Review: Altered by Jennifer Rush

Altered
Jennifer Rush
Series: Altered #1
Publication date: January 1st 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: 4 stars

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When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them. 

Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.

Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

Altered is one hell of a roller coaster ride.

There are four boys living in the lab below Anna's house. Sam, Nick, Trev, and Cas are genetically altered to be the perfect soldiers - smarter, stronger, and faster than the average guy -, and they're all being held, monitored, and treated by Anna's dad as part of a project founded by the Branch. Anna doesn't know why they're there, what the government plans to do with them, or whatever happened to the boys before they got to her house without any memory of who they were.

When the Branch decides to terminate the project, the boys are presented with an opportunity to escape the confines of the lab and go in search of answers about themselves and what lead them to become what they are now. What they don't plan for is Anna being forced to come with them, after their attempt to free themselves doesn't go as well as they hoped. And as they look for clues about the mess they're in, Anna and the boys discover that some things aren't what they seem, and that they're more connected to each other than they all originally thought.

The idea of genetically altered eighteen-year-old boys, who age at a much slower pace than normal human beings, being held up in a lab underground and monitored by a Doctor and his daughter is so different from what's out there that I was instantly attracted to this book. The plot twists during the story are all well thought-out and written, the characters endearing, and it all comes together in what is an incredibly fun and interesting read!