Before starting this book there is one very important fact you must know. Thankfully the wonderful Wendy warned me before I started Origin. Are you read?
Yes, Pia has a pet jaguar. No, she never attempts to ride him.
Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home—and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.
Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia’s origin—a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.
Are you over that bombshell yet? No? Well, don’t worry. It took me a couple days too.
The first thing you see in this story is, well, the story. The entirety of it in metaphor form with a bird in an electrified cage. A tired bird who is desperate enough to not care that the cage is electrified.
Origin is the first of the Breathless Reads 2012 books to hit shelves and while I do not think it is their strongest title I also don’t think it is thier weakest. Pia is an intelligent, strong, girl who has been raised in a sterile environment. Her loveless existense has definitely afftected the way she sees the world but you can tell that she is desperate for emotions and family even if she herself does not know what she is desperate for.
And despite never even trying to ride the jaguar you can tell their is genuine affection between the two of them and it’s a counter point to how she is with her mother. And as she tested her boundaries more and more and did everything she could to learn more than the scientists she grew up with wanted her to know, who could feel her yearning for family and love.
And I really liked that the sci-fi was offset against that. As much of the story was about the psuedo-science and the mysticism it was nice to see it focusing on what a human being really needs.
Speaking of the mysticism I also really liked that it was a science ficiton story but also had this element of fantasy to it. Not like, traditional fantasy but…yeah, the only word I can think of is mysticism.
I will say, I liked all of the secondary cast. I think, even the ones that were jerks, were that way to serve the story and everyone played their part well. Which, I don’t know, I also kind have had a problem with. Or, hrmm not a problem. But it made every character seem to exist as an extention of Pia. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The story was meant, I feel, to revolve around her. But because of this there aren’t any real surprises about characters motivations or anything. You know who everyone is when you first meet them and what affect they are going to have on Pia. The story is just about watching it all unfold.
Still, I did enjoy it. And I liked the ending. And I really, really liked that it was a stand-alone.