Book Review: Origin by Jessica Khoury

Synopsis:  Pia has always known her destiny.  She was genetically engineered and bred to be perfect, to be immortal, by a team of scientists in a secret compound hidden deep in the Amazon rainforest.   There she is trained and given tests to show how perfect she is and to prepare her to join  the team of scientist in creating a new race of immortals.  This has been her dream – to have others like her.  However, one day, when Pia finds a hole in the fence surrounding the compound, she sneaks out.  Outside she meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village, and the two begin to piece together the truth about Pia’s origin – a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Pros:

Origin is rich in detail, both describing the daily life of those on the compound and the rainforest that surrounds it.  Even when Pia goes into the village you are given a sense of really being there.  The compare and contrast of life on the compound versos life in the village was juggled fairly well.  The overall story is a combination of science fiction, mystery, and adventure.

Pia is called perfect by everyone – except for Uncle Antonio who calls her Chipmunk – and believes this until she meets Eio and realizes that she is ignorant of the world around her.  This is because the scientist have purposely hidden information about the world.  Pia’s text books are often filled with blacked out paragraphs and pictures.  While she is well read in biology and amazing at physics and math, she doesn’t know music, art, or reading books for the sake of enjoyment – the horror!  Yet this is an interesting character trait.  It’s not often that we have a main character who doesn’t sit down to read and pass time (like most readers) but is busy doing something and thinking.  This is an active and driven character who we can admire.

As for the romance between Eio and Pia I’m happy to say that it is not intense or wild as the back of the book leads you to believe.  They are friends who have strange feelings for each other.  Pia has trouble understanding her feelings for Eio (especially since no one talked to her about romantic feelings, they only explained the hormones of sexual interest).  And this makes the romance one sided since Eio knows he likes her.  As for the sexuality it was surprisingly low key.  The most intense moment between these characters was when they were an inch away from kissing (for the first time!) but are interrupted (spoiler? Oops).  Screw it, the sexiest part is that they don’t kiss until the end and even that is not described but left in mystery.

Cons:

While I liked hearing what Pia did, I was bored with the explination of plants, animals, and the Latin names for them.  Then again, it’s a science fiction type of story so it has to have the science with the fiction.  I’m not much of a science reader so this was a turn off to me.  However that doesn’t mean it’s a complete con since many science fiction readers would love to read those things.  I did have a problem with how much bias attitudes were going on.  The first 1/4 of the book tell us how savage the villagers are and how amazing the scientists are.  Then the rest of the book is a combination of Pia not knowing if she should leave the compound and go to the village, and everyone talking about how bad the scientist are.  While Khoury does show why the scientists believe they are right the book just comes off as one sided.  Until of course you find out how evil the scientist are, after that I totally hate the scientist and wanted them to die.

The only other thing that is a con, not necessary for me but for others, is the matter of mixing similar DNA (incest).  I talked about this before with my review of V.C. Andrew’s Flowers in the Attic; incest isn’t an issue to me.  However, Pia was bred through incest and genetically engineered to only have the best genes.  Her own mother and father are brother and sister (and Uncle Antonio really is her uncle).  The scientist use in-vitro fertilization for this so no physical form of incest takes place. 

Final Verdict:

To quote Josh Sundquist’s description of Origin,

 “A lush, dreamy page-turner that will live forever in the hearts of its readers.” 

Origin is definitely a beautiful book full of details and knowledge that will make you feel like you’re learning as you read.  Although I had trouble reading when those pretty descriptions and knowledge came plummeting out I did enjoy the book.  Had I not received this book for Christmas I would have gone to the library to read it and that’s what I suggest you should do before buying it.  Origin is a good science fiction novel yet it isn’t something I’m crazy about.  I own it, I read it, and I don’t regret it.  In my world that is a good book; something that I enjoyed and I could go back and read years later and still have that same enjoyment.
This is diffidently a MUST read.