Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Series: Uninvited #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Edelweiss
ISBN: 9780062233653
Release Date: January 28, 2014
Pages:
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The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she's destined to become a murderer.
When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.
Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.
Uninvited and I had a lot of ups and downs. After reading Foreplay by Sophie Jordan I was super stoked to read Uninvited even though it was a completely different genre. I really loved the characters in Foreplay and maybe that’s why I did connect with this book.
The biggest problem I had with Uninvited was the characters. The main character, Davy Hamilton, was a bit boring. I got that she’s just a regular girl who had her world shattered when she is found with the kill gene, but I just couldn’t connect with her. Most of the characters were flat and one-dimensional. I didn’t bond with any of them. Sean was meant to be mysterious and a loner, but he just seemed empty and blank to me. I didn't get any sense of who he was.
Hardly anyone had any emotional reaction in the entire book except for some of the sociopaths when they were attacking others. Davy’s brother Mitchell was the only character who had sort of reaction to her having the kill gene. Her mother barely acknowledged it happened, and her father pretty much disappeared from her life and was constantly working. Mitchell is the black sheep of the family. He’s constantly in trouble and has been kicked out of school countless times. Mitchell breaks down when he finds out that Davy has the kill gene and it’s heartening because you see how much he cares about his younger sister.
“Don’t apologize for being smarter than I am. I got over it. Basically, I’m . . . I’m just proud of you. And this crap doesn’t change that. It doesn’t change you.”
The plot did intrigue me and you could see how the country was getting worse and worse and it was only a matter of time until the Agency was given the power to control the HTS carriers. It didn't seem like not enough time has passed from the present until when the book takes place for all the downturn and violence to happen. The book cites stats from 2017, but I can’t envision how so much violence can happen in such a short time span.
The one thing that was done well was the sense of fear for Davy’s future. Little bits of events would happen that made you scared for her well-being. She no longer had any rights and no one will ever believe her again as she is now this violent and unstable girl.
I am going to read the second and final book in the series when it is released as I do want to see how this all turns out.
