Uninvited (Uninvited, #1)

by Sophie Jordan

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Young Adult book reviews

4.5 Stars

Uninvited was AMAAAZING!! The best part about this book was that it was full of emotion and feels, from beginning to end. It totally owned me.

People are tested for HTS and those that are found to have the gene are basically shunned. The government pretends they still have rights by allowing them to go to school and live in the same neighborhoods as people who don't have the gene—but in reality, they are far from treated equally. Sure they can attend school, but they can't interact with non-HTS students. They are locked up in a CAGE all day and given assignments by teachers they never meet. Complete isolation.

And as the book goes on, Sophie Jordan really shows us how people with HTS are set up to fail. They're pushed, bullied, discriminated against, until they build up enough hatred and resentment to want to go out there and destroy, a desire they never had to begin with. It was a sad, and yet fascinating idea, and you can draw many parallels to real life (like racism—the physical separation and "us vs. them" mentality). It broke my heart to watch Davy's life be ripped away and to see her friends turn on her so easily. SO MANY FEELS!!

One great thing about Uninvited is that it really makes you think, and I love that in a book! Are people just born to be murderers? Or are they made into murderers? That was constantly going through my mind as I read the book.

In a few ways, Uninvited reminded me of The Program by Suzanne Young. They're both interesting stories with tons of emotion, and a cool plot, even if not a super fast-paced one. Like The Program, the story in Uninvited is fairly simple, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Despite its simplicity, it kept me interested and engaged. It was a super quick read!

On top of that, we have a delicious, slow-moving romance. I loved how I was 100% on Davy's page in terms of love interests. At the beginning, I loved Davy's boyfriend. LOVED HIM! He was so sweet and I wanted to hug them both. Then when he kind of turned on her, I hated him, just like Davy did. I wanted to bitch slap him so hard. Then over the rest of the story, I slowly started falling for Sean, just like Davy. We were completely synced, and I loved it! I hate it when a character falls for a guy a lot faster/slower than I do, because it just messes with my connection to the book (this so was not the case in Uninvited!).

I think my one complaint is that we don't get a lot of history behind HTS. We don't really learn where it came from, when it was discovered, or what it even really is. I would have liked a bit more information to better establish a background/history. Plus, I was just curious! But this wasn't a big enough issue to really turn me off the book or get frustrated.

Overall, I highly recommend Uninvited! It was a fabulous read, and just what I needed to yank me out of a sea of mediocre books. It's fun, interesting, original, swoony, and will have your brain in overdrive trying to figure out if nature or nurture wins out.