Review: Revived

Revived by Cat Patrick | Website | Twitter | Facebook |

Read by Tara Sands

Publisher/Year: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | May 1, 2012

Pages: 352

Series: Standalone

Genre: YA | Sci-Fi

Format: Audiobook

Source: Overdrive Media

Amazon | Goodreads

Summery (From Goodreads)

It started with a bus crash.

Daisy Appleby was a little girl when it happened, and she barely remembers the accident or being brought back to life. At that moment, though, she became one of the first subjects in a covert government program that tests a drug called Revive.

Now fifteen, Daisy has died and been Revived five times. Each death means a new name, a new city, a new identity. The only constant in Daisy’s life is constant change.

Then Daisy meets Matt and Audrey McKean, charismatic siblings who quickly became her first real friends. But if she’s ever to have a normal life, Daisy must escape from an experiment that’s much larger–and more sinister–than she ever imagined.

From its striking first chapter to its emotionally charged ending, Cat Patrick’s Revived is a riveting story about what happens when life and death collide.

Shannan’s Summery

Daisy has died, but unlike others, she’s died more than once.  As part of a Government run drug testing, she’s brought back from the dead anytime it happens, making her understanding of it a little skewed.  The only side effect she experiences from death is moving.  Every time she dies, she moves with her handlers to a new location and gets a new last name.  But this time, she’s decided to get friends as well.  Up to this moment, she never saw the point in friendships when you couldn’t tell them the truth, but having met Matt and Audrey, she’s decided it may be worth the chance.  The only thing is, she’s not the only one keeping secrets.

First Off…

This was one I got because I needed an Audiobook to listen to and there wasn’t a waiting list for this one.  It sounded interesting enough: government conspiracy around a drug that could bring people back from the dead.

Thoughts:

So it’s been a couple days since I finished this book, and I’m still not sure how to feel about it.  It kind of felt like two books smashed together into one and I don’t know if I like how it was done.  The first books was the sci-fi one all about a government program centered around a Drug called “Revive” that could bring people back from the dead.  It wasn’t like “living dead” kind of stuff, just people who died before they “should have” are brought back if it’s a quick turn around.  The book starts with one of Daisy’s deaths which they receive her and immediately move to Omaha.  This is where book one is put on hold and the second book is inserted.  All about how she is befriended by a girl who has some kind of secret she’s keeping from Daisy, which is ironic that it bothers Daisy because she is doing the same.  I don’t want to give anything away in this part, but to me, this part of the book seemed rushed, especially with the friendships and how they developed.  While this section is going on you find out bits and pieces about Daisy and the program, such as how she got in and how it got started, but it’s mostly centered around Daisy’s developing relationships and the secret they have.  Once that part resolves itself, they move back to the conspiracy around daisy’s life and the truth of the program.

The end had some tense parts and some twists that I didn’t see coming and I really enjoyed the sci-fi part of the book.  The problem is it fell like that was just the frame work for the author getting to talk about her thoughts on death.  The two didn’t seem to merge and mix into one story line.  The characters were well developed, all the teens were people that you would want to hang out with in their own rights.  I just can’t get over the fact it felt like there were two book ideas, but not enough for them to be separate so they just got smashed into one.

Overall:

I liked it and I would recommend it for people that don’t mind sci-fi but prefer the real world.  I think it works better as an audiobook, because I think I would have gotten bored and given up if I tried to read it myself.  Not a lot of action through the middle of the book.

10 Second Summery:

1. It deals with death:  The main character is brought back from the dead, so obviously there is a lot of discussion about the world of death and loss.
2. It’s light sci-fi:  The only sci-fi aspect is that people can be brought back from the dead if it’s immediate.  Everything else deals in the real world.
3. It feels like two separate stories:  Rather than having a good weaving of the two main plots going on, one feels inserted into the other which makes the story not as smooth as it could have been.

I think I’m glad I borrowed this one.  It probably won’t wind up on my shelves.

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