Reboot - An Excellent Story!

Reboot by Amy Tintera was a great book! My attention was caught by the title of the book, as well as the words on front.

                    5 Years Ago, I Died
                          178 Minutes Later, I Woke Up.

The premise of a reboot sounded quite interesting. I didn't quite know what to expect, but I was thinking it would be similar to a post-apocalyptic video game sort of series. I could not have been more wrong, Reboot at its basest level is somewhat of a zombie story. Not entirely however. Without giving too much detail, Reboot follows the story of Wren-178, how she got this name is explained early. 178 stands for the number of minutes she was ‘dead.’ How did she come back to life you ask? Even this is not explained too much in the book, suffice to say that humans were looking for a scientific ‘fountain of youth’ and it turned out wrong.

In Reboot we are introduced to the concept of these ‘reborn’ humans as second-class citizens. They are made to stay in barracks and be the enforcers as Reboots are unable to get sick and regenerate. Right away, this book grapples with a lot, similar to Partials, we encounter a demographic oppressed by mankind. The Reboots may look human, but they are not treated that way. Their freedoms are restricted.

What makes Reboot into a great story is the character development. Wren at the beginning of the book has life in a neat bubble, she eats, sleeps, works, doing the assignments asked of her without hesitation. From her perspective, nothing is wrong with this, all is as it should be, and her actions are helping the greater good for humanity. It's not until we are introduced to Callum-22 that things really begin to change and Wren realizes that there is more to life. Callum teaches her to laugh, to have fun, to realize that she is human, no matter how much she pretends to ignore it.

If you enjoy stories set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian society you will for certain enjoy Reboot. I found it hard to place down when I started and eagerly anticipate forthcoming books in this series. Tintera wrote well and the story-line was easy to follow, yet also not predictable. For this reason I am giving Reboot 5/5 stars, take the time to read it, you’ll not regret it, and you'll come to love the characters of Wren and Callum.