Review: Reboot by Amy Tintera

Reboot by Amy Tintera
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication date: May 7th 2013
My rating: 4 stars

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.

Reboot was another novel which if you suggested to me some time last year, I probably would have overlooked. But now with my new and fast adoration of dystopians/fantasy full with tantalising tense scenarios, our characters being pushed to the limits to discover the truth, and exquisite world building. I just can’t stop devouring them up.  

Reboot had the perfect unique concept to lure me in; after a child dies, they can reboot. Not every individual does reboot and if they do it doesn’t mean that they will end up as a solid well oiled Reboot in the long term. Reboots are under the orders of HARC, in order to retain order amongst the chaos, Reboots are trained up and sent out on missions to bring back people not obeying orders no questions asked. Typically the longer a human takes to reboot after they die, the stronger that reboot will be; both mentally and physically. After an injury they heal quicker and they’re more closed off from human emotions. Wren 178 is the toughest Reboot out there, she’s been a Reboot since the age of 12 and it took her 178 minutes to wake up after she died. She’s adapted well and carried out every mission possible no questions asked. But as soon as the new recruits and Callum 22 are brought in, he has Wren questioning who she is and what HARC are about.

Wren was an easy character I could connect to, she didn’t have the best life before she became a Reboot, but now it’s all she knows and it’s something she’s good at. She gets a rush when she’s set a new mission and feels a thrill in the chase, but she’s never stopped to consider if what she’s doing is right and all the innocent people she’s killing in the first place. At first I really liked the introduction of Callum in the story, having rebooted after just 22 minutes, Callum’s close enough to being human; he can’t deal with pain and brings out this cute smile that Wren can’t fathom. I liked how spending time with him he brought Wren more in touch with her human emotions and feelings. Despite being tough, it wasn’t nice that other Reboots didn’t want to get close to Wren because they were scared of her, but Callum was able to look past all that and bring out this caring and wonderful girl that had been hidden away for so long.

What I enjoyed most about Callum’s and Wren’s relationship was the reversal of roles, Wren was there to train Callum up into the toughest Reboot he could be and Callum without knowingly intending to, changed the image quite dramatically of one of the toughest Reboots. I liked the banter and fun they had in the training sessions, but also their tension infused scenes when out on missions. You knew when it came down to both characters there would never be a dull moment. However what I didn’t like was the direction the second half of the book went in, (I can’t actually believe I’m saying this), but it was too focused on the romance. I preferred the first half where there was a nice mix up of the fast pace, action and figuring out what was going on with the Reboots. The second half was just as thrilling, but it was too much of a big shift of focus on the romance for my liking.

Amy Tintera deserves a whole lot of credit for writing such a enthralling debut read, not only was I immediately drawn into the Reboot, but it was also impossible to guess which way the story would go. At the end I was so scared out of my mind, that someone was going to screw them over and they’d never make it out. Despite a few minor irks, Reboot is definitely a promising start to a fresh new series that I will be looking forward to continuing.