ARC Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Release Date: May 7th, 2013
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen

Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

Reboot was a different kind of novel. Everything was balanced: the growing romance, the amazing plot and the drastic characters' development. While in many novels, the romance rather outshines the other aspects of the novel, in Reboot the romance only added charm to a mostly dark story.

Instead of zombies, Tintera introduces the Reboots. Teenagers who die and are rebooted and come back to life with abilities. Our main character, Wren, was dead for 178 minutes, which means that her humanity is almost nonexistent. While the government misuses the reboots as soldiers, the population rather fears them. Tintera did an amazing job introducing us to Wren's world. Authors often forget to tell us more about the world the characters live in, yet this was certainly not the case in Reboot.

Being dead for so long, Wren didn't retain much of her humanity. She is really cold, serious and determined. But it's Callum (dead for only 22 minutes) who brings out the real (or more human-like) Wren. Her change throughout the novel is palpable. The story with her best friend was also really touching. But I really enjoyed Wren as a main character; she was different from the typical heroine.

Reboot was entertaining and different, action-filled but romantic. The ending was interesting enough to make us yearn for the next novel. While some things did bother me in this novel like Wren's thoughtlessness (though understandable) or how everything turns out as expected. However Reboot was a good enough novel, that these slight problems were easily overlooked.

Thanks to HarperTeen and Edelweiss for providing me with a copy of Reboot for review!