Origin - Jessica Khoury

This book review is of Origin, a teen sci-fi novel. For the most part, this is a positive review, although I do have a few things to point out that I was not a fan of. I am not planning on going over the plot here, but if you are interested in learning more, click on the title to go to the book's Amazon page.

I liked the plot for the most part, though the ending was a bit confusing in spots. Some plot points could have used a little more explanation, and I was a bit confused in a few spots. Also, a word on timing. About half way through the book, I had gotten the impression that maybe a month had passed since the beginning of the book, but then there was a comment about it only being a little over a week. Now, was I simply wrong about what point in time she was referring had only been a week ago? If not, this plot gets a lot weaker...

The characters were quite good in my opinion for the most part. In fact, I was rather surprised by how many great, unique characters there were. There were a few times near the end where a character did something that seemed out of character, but for the most part they were the best part of this book, with one exception. The love interest had pretty much no personality. He was flat and uninteresting. I did not like him at all, and it was impossible to see what the main character saw in him.

The writing, while nothing special, was engaging. It was a quick read, and the writing pushed it along nicely. It is the kind of writing that I just really did not notice. The words were hardly there, leaving the story in my hands. This is in contrast to someone like John Steinbeck or Terry Pratchett. I know, very different writers, but with both of them the writing is almost as much of a reason to read them as the story. They both have fantastic writing that is incredibly hard to explain if you have never read them. Far on the other hand is something like the Babysitter's Club, where the writing is even worse then the story. In fact, the writing is so terrible that every time I have tried to read one of them, the inner editor in me just about had a panic attack.

Anyway, the writing of this book was the kind that faded away and let the story take over. I find that books like this are often very enjoyable in the short term, but don't always have the staying power that great writers have. One exception to this is Harry Potter. I think they have that kind of writing, but they have such a fantastic story that it does stick around.

To sum it all up: It is a good book, and I recommend it to anyone who finds the plot summary interesting. You will probably like it.

Have you read this book? If so, please let me know what you thought in the comments, and I'll add your opinion to this post.