Book Review: Origin by Jessica Khoury

Title: Origin
Author: Jessica Khoury
Publisher: Razorbill
Date of Publication: Sept. 4, 2012
Format: hardcover, 394 pages
Source: bought
Get your own: Amazon | [ash-ling] Booksellers | Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

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.
Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

           
My Thoughts:
I loved this story!  I was super excited about it as soon as I found out about it and was practically drooling on myself when it came in the mail (after I bought it from a wonderful indie bookstore in the author's hometown).  The cover itself is pretty spectacular in itself.  The lush and dark jungle in the background, and there in the middle is this bright being coming forward.  Oh and the words are raised too which is always fun to caress.  Yes, I know I have issues but I just can't help it!  I love books that much!

All of the characters in Origin are very interesting but my favorites were the jungle tribe, Ai'oans, and yes, Eio, too.  I think I fell in love with Eio the minute he walks into the picture.  I mean wow!  But I digress.
Let's talk about our main protagonist, Pia, who is this immortal girl living among many scientists in the middle of the Amazon jungle.  When I first met Pia I felt like she had this air about her; maybe a little uppity in her "perfection", especially when the new female scientist comes to Little Cam.  But it didn't take me long to fall in love with her sweet nature, her ability to find the good in everything, and dangerous curiosity.
Even though Pia seems so indestructible, we come to find how fragile she really is, especially emotionally.

The antagonists in the story are very very creepy.  It was almost scary because this world doesn't seem to far off from what these people did.  We were showed how far a person was willing to go to achieve their dreams.  And it was a frightening concept.

The plot lines in this novel are just amazing to me!  It is science fiction but with a young adult twist to it.  Usually science fiction is really not my thing but I found it nearly impossible to put Origin down, staying up late into the night reading page after page of this beautifully descriptive jungle.  Ms. Khoury does a wonderful job of describing the jungle in such prose that made me gasp at the picture in my mind.  I was transformed into an Ai'oan, walking through this gorgeous and very dangerous place as I kept reading.  It was truly an outstanding journey with Pia.  As Pia discovered heart wrenching secrets, we were also tore apart from the terrible lessons Pia had to learn.
I loved that among all the scientific discoveries, all the morality vs. immorality issues, there was a love story blossoming in the night.  Eio is one of  my favorite characters of the year.  He is smart, funny, mesmerizing, and has this snarky way about him, even though many of the Little Cam residents felt he was a savage.  Eio is a male character that believes wholeheartedly in his emotions, never once questioning his feelings.  Loved it!  Pia, however is as always a different matter.  But she was of course raised by scientists and learned to always question everything.

Origin is a great love story but it is so much more than that too.  It is more than just science fiction, more than young adult; it expands to cover many different genres and engulfs us into a world where one girl will have to choose between love and life.  This is one story that I recommend everyone read!
I gave it five hearts!

*Every copy of Origin bought from ash-ling Booksellers is a signed copy.  It is the indie bookstore in Jessica Khoury's hometown, Toccoa, GA.