Review: "Welcome to the new age..."
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2013
3.5/5 starsWelcome to the new age. On the outside Zoe Vanderveen has a perfect life: perfect looks, perfect house, perfect boyfriend. She is one of the privileged- she is a GAP (genetically altered person). She lives in Sol City, which is close to Los Angeles or the outside as they call it, where many 'Naturals' (non-GAP's) live. However, as perfect as Zoe's life is- she is starting to see the cracks in the perfection. Her brother and her boyfriend have been working long hours at the university science lab. When she confronts her boyfriend Jackson about it, he is evasive and acts as if he's just tired. When her brother Liam goes missing that's when Zoe's world is turned upside down. Why would he leave without telling her? Why can't the authorities track his chip implant? Why is everyone acting so nonchalant about his disappearance? And why is her boyfriend acting so strangely? All of these questions leave Zoe unsettled.I liked that Zoe was so determined to find answers and find out the truth. She could have just accepted her brother's disappearance and grieved along with her parents, but instead she took action. She knew it wasn't like her brother to just disappear- at least not without telling her. And the mysterious note that she found in his room has to have some significance. After seeing her maid's son Noah Brody on TV actively protesting GAP's and their technology along with a person named Zach Dexter, she takes a chance that this Dexter boy might be related to the note in her brother's room that simply read: DEXTER. Zoe must leave her life of comfort and safety behind and venture outside, where GAP's are not well-received. After changing her appearance, she knows she must get into Noah's inner circle if she wants answers. However, try as she may to fool Noah, she can't and he ends up discovering she's really the girl his mom works for. Having no one else to turn to, Zoe entrusts Noah to help her find out what's happened to her brother.I liked Noah's character too. Here is this girl, who he doesn't even really like because of who she is and who she has connections to, and he is endangering his own life to help her. As the two start spending more time with one another, they end up realizing they like each other, despite the fact that a GAP with a Natural would never work or be accepted. Being raised differently, they obviously have different beliefs- Noah is anti GAP and Zoe IS a GAP! She believes in the science and the research and he believes in faith and the natural order of things- watching them have a passionate discussion over their ideals is awesome. I'm glad Strauss didn't skirt around the fact that these two have very different ideals and come from two very different worlds. It really made their relationship more realistic and more intriguing.I think Strauss did a really good job of unraveling the main storyline quite well. I had an idea of who was involved in Liam's disappearance, but other than that, I didn't predict quite a few of the other extenuating circumstances. The pacing went well and I was a bit surprised by a POV change more than halfway through the book, but I actually ended up liking that. It was cool to get into Noah's head, especially after what happens...This is the first book in the series and while it doesn't end on a cliffhanger, it definitely leaves me ready to read what happens next!