Starters (336 Pages)

Lissa Price is a new author for me. She has written a fantasy that often sounds more true than fantastic. I believe this may the start of a series which is not unlike The Hunger Games. So move over Catniss here comes Callie! Living on the West Coast, Callie has lost both her parents when a war with---dropped deadly SPORES on the inhabitants of California. Vaccines against these spores were only available to the very young and the very old. Most people between the ages of twenty and sixty died from exposure to these spores. Callie is left with her younger brother, Tyler and her friend, Michael to fend for themselves. Tyler is not well, and thus Callie feels that her only hope to earn enough money to care for him is to make her way to Beverly Hills and Prime Destination where she is promised a large amount of money if she loans her body to an Elder. The idea is that the Elder will be able to enter her body and live some time a life of youth and vigor not possible at the ages of 120+ years. Micro chips are planted in the back of Callie's head as well as in the back of Elders' heads. But Callie's chip is faulty and she remains in her own body, but is able to communicate with the Elder who was supposed to change places with her. What this Elder asks her to do, and who she meets along the way comprise the basis for this plot. It's a little scarey, but also exciting. Good read!