Pages: 384
Published: January 28th 2014 by HarperTeen
Series: Uninvited #1
Source: HarperTeen via Edelweiss
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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.
I was SO excited to read Uninvited. I remember when I first heard about it I was like, YES… this will be the dystopian that cures all my reluctance. And then it wasn’t…
Uninvited opens up showing how perfect Davy’s life is. Her boyfriend is sought after by every female in school, she is a musical prodigy all set to go off to Juilliard when she graduates, her best friend loves her and relies on her and her family is extremely well off. By setting up the novel this way it really shows you how far the ball is going to drop when it’s revealed that she has HTS.
I liked Davy. But I didn’t love her. Strangely enough I didn’t feel much personal attachment to her. The reason being is that there was really no character development. I would there think would be because she has just learned that she has this illness and has to make her way in the world, or maybe I just missed it, but I didn’t find there was enough. All of the characters, Sean, Mitchell, Sabine, Gil, that were close to Davy I also liked but again, I felt like there was a lot of missed opportunities in development of the relationships. You do see a bit of it with Sean but in a sense it was just kind of.. no relationship and then one. We miss the part of where it comes together. These things alone added up to me being really detached from the characters and made me not pull into the story like I would have liked.
The plot was ok enough, fairly fast paced but somewhat choppy. I had a hard time figuring out the timeline at first as it didn’t really say at times and often I found I was farther ahead in their life than I had thought.
There were two things that I found rather strange. One was the title, Uninvited basically means she was asked to leave school. That was it… and it happens within the first chapter or two. I just found it odd that the title is something that is not referenced, other than once. Another thing was the strangely mismatched pop culture references. Actually this alone, was something that really made me question the story. It is referenced that Davy’s mother said her father looked like Brad Pitt and Davy said, “whoever that was”. Then later The Beatles, Glee and Johnny Cash were referenced. Ok understandable.. The Beatles and Johnny Cash are both legendary in music but Glee? I may or may not be the biggest Gleek around so I’m not discrediting them… but do I really that future children are going to know Glee over Brad Pitt? No. Brad Pitt has been in a ton of movies that have since become cult classics. Pop Culture is still obviously popular in this future America, so I hardly think that Brad Pitt’s movies would have been forgotten if everyone still knows who Glee is. I know it’s a strange thing to notice but this really made the story a bit unbelievable to me.
One thing that I really enjoyed however was the emotional aspect of Uninvited. It was incredibly heartbreaking to know that people are treated like animals based on their kill gene status. Branded, shut into rooms like cages, it was absolutely disgusting. That really got to me and a particular branding scene had me in tears with the emotion that particular scene held.
All in all, Uninvited was just ok. I will be reading the next book because I really want to know what happens with Davy and her friends. It’s an interesting possibility of a future world and has drawn me in enough to want to continue.
I noticed the pop culture thing too! It was just a passing annoyance, though. I really enjoyed this while I was reading (gave it 4 stars) but it’s already fading. The only thing that made it stand out was the uniqueness of HTS. The rest of the book…not so much =/
If you’re looking for a great dystopian, have you tried Partials? It’s probably the best dystopian I’ve ever read, besides The Hunger Games. Dan Wells is a pro at world building! And there’s not heavy romance (I don’t know how you feel about that, but it’s good for me). You should give it a try 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed it while you read it! But it’s a shame that the excitement is fading. I’m hoping the next book will have some more action. I think it disappointed me is that HTS was SO unique like you said and then I wasn’t surprised at all lol.
I’m meh with romance. I love romance when it’s marketed that way, like I really enjoy contemporary and PNR but I can take it or leave it in dystopians and other books like that. I enjoyed that Partials didn’t have all of that fluff in it. 🙂
I am sad to hear that you didn’t love this one, but I appreciate the honest review. I still have this one on my TBR, but I am going to hold off on it for a little longer.
Honestly, take my review with a grain of salt Pamela. I’m on a major dystopian burnout so that very well could have added into the mix. It is very unique but the execution could have been a bit better IMO.
I felt the same way about this book. I didn’t really care too much about the characters. The plot was pretty good, but I thought the world-building could have been better. I didn’t even notice the pop culture reference but now that you mention it… So yeah. I liked it enough to continue, but I’m hoping for more out of the next book. Great review!
Thanks Rebecca! I agree… there was SO much that could have been built upon because the concept of HTS is so unique but I found it kind of fell flat.
Great review! I am happy that I wasn’t the only one who was really bothered by the references… my notes have a huge ‘How do you not know who Brad Pitt is!?!?!?’ in them in caps.
HAHAHA yes ! I made a ton of notes about them too 😛
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