Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Title: Reboot (Reboot #1)
Author: Amy Tintera
Published: March 7th 2013
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Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).
Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.
The perfect soldier is done taking orders.

Dude! This book seemed like it had all the elements of a perfect dystopian novel. A great cover? Intriguing blurb? Heavy on the action? Possibly spiced with a little romance? I thought it was going to be amazing. Which it was at the beginning. I remember seeing very average ratings prior diving into it. Once I started reading Reboot, I couldn’t possibly understand why it had these mediocre ratings. Then I got to halfway and downhill it went...

“Humans had a brightness to them, a glow that only death extinguished.”

Reboot started out as a mystery to me. Wren is on an assignment and the person she is after is terrified of her after seeing Wren’s number: 178. You see, she is basically without emotions and when you start the story, she is pretty much colder than Antarctica. She is the perfect soldier and it was intriguing. I was all:

The way the system was described and how Wren found it to be righteous was the making of a good dystopian. You know, the way the main characters always discover themselves fighting against the system they previously thought was superior and built on the right reasons? I knew it was sailing towards that way and I was happy about it. To see Wren explore her human side again and to take this cruel system down and free the people of fear, slavery and murders? I was all about that. Until it happened...

See, we have Callum—a guy who brought light and color to this depressive system. He was dead for 22 minutes and is the opposite of a great soldier. He tries to befriend Wren and pushes the boundaries everywhere he goes which made me instantly like him. We all knew the romance was just around the corner and I love my romance in books. However, while there have been very rare cases I've liked this kind of happenings, I usualy do not like when books are disguised as dystopian, fantasy, thriller etc when it’s more about the romance. If I was running for my life, I wouldn’t stop to make out and forget myself making out in a battle field. These two just couldn’t get enough of each other and were making out or looking into each other’s eyes the entire time they were on the run.

Do you think Katniss and Peeta would have made out while they were fighting for their lives and the guys who were trying to kill them were right around the corner? Do you think Tris and Four would? What about Rose and Dimitri? I know not all couples are the same, but seriously? Seriously? This was just too much to handle. Were they high on adrenaline? If someone could explain this to me, it'd be very appreciated. By the time I was half way through, I was just hoping the book would be over soon, plus I already predicted the ending..

I tried writing my review after I finished the book, but the second half of it made me so frustrated that I couldn’t type a word. Here I am, three months later, and I still don’t know how I feel about Reboot. I want to read the second novel because I would love to see how things go with the world building and other characters, but I do not care for the romance and that’s a first. I have absolutely no interest in reading a romance book while I’m hoping to find a character-driven dystopian novel. What a huge disappointment Reboot was though. It was a book with great potential that turned into a big, big mess. Not impressed.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

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