give this book a go; you'll probably like it. The issue here is that it just wasn't for me.
I made it through more than 250 pages before the kitten murder. I was mostly enjoying the book, sure, but it wasn't anything particularly spectacular....not so engaging that I feel the need to finish it. I can part ways with it without feeling any loss. I read the last few pages and I know what happens ultimately, so I could really care less about that 100 pages in between. I just can't bring myself to continue. I can't.
Favorite character: Little Sneeze, the two week old ocelot kitten. OH WAIT, HE WAS BRUTALLY INJECTED WITH POISON AND DIED.
ASSESSMENT
Plot: 3.5/5
Writing style: --
I can't rate this because the cat killing destroys my ability to be objective.
Originality: 5/5
Characters: 3/5
World-building: 3/5
Pace: 3.5/5
Cover: 5/5
NOT recommended for cat lovers.
DNF
**WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD**
I usually hate to include spoilers in any review, but the reason I put this down is based off of a spoiler, so that's most of what this review will entail.
I think my hopes for this one were much too high before I picked it up. The story was decent. The originality was great. The characters...eh.
I love the premise, really I do. A flower that can make people immortal and a perfect being with impenetrable skin is awesome. There was a lot of science involved (although most of it didn't really make a lot of sense, but oh well) and I like science. And Pia's friend is a jaguar. So cool.
The romance = instaluv. I understand that Pia has never seen a boy before, and OMGSH Eio's abs are just, like, soo sexy, but damn. Within a mere week of meeting they're all, 'I love you, you are my heart, I'd die without you' and it was just a little much for me. The L word could really have waited until the end, moving a little slower to let the romance truly develop. But whatever.
The whole Evil Scientist spiel was...interesting, but perhaps a little overdone. Rooms with chairs that have shackles on them, lies and cover ups, putting birds inside a cage with electrified bars to see how long they can stay in flight, keeping a nest of man-eating ants for examination, killing a kitten to pass a test of 'perfection'...Why? Because they're scientists and they only care about a means to an end?
Let's get to the real reason I marked this as DNF. Killing kittens in the name of science.
I bawled. Ugly cry does not even cover it. Not because the writing is good, or because the author is talented, but because the idea of someone purposely killing a kitten is just so horrific to me (I am a crazed cat fanatic) that I think a little piece of my soul died just reading about it.
I will never understand for the life of me why an author feels the need to put something like this into their novel. To get a rise out of the reader? To make an emotional connection? To create controversy? Unless the book is focused on animal abuse, there should be absolutely NO reason for it. Especially in fantasy/sci-fi novels. And with this particular reader, an appearance of said abuse is more likely to make me get angry, throw the book, and never pick it back up again than to make me give kudos for being ballsy enough to face such a controversial topic. Sorry, that's just my opinion. Actually no, I'm not sorry. I hate it when authors kill kittens fictionally, no matter what the reason. I am a cat lover, and any abuse or murder of a cat is enough to condemn any book in my eyes. I don't care if anyone thinks I'm overreacting. That's just the way it is for me. If a two-week-old kitten getting stabbed with a syringe full of poison and then thrown on the ground doesn't bother you, then give this book a go; you'll probably like it. The issue here is that it just wasn't for me.
I made it through more than 250 pages before the kitten murder. I was mostly enjoying the book, sure, but it wasn't anything particularly spectacular....not so engaging that I feel the need to finish it. I can part ways with it without feeling any loss. I read the last few pages and I know what happens ultimately, so I could really care less about that 100 pages in between. I just can't bring myself to continue. I can't.
Favorite character: Little Sneeze, the two week old ocelot kitten. OH WAIT, HE WAS BRUTALLY INJECTED WITH POISON AND DIED.
ASSESSMENT
Plot: 3.5/5
Writing style: --
I can't rate this because the cat killing destroys my ability to be objective.
Originality: 5/5
Characters: 3/5
World-building: 3/5
Pace: 3.5/5
Cover: 5/5
NOT recommended for cat lovers.
November 13, 2017
I'm torn. This was a phenomenally imaginative and beautifully narrated story of immortality and living life fully. The prose was captivating, the depictions vibrantly written. But the ending is hurting me - because it could have been so much better. But then I realize that it's more realistic for everything to not be all peaches and cream, which is most likely why the author concluded it this way. So that's why I'm torn. Because for the sake of the story and my feelings, a certain ending could have easily been written, but for the sake of not having a happily-ever-after novel, it had to be this way.
September 9, 2012
Občas premýšľam, či si nezaložiť poličku "hlúpe knihy." Pre knihy, nie sú až tak zle napísané, sú s dobrým nápadom, dobre sa čítajú... ale-sú-neskutočne-hlúpe.
Varovanie: sarkazmus.
Pia je výsledok piatich generácií genetických mutácií - dokáže bežať bez prestávky 30 minút, skákať 2 metre do výšky, nič na svete neprerazí jej kožu, je imúnna na všetky choroby, má perfektnú pamäť, perfektne presné zmysly, reflexy ako mačka, nikdy nezostarne a je nesmrteľná (chytáte sa už na to označenie "hlúpa?"). Celý život žije v uzavretej kolónií niekde uprostred pralesa a o vonkajšom svete sa dozvedá len z kníh. Až pokiaľ raz za plotom neuvidí miestneho domorodého chlapca Eia a začne za ním po nociach uchodiť namiesto toho, aby 100 rokov čakala, kým jej vyšľachtia ďalšieho geneticky mutovaného partnera.
Ak by som mala nejaké počítadlo, kde by sa mi rátal každý pomyselný facepalm, ktorý som pri čítaní urobila, rozbilo by sa od preťaženia ešte niekedy v polovici.
Hrdinka je presne taká blbá, ako to je vidno v traileri. Pasáže, kde je Pia v stanici? Ide ju od jedu roztrhnúť, prečo nemôže byť vonku. Pasáže, kde je Pia vonku? Nemôže sa dočkať, až sa vráti naspäť. A v momente, ako sa vráti naspäť - "ach, ak tu ostanem, umriem ako vtáča v klietke."
Dialógy? Parafráza na jeden, ktorý mi utkvel v pamäti:
Pia: Musím sa vrátiť späť! Odíď! Nechaj ma tu a zachráň sa!
Eio: Nie! To nedopustím!
Pia: Nemôžeš ma vyslobodiť! Ten plot pulzuje elektrinou!
Eia: Nenechám ťa tu! Vrátim sa, ten plot preleziem a odídeme spolu! Zbohom, moja Pia!
Opisy? Dažďový prales, domorodá osada, vedecká stanica, oh, toľko príležitostí! Namiesto toho dostaneme "džungľa bola zelená vo všetkých odtieňoch zelenej" a "domorodých mužov od žien odlíšim podľa toho, že ženy majú dlhé sukne."
Príbeh? Niečo v tom zmysle "voľba medzi láskou a všetkým, v čo kedy Pia verila." A Pia raz zabíja x-metrovú anakondu tak, že skúša, či ju náhodou neutopí.
Jessica Khoury je na internete strašne milá osoba, ale nie každá milá osoba má na to napísať dobrú knihu. Plus za netypické prostredie, aj keď nebolo vôbec využité. Mínus za všetko ostatné. 4/10
Varovanie: sarkazmus.
Pia je výsledok piatich generácií genetických mutácií - dokáže bežať bez prestávky 30 minút, skákať 2 metre do výšky, nič na svete neprerazí jej kožu, je imúnna na všetky choroby, má perfektnú pamäť, perfektne presné zmysly, reflexy ako mačka, nikdy nezostarne a je nesmrteľná (chytáte sa už na to označenie "hlúpa?"). Celý život žije v uzavretej kolónií niekde uprostred pralesa a o vonkajšom svete sa dozvedá len z kníh. Až pokiaľ raz za plotom neuvidí miestneho domorodého chlapca Eia a začne za ním po nociach uchodiť namiesto toho, aby 100 rokov čakala, kým jej vyšľachtia ďalšieho geneticky mutovaného partnera.
Ak by som mala nejaké počítadlo, kde by sa mi rátal každý pomyselný facepalm, ktorý som pri čítaní urobila, rozbilo by sa od preťaženia ešte niekedy v polovici.
Hrdinka je presne taká blbá, ako to je vidno v traileri. Pasáže, kde je Pia v stanici? Ide ju od jedu roztrhnúť, prečo nemôže byť vonku. Pasáže, kde je Pia vonku? Nemôže sa dočkať, až sa vráti naspäť. A v momente, ako sa vráti naspäť - "ach, ak tu ostanem, umriem ako vtáča v klietke."
Dialógy? Parafráza na jeden, ktorý mi utkvel v pamäti:
Pia: Musím sa vrátiť späť! Odíď! Nechaj ma tu a zachráň sa!
Eio: Nie! To nedopustím!
Pia: Nemôžeš ma vyslobodiť! Ten plot pulzuje elektrinou!
Eia: Nenechám ťa tu! Vrátim sa, ten plot preleziem a odídeme spolu! Zbohom, moja Pia!
Opisy? Dažďový prales, domorodá osada, vedecká stanica, oh, toľko príležitostí! Namiesto toho dostaneme "džungľa bola zelená vo všetkých odtieňoch zelenej" a "domorodých mužov od žien odlíšim podľa toho, že ženy majú dlhé sukne."
Príbeh? Niečo v tom zmysle "voľba medzi láskou a všetkým, v čo kedy Pia verila." A Pia raz zabíja x-metrovú anakondu tak, že skúša, či ju náhodou neutopí.
Jessica Khoury je na internete strašne milá osoba, ale nie každá milá osoba má na to napísať dobrú knihu. Plus za netypické prostredie, aj keď nebolo vôbec využité. Mínus za všetko ostatné. 4/10
May 4, 2015
BOOK REVIEW: Origin by Jessica Khoury.
I really didn’t know what to expect from this book when I started which made me enjoy this book much more than others I know who have read it. Even though this book is a part of a series, it can be read as a stand-alone book. I wasn’t ready to get hooked on a series so this book was perfect and dragged me out of my “never-ending” slump.
I absolutely adored the science aspect of this book. I was hooked form the very beginning and I grew a thirst for knowledge. I wanted to know more and more about the creation of Immortals!
The setting for this novel fascinated me too. The Amazon jungle and the way it was described were amazing. I could envision exactly how the author wanted me to picture it. And I have to mention the wildlife. I think one of my favorite “characters” would have to be Alai the panther.
The characters were a slight downfall for me. There were parts with the main character, Pia that didn’t seem to flow. In the book she does explain herself as having two sides but she seemed to switch between “wild Pia” and “sane Pia” so often I didn’t know which one she really was. As for the love interest Eio, he was likeable. Simply and typically written. I would’ve really loved to have seen his character become much more developed and extra depth. Even though Pia is described as being “Perfect” it was Eio that seemed perfect to me. He didn’t do anything wrong. He says the right things. And that just wasn’t enough for me.
With having so many characters in this book, the author did a good job at having contrast between them all. There are so many uncles and aunts that sometimes I couldn’t remember which ones were which.
All in all though I did enjoy this book. Although the characters can seem generic, the story line is not. It’s brutal, beautiful and action filled.
I give Origin by Jessica Khoury 3.5 stars out 5.
I really didn’t know what to expect from this book when I started which made me enjoy this book much more than others I know who have read it. Even though this book is a part of a series, it can be read as a stand-alone book. I wasn’t ready to get hooked on a series so this book was perfect and dragged me out of my “never-ending” slump.
I absolutely adored the science aspect of this book. I was hooked form the very beginning and I grew a thirst for knowledge. I wanted to know more and more about the creation of Immortals!
The setting for this novel fascinated me too. The Amazon jungle and the way it was described were amazing. I could envision exactly how the author wanted me to picture it. And I have to mention the wildlife. I think one of my favorite “characters” would have to be Alai the panther.
The characters were a slight downfall for me. There were parts with the main character, Pia that didn’t seem to flow. In the book she does explain herself as having two sides but she seemed to switch between “wild Pia” and “sane Pia” so often I didn’t know which one she really was. As for the love interest Eio, he was likeable. Simply and typically written. I would’ve really loved to have seen his character become much more developed and extra depth. Even though Pia is described as being “Perfect” it was Eio that seemed perfect to me. He didn’t do anything wrong. He says the right things. And that just wasn’t enough for me.
With having so many characters in this book, the author did a good job at having contrast between them all. There are so many uncles and aunts that sometimes I couldn’t remember which ones were which.
All in all though I did enjoy this book. Although the characters can seem generic, the story line is not. It’s brutal, beautiful and action filled.
I give Origin by Jessica Khoury 3.5 stars out 5.
lost-interest
May 23, 2012Sampled. Uninspired romance-action cocktail. Wasted setting and premise.
June 22, 2012
This book was AWESOME!! There's something truly captivating about this story, I was not able to put the book down! Origin is a fantastic YA debut by author Jessica Khoury that will keep you frantically flipping the pages until you reach the end... and thinking about it long after you've put the book down.
Origin introduces us to Pia, an immortal created at Little Cam, a scientific community hidden in the middle of the rainforest. Pia is perfect, and has been told so her entire existence. Her skin is impenetrable, she never gets sick, her reflexes and senses are extremely advanced, her memory is flawless, and her intelligence is off the charts. Pia's entire life has been focused on training her to be ready to take over the Immortis project. She will be the one to usher in a new race, HER race of immortals. What else could she ever want?
The answer to that is ANSWERS... and freedom. Pia has never been outside the fence that surrounds Little Cam and it is forbidden for anyone at the compound to tell her of anything of the outside world. Pia's curiosity gets the best of her when she sees a hole in the fence, a hole that allows her to escape into the jungle. Here she meets Eio, an extremely attractive native with an interesting genetic makeup of his own. As Pia learns more about his world, and the world of his people, she starts to question where she really belongs. Could she have a life that does not revolve around elysia and the Immortis project?
Further complicating matters is shocking revelations that Pia uncovers about the true nature of the catalyst that granted her immortality. When she herself is given a task that horrifies her, will she be able to turn off her emotions and be the cold and dedicated scientist Paolo and the others require? Or is her humanity too great? Perfect is as perfect does in this amazing debut novel.
*SQUEE* I love this book!!! It's captivating, engaging, full of intrigue, romance, and even horror at times. This one will really get you thinking about right and wrong, good and evil, and the price of scientific discovery. Pia is the kind of character you just can't help rooting for. She's been sheltered and had secrets kept from her during her entire existence and getting to see her break out of that mold is wonderful.
Readers are taken on Pia's journey as she discovers everything there is to know about Little Cam and her role in the attainment of an immortal race. When it is all said and done, will she be able to make the right choice, even if the right choice means saying goodbye to everything she has ever known? And will falling in love open her eyes to a world of possibilities? All will be revealed!!
I really can't gush about this book enough. Everyone should read it! It's fresh, unique, and one of those books you just want to sit down with a glass of wine and a good friend and dissect! If you're over 21 anyway! Seriously though, this book is made of win. Be sure to grab a copy when it releases in September. Enjoy! *XOXO*
Origin introduces us to Pia, an immortal created at Little Cam, a scientific community hidden in the middle of the rainforest. Pia is perfect, and has been told so her entire existence. Her skin is impenetrable, she never gets sick, her reflexes and senses are extremely advanced, her memory is flawless, and her intelligence is off the charts. Pia's entire life has been focused on training her to be ready to take over the Immortis project. She will be the one to usher in a new race, HER race of immortals. What else could she ever want?
The answer to that is ANSWERS... and freedom. Pia has never been outside the fence that surrounds Little Cam and it is forbidden for anyone at the compound to tell her of anything of the outside world. Pia's curiosity gets the best of her when she sees a hole in the fence, a hole that allows her to escape into the jungle. Here she meets Eio, an extremely attractive native with an interesting genetic makeup of his own. As Pia learns more about his world, and the world of his people, she starts to question where she really belongs. Could she have a life that does not revolve around elysia and the Immortis project?
Further complicating matters is shocking revelations that Pia uncovers about the true nature of the catalyst that granted her immortality. When she herself is given a task that horrifies her, will she be able to turn off her emotions and be the cold and dedicated scientist Paolo and the others require? Or is her humanity too great? Perfect is as perfect does in this amazing debut novel.
*SQUEE* I love this book!!! It's captivating, engaging, full of intrigue, romance, and even horror at times. This one will really get you thinking about right and wrong, good and evil, and the price of scientific discovery. Pia is the kind of character you just can't help rooting for. She's been sheltered and had secrets kept from her during her entire existence and getting to see her break out of that mold is wonderful.
Readers are taken on Pia's journey as she discovers everything there is to know about Little Cam and her role in the attainment of an immortal race. When it is all said and done, will she be able to make the right choice, even if the right choice means saying goodbye to everything she has ever known? And will falling in love open her eyes to a world of possibilities? All will be revealed!!
I really can't gush about this book enough. Everyone should read it! It's fresh, unique, and one of those books you just want to sit down with a glass of wine and a good friend and dissect! If you're over 21 anyway! Seriously though, this book is made of win. Be sure to grab a copy when it releases in September. Enjoy! *XOXO*
August 19, 2012
Disclaimer: This review is based on an advanced copy of the book.
WHAT I DISLIKED:
I wished Eio were a stronger character--some of his decisions were difficult to believe. The Ai'oan people also felt largely one-dimensional. And sometimes the whole "science is evil" thing was a bit too much.
WHAT I LIKED:
Pia is lovely, as is Khoury's writing. The book, surprisingly and refreshingly, is stand-alone. The plot is largely a fresh one, which brings important issues of morality into play. The jungle setting is GORGEOUS and perfect for Pia's story. The ending left me beyond satisfied and eager to see what new stories Khoury will whip up in the future.
WHAT I DISLIKED:
I wished Eio were a stronger character--some of his decisions were difficult to believe. The Ai'oan people also felt largely one-dimensional. And sometimes the whole "science is evil" thing was a bit too much.
WHAT I LIKED:
Pia is lovely, as is Khoury's writing. The book, surprisingly and refreshingly, is stand-alone. The plot is largely a fresh one, which brings important issues of morality into play. The jungle setting is GORGEOUS and perfect for Pia's story. The ending left me beyond satisfied and eager to see what new stories Khoury will whip up in the future.
July 3, 2012
I wanted to love this, and there was a lot to love, but there was also a lot to stop me from really falling for this novel.
On the one hand, there are many things to commend:
It's clear Khoury did very extensive research; she didn't just decide, oh, well, I think a jungle would be all cool and mysterious. She researched it very thoroughly, and it shows.
As part of the Breathless Reads, this is labeled Breathless Beauty, and I can see why. At times, the writing was exceptionally beautiful; dramatic or poignant or just plain enchanting.
While some of the mysteries verged on predictable, they were enough of a pull to keep me turning the pages well into the early hours of the morning, and some of their reveals were genuinely horrifying. They made for a very intriguing, very complex plot.
And as several blurbs and the synopsis itself imply, at times, this is very introspective. It did genuinely make me think, and I love when a book can do that.
But despite all of that, there were just too many things that soured my reading experience. There's insta-love at its finest; though they don't kiss till the very end, there's dramatic declarations of love and I-can't-live-without-you's within days of knowing each other. I'm sorry, but that's not love, that's You're attractive and different and I think we should swap saliva. I might have been slightly more forgiving of it if I'd really adored Eio, but . . . I didn't. He was cheesy, melodramatic, and occasionally misogynistic. He had his moments, but he never really found a place in my heart.
Also, I could never tell exactly what sort of significance the romance was supposed to have. It was as though Khoury couldn't decide whether she wanted it to be a side plot or the main story line; even after finishing, I'm still not entirely sure which it is.
Along with the heavy dose of insta-love, there were also a number of other problems. The dialogue was exceptionally unrealistic. Certain parts were so forced and melodramatic that I could only cringe. While the writing could be beautiful, at times it grew awkward and juvenile. Pia was sometimes really fantastic, but most of the time she was very naive, wishy-washy, and oblivious. And all the villains of this piece were painfully one-dimensional. That was perhaps the most disappointing, because I think with this concept there's the potential to create exceptionally complex villains and raise some very morally ambiguous questions, but all of the antagonists were just . . . bad. Plain and simple. The novel was a field of black and white, without a shade of gray to be seen. The evil scientists vs. the moral natives. I wanted some more depth.
Overall, this novel was enjoyable, but there were just a few too many things dragging it down. However, I think Jessica Khoury has a boatload of potential, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for any future novels.
2.5 stars.
On the one hand, there are many things to commend:
It's clear Khoury did very extensive research; she didn't just decide, oh, well, I think a jungle would be all cool and mysterious. She researched it very thoroughly, and it shows.
As part of the Breathless Reads, this is labeled Breathless Beauty, and I can see why. At times, the writing was exceptionally beautiful; dramatic or poignant or just plain enchanting.
While some of the mysteries verged on predictable, they were enough of a pull to keep me turning the pages well into the early hours of the morning, and some of their reveals were genuinely horrifying. They made for a very intriguing, very complex plot.
And as several blurbs and the synopsis itself imply, at times, this is very introspective. It did genuinely make me think, and I love when a book can do that.
But despite all of that, there were just too many things that soured my reading experience. There's insta-love at its finest; though they don't kiss till the very end, there's dramatic declarations of love and I-can't-live-without-you's within days of knowing each other. I'm sorry, but that's not love, that's You're attractive and different and I think we should swap saliva. I might have been slightly more forgiving of it if I'd really adored Eio, but . . . I didn't. He was cheesy, melodramatic, and occasionally misogynistic. He had his moments, but he never really found a place in my heart.
Also, I could never tell exactly what sort of significance the romance was supposed to have. It was as though Khoury couldn't decide whether she wanted it to be a side plot or the main story line; even after finishing, I'm still not entirely sure which it is.
Along with the heavy dose of insta-love, there were also a number of other problems. The dialogue was exceptionally unrealistic. Certain parts were so forced and melodramatic that I could only cringe. While the writing could be beautiful, at times it grew awkward and juvenile. Pia was sometimes really fantastic, but most of the time she was very naive, wishy-washy, and oblivious. And all the villains of this piece were painfully one-dimensional. That was perhaps the most disappointing, because I think with this concept there's the potential to create exceptionally complex villains and raise some very morally ambiguous questions, but all of the antagonists were just . . . bad. Plain and simple. The novel was a field of black and white, without a shade of gray to be seen. The evil scientists vs. the moral natives. I wanted some more depth.
Overall, this novel was enjoyable, but there were just a few too many things dragging it down. However, I think Jessica Khoury has a boatload of potential, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for any future novels.
2.5 stars.
January 30, 2023
I loved this read! Was tempted to give this a 5 star rating but decided I couldn't quite stretch my rating that high. There is so much going on in this book and the story keeps you tied to it til the very end where everything is wrapped up nicely as it should be.
Pia is an immortal girl, born in the jungle in a secret laboratory. She is bio-engineered to be what she is and is only one of her kind. Raised in the jungle, she is kept away from the outside world. Not only is she not allowed to venture out of Little Cam but she isn't allowed to learn anything about the world outside. But teens thirsty for knowing what they've been told they shouldn't know about tend to find a way. With the help and the love of Eio her eyes are opened to the world around her.
Pia is a wonderful character. She is so real that we feel her turmoil with the decisions that she is forced to make. She's so torn between what she is and what she wants to be and she has to learn for herself what is right and what is wrong. Eio is a wonderful match to Pia. He brings out the part of her that wants to be free and know the trutch. Their love is a love that all of us wish for.
The story line itself also deals with so many different issues espcially with the scientific community. Just like with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, just becuase we can do something does that mean we should? What price is too high for the quest for knowledge? And when we get that knowledge what do we do with it?
Overall, I loved this book. I would recommend this to anyone that loves a YA read with a sci/fi twist to it. Its a wonderful stand alone novel, and even though the epilogue gives a chance for a second novel I hope it doesn't happen. This book is great as is.
Pia is an immortal girl, born in the jungle in a secret laboratory. She is bio-engineered to be what she is and is only one of her kind. Raised in the jungle, she is kept away from the outside world. Not only is she not allowed to venture out of Little Cam but she isn't allowed to learn anything about the world outside. But teens thirsty for knowing what they've been told they shouldn't know about tend to find a way. With the help and the love of Eio her eyes are opened to the world around her.
Pia is a wonderful character. She is so real that we feel her turmoil with the decisions that she is forced to make. She's so torn between what she is and what she wants to be and she has to learn for herself what is right and what is wrong. Eio is a wonderful match to Pia. He brings out the part of her that wants to be free and know the trutch. Their love is a love that all of us wish for.
The story line itself also deals with so many different issues espcially with the scientific community. Just like with Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, just becuase we can do something does that mean we should? What price is too high for the quest for knowledge? And when we get that knowledge what do we do with it?
Overall, I loved this book. I would recommend this to anyone that loves a YA read with a sci/fi twist to it. Its a wonderful stand alone novel, and even though the epilogue gives a chance for a second novel I hope it doesn't happen. This book is great as is.
July 7, 2012
The two books I read immediately prior to this were thrilling YA romances - entertaining, but quickly forgotten - and I was sort of expecting more of the same. Origin completely exceeded my expectations, and I was surprised by the level of depth it achieved - at least for me.
Origin deals with some pretty heavy themes, and because of this I think it'll be a love/hate kind of book. Some will definitely find the approach heavy-handed or uncomfortable in its depiction of the 'natives' and scientists, but it worked for me (or I at least was able to forgive this) because I really connected with Pia on an emotional level. Some of the religious issues explored are ones I've dealt with a lot growing up, and I've been wanting to read a book like this for a while. For me, at least, it was very thought-provoking and amazingly relevant to my life, and books like these are exactly why I love YA no matter how controversial: it's amazing to be able to read a book that captures, explores, and makes ENTERTAINING the challenges and angst of growing up.
Was this book perfect? Of course not, and many other reviewers have already pointed out some of its flaws. But as Khoury addresses in Origin, both in the book's opening line and repeatedly throughout, perfect is in the eye of the beholder, and Origin, at this point in my life, was absolutely perfect for me. LOVED it, and unlike some of the other YA I've read recently, I find myself still thinking about it a day later.
Origin deals with some pretty heavy themes, and because of this I think it'll be a love/hate kind of book. Some will definitely find the approach heavy-handed or uncomfortable in its depiction of the 'natives' and scientists, but it worked for me (or I at least was able to forgive this) because I really connected with Pia on an emotional level. Some of the religious issues explored are ones I've dealt with a lot growing up, and I've been wanting to read a book like this for a while. For me, at least, it was very thought-provoking and amazingly relevant to my life, and books like these are exactly why I love YA no matter how controversial: it's amazing to be able to read a book that captures, explores, and makes ENTERTAINING the challenges and angst of growing up.
Was this book perfect? Of course not, and many other reviewers have already pointed out some of its flaws. But as Khoury addresses in Origin, both in the book's opening line and repeatedly throughout, perfect is in the eye of the beholder, and Origin, at this point in my life, was absolutely perfect for me. LOVED it, and unlike some of the other YA I've read recently, I find myself still thinking about it a day later.
September 6, 2012
4.5 but I'm rounding up. I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this book and I still can't get over how much I loved it. The beginning was a little slow for me which is why I'm giving it 4.5 and not 5. I think what I loved most about this book is that it is stand alone. These days, authors of YA fiction have been dragging out stories, which is great because it gets teens to read, but at the same time, it's very hard to commit to an entire series. Origin was great because it was excellent in its own right. There was no wait to read the conclusion. Khoury tied Pia and Eio's story together perfectly, but it wasn't just them. She really tied up most of the loose ends (with the exception of that epilogue which might be a jumping point into another book if this one does well).
She did a terrific job of making the reader connect with Pia and really empathize with her. Obviously, I'm not immortal, but I was able to understand how Pia felt about her immortality and what was driving all of her decisions throughout the book. I love that she was thrown the curveball that is Eio (I still want to know how to pronounce his name, btw) and it was completely fitting that this 17 year old's world is tilted askew by a cute boy and new older sister figure (Harriet Fields). That end was slightly predictable, but more because it was what I was hoping for. The way Khoury did it though, and the whole thought/understanding process Pia goes through was terrific. Highly recommend.
She did a terrific job of making the reader connect with Pia and really empathize with her. Obviously, I'm not immortal, but I was able to understand how Pia felt about her immortality and what was driving all of her decisions throughout the book. I love that she was thrown the curveball that is Eio (I still want to know how to pronounce his name, btw) and it was completely fitting that this 17 year old's world is tilted askew by a cute boy and new older sister figure (Harriet Fields). That end was slightly predictable, but more because it was what I was hoping for. The way Khoury did it though, and the whole thought/understanding process Pia goes through was terrific. Highly recommend.
July 15, 2014
Taky se vám stává, že dočtete knihu a pak na ni jen tak zíráte a říkáte si, co s ní vlastně máte udělat?
Pia je otravně nafoukaná a 100% přesvědčená, že je dokonalá. Chápu, že jí to všichni říkali, ale stejně mě to dost otravuje.
Vlastně celá ta myšlenky byla geniální. CO se v Malé Cam odehrávalo, čeho chtěli dosáhnout. Jo, to se autorce povedlo. Bohužel pak se do toho přimotá Eio a já prostě mezi ním a Piou nevidím ani necítím žádnou vášeň, žádné jiskření. Jejich pokus o vztah je jediná věk, která to tak nějako sráží.
Jinak je doopravdy všechno dobře promyšlené a konec, když zjistíme, jak je to s tím katalyzátorem, tak je to fakticky nářez.
Nejméně oblíbenou postavou je její matka, tý bych dala pár facek a kulku navrch.
Pia je otravně nafoukaná a 100% přesvědčená, že je dokonalá. Chápu, že jí to všichni říkali, ale stejně mě to dost otravuje.
Vlastně celá ta myšlenky byla geniální. CO se v Malé Cam odehrávalo, čeho chtěli dosáhnout. Jo, to se autorce povedlo. Bohužel pak se do toho přimotá Eio a já prostě mezi ním a Piou nevidím ani necítím žádnou vášeň, žádné jiskření. Jejich pokus o vztah je jediná věk, která to tak nějako sráží.
Jinak je doopravdy všechno dobře promyšlené a konec, když zjistíme, jak je to s tím katalyzátorem, tak je to fakticky nářez.
Nejméně oblíbenou postavou je její matka, tý bych dala pár facek a kulku navrch.
October 1, 2012
Debut author, Jessica Khoury drops into the YA scene with a novel that defines unique. Set in the wilderness of the jungle, with the scientific promises of immortality, Origin is the epitome of uniqueness.
Pia, as headstrong as she is, has no idea how life is outside the glass walls of her home. And even if she had the urge to leave her glass home, she would never be able to leave the electrified perimeter surrounding the compound of Little Cam.
It takes a fiery new scientist for her to ponder the question: is the electrified fence meant to keep intruders from coming in? Or Pia from getting out?
Read Full Review Here
Pia, as headstrong as she is, has no idea how life is outside the glass walls of her home. And even if she had the urge to leave her glass home, she would never be able to leave the electrified perimeter surrounding the compound of Little Cam.
It takes a fiery new scientist for her to ponder the question: is the electrified fence meant to keep intruders from coming in? Or Pia from getting out?
Read Full Review Here
January 30, 2015
Lots of mixed reviews for this book so I was pretty hesitant to read it. But I have to say I enjoyed and liked it! I think the concept for the book is freakin way awesome and loved the writing style kept me highly engaged. Look forward to reading more books by this author.
September 2, 2016
4.5/5 Stars
Another great story by Khoury! Can't wait to get my hands on the next book!
Another great story by Khoury! Can't wait to get my hands on the next book!
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