Review: Great Adventure for Alex Rider fans
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 4, 2013
3.5 stars. Reminded me of Anthony Horowitz's YA Alex Rider series with a hint of paranormal. I liked the premise of organ memory and look forward to more adventures of Ethan, Florida and Jake. A friend of ours got a bone marrow transplant and suddenly developed allergies that matched his brother's allergies. Since bone marrow is related to the immune system, this makes sense, but other kinds of "tissue memory" aren't that far a stretch.I had no problem suspending belief about seeing shadows of their organ host or even hearing his thought projections, but  the length of physical activity that these teens who are recovering from major surgery were supposed to perform wasn't believable at all after just weeks of healing.The opening scene was clever. Teenage males will appreciate the fast cars. I did not have a problem with the alternating 1st person POV between main characters, just go with it and be sure to notice the person "speaking" in the chapter, it will save you a ton of confusion. I think the guys' perspective seemed more realistic than girl's, so I was surprised that the author was female. 3 teenagers who faced their own mortality and are more responsible and mature for the life experience. Dylan Black's voice was interesting and a great way to disclose information.Their were a couple of scenes with gratuitous sexual inferences that though typical of teenage males weren't necessary or even interesting (I was reminded of the one scene included in a movie to get a PG-13 rating instead of PG). How many times must one explain the meaning of feedback? I kept mixing up the 2 boys and I thought that Florida was too whiny. Both boys find Florida pretty and appealing so I feel a dreaded love triangle forming.With-reservations:some sexual references, language, violence, biochemical poisoning, torture, threats, murder, pain and sufferingFor-review:Received a free review copy from the author for GoodReads We ♥ YA Books! group's  ARR #145.