Altered by Jennifer Rush

Series: Altered (Book 1)
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (January 1, 2013)

They were made to forget. But they'll never forgive.

Everything about Anna's life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch, at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There's Nick, solemn and brooding; Cas, light-hearted and playful; Trev, smart and caring; and Sam . . . who's stolen Anna's heart.

When the Branch decides it's time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape. Anna's father pushes her to go with them, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs.

On the run, with her father's warning in her head, Anna begins to doubt everything she thought she knew about herself. She soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they're both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

I'm not really sure how to start this review. By that I mean I'm not sure how to review this book without being clear that I did like it, but that I also didn't.
Altered had a really interesting plot, which why I decided to read it, but then I was sadly disappointed. Sometimes it was entertaining and other times I was just wishing for the book to end.

Anna is the main character and I wasn't impressed with her at all. Her character just wasn't a strong one for me. I was really hoping for her character to develop throughout the book but it never did. By the end of the book, she was still the same as she was in the beginning.

Sadly, Sam wasn't my favorite either. His character never grew on me and it continued to remain the same by the end of the book. I didn't understand why Anna was so infatuated with him.
Sam and Anna's relationship made no sense to me. At all. There was no chemistry and Anna continued to fantasize about Sam. Claim him as hers. Get angry when a girl looked at him. And so much more. I just found it really annoying.

The other boys were a bit better than the main two in my opinion. Cas was the funniest and he reminded me a lot of my little sister. I have to say that Cas was the only good thing about this book. Also, every time something happened, Cas pretty much reacted like this:

Nick actually made sense most of the time but no one listens to him. I liked Trev's character too, especially because of how smart he is and how he memorizes quotes. The only time I was really shocked was when Trev....*SPOILER*--> ....was actually working undercover for The Branch. 

Other than that, the rest of the book was very predictable. This book was good, but not good enough for me. I really wanted to like it. Especially after seeing all the hype and positive reviews about it. I don't think I'll pick up the other books in this series. =/ 

 

I gave Altered a 2 out of 5 stars.