Review: Uninvited

Title:  Uninvited
Series:  Uninvited #1
Author:  Sophie Jordan
Age Group:  Young Adult
Published:  January 28, 2014 by HarperTeen
Source:  Bought

When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

The first in a two-book series, Uninvited tackles intriguing questions about free will, identity, and human nature. Steeped in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan's trademark mix of gripping action and breathless romance, this suspenseful tale is perfect for fans of James Patterson, Michelle Hodkin, and Lisa McMann.

My Review:  I was so excited when I first heard about this book.  It sounded awesome!  A kill gene?  That was something I'd never read about and I saw a lot of potential for a story line involving that.  Unfortunately, despite a promising premise, this book fell very flat for me.

My biggest problem with this novel was the characters.  Initially, I liked Davy.  I sympathized with what she was going to and understood her reactions.  But then she just became so annoying and whiny.  I kept expecting to see her opinions change about the people who had HTS - especially Sean - but they never did!  Even when she was on the same level as them, she continued to look down her nose at them and judge them without even knowing if they had done anything or not.  By the end of the book, I was so fed up with her attitude and her whining that I hardly even wanted to continue reading.  

Davy's relationship with Sean was also a problem for me.  I really can't even say that I didn't like Sean because we knew absolutely nothing about him and neither did Davy.  They stared at each other like, five times, he did something semi-heroic, and suddenly she's all over him, even though she still frequently thinks of him as a killer.  They only had about four actual conversations throughout the entire novel.  For the most part, it was just them standing next to each other or him staring at her.  I couldn't believe their relationship and I really wasn't even invested in Sean because I knew nothing about him.  The other characters were similar - we didn't know enough about them and they were all really flat.  The character I liked the most of Davy's brother but we didn't see nearly enough of him.  

The plot was slightly better.  It was pushed along by the totally wonderful premise but that can only take you so far.  While I was reading, I did enjoy seeing the story unfold.  It was an extremely interesting concept and I was excited to learn more about it and figuring out what would happen next.  

Uninvited was a novel that had a lot of promise but was not executed as well as it could have been.  The characters were whiny and flat and the relationships between them lacked substance and were not believable.  I'm not sure if I'll be coming back to this series or not but I do hope the characters grow more in the coming books.

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