Hitting The Reset Button

Quote This…

“He had been willing to die because he refused to take a life. But me, I contemplated shooting everyone.”

Loss is a natural part of life. We are taught to accept it at a very young age. Our family pet dies, one of our beloved grandparents passes away…ashes to ashes, dust to dust. But what our family/friends/ministers fail to tell us is what happens AFTER the loss. Not a week later when you are laying flowers on a grave, or a month later when you are cleaning out your Aunt June’s attic. No. What they conveniently forget to tell you is what happens the exact moment you realize someone you once desperately loved is gone.

You wish for them to wake back up.

Now what if someone walked up to you and told you it was a possibility. That the world around you is now different. The laws of human nature no longer apply. You can have your loved one back. No more grieving. No more pain. What would you say?

I’m going to assume your answer would be yes. Goodbye cruel world, hello beautiful reunion.

But what if rebooting your loved one came at a price? While they may come back to you stronger and more powerful than they were before, they are also “colder, emotionless. Evil copies of what they used to be.” What would your answer be then?

Funny how 3 little words (colder, emotionless, evil) can make words like grief, pain and loss sound like a trip to Disney World huh.

This is the world Amy Tintera’s created in her novel “Reboot”. A world where your body can heal it’s self and start over…but at what cost?

I have been waiting to read Reboot for much longer than I would like to admit. It has been the topic of more than one post for me, and on more than one occasion I think I may have offered up a sacrifice to the publishing Gods for just a little peek at it (I’d be more specific, but I tend to black out in my moments of full on crazy.) With months of waiting, comes the weight of unrealistic expectations. You convince yourself that THIS will be the book that blows every other book you’ve ever read out of the water. Watch out Pride and Prejudice…you’re about to get served! You share the cover art with your friends. You stalk it’s Goodreads page. You buy a fish, for the sole purpose of naming it Wren. And then the book comes out, and you quickly realize you are afraid to read it. That you “might” have set yourself up for failure. That there is no way one book can cure early onset Alzheimers, and stop Global Warming. It’s just a book. What are you supposed to do now?

Well…you read it. That’s what you do.

And though you realize early on that the world may not spontaneously combust if every sole on the planet doesn’t read this book immediately, you also realize something else. It’s pretty darn good. It’s ok to keep reading.

Reboot was a bit of an enigma for me. What I expected to get out of it, and what I actually did…reside on two very different planets. I went into Reboot expecting action, espionage, an evil dystopic government who likes to create undead superheros, and a cute boy. And while I DID get all of those things (and enjoyed every last  freaking minute of it) what I didn’t expect to find was a strong undercurrent of hope, love and most importantly…forgiveness.

But let’s talk about the action first.

To say this book is fast-moving would be a gross understatement. (Think the Autobahn at rush hour.) There is not a page that goes by in which something monumental does not happen. It is FULL ON all of the time. Catching your breath is not an option. Fight scenes lead into mission scenes. Mission scenes bleed into training scenes, and training scenes open up into rabid man-eating lunch hours. (I mean that in the literal sense.) For most…the breakneck speed may be a problem, but for me? I think the non-stop action makes the smaller moments of stillness that much more impactful.

And its in these moments (the beautiful stillness) where the story really leaves it’s mark.

To make a long story short…Wren is a 178 reboot. That means she is a cold-blooded corporate killing machine.

Emotions? Please…those are for the weak. And she is perfectly happy with her evil, kind-of human but not really, existence until someone challenges her way of thinking.

Watching Wren’s crumpling realization that maybe she IS more human than she gives herself credit for (stereotypes are a hard thing to break) is what provides the realistic human connection in this story. It’s what allows us to engage with a character who is supposed to be a heartless, selfish version of her old self. We understand her in ways she doesn’t even understand herself, and it’s because of this that we have hope. Hope for her as a person. Hope for her as a friend, and hope for her as a means to an end…no matter the trials she must face to get there.

The combination of action plus heart is utterly captivating. Solidifying its rightful place somewhere deep inside you before you even realize it has broken the surface. The characters evoke empathy were there is supposed to be none, and the plot encourage imagination in the most outlandish of ways.

I was right…this book will not end world hunger or bring peace to the Middle East, but it might just have you questioning how you see YOURSELF. Are you a Corporate Reboot? Doing what you are told because you think you deserve nothing better? Or are you a free thinking Reboot…who realizes there is more to you than meets the eye?

Overall…a very enjoyable book with the perfect ending.

Get it, Live it, Love it…pass it on.

Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: You are not one dimensional…see what everyone else sees too.

To view the book trailer visit Entertainment Weekly Online!