Origin

Origin is a novel by Jessica Khoury. Origin is her debut novel, and it happens to be well written for a new author entering the literature world. Origin is a sci-fi/romance genre novel. It is about a teenage girl named Pia being the result of a top secret science experiment called Immortus, which works on making immortal human beings. As their immortal perfect human, she is trained to learn about science and eventually join the Immortus team to make more immortals. But she becomes side-tracked by distractions from outside of her compound in the Amazon, and the theme of this is choice.

Origin is about a team called Immortus secretly based in a compound named Little Cam in the middle of the Amazon. Immortus works on creating immortal, perfect human beings. Eventually they make an immortal, perfect girl named Pia, whom the story revolves around. The head of Little Cam and Immortus, Paolo Alvez, has a dream of making a race of immortal, perfect human beings to purify the human race forever. So he has Pia trained and raised to learn about science and the purpose of why she’s there, so that eventually she can be ready to the join the Immortus team and help create more immortal human beings. But Immortus and the scientists kind of imprison her in the way that they do not want her to know anything about the outside world and stop her from being curious so she is not distracted from her work. Nobody there is allowed to talk about the outside around Pia, she cannot see maps, nothing like that. She has literally never been outside of the fence that surrounds Little Cam once in the 17 years that she has been alive. But one day, she finds a hole in the fence and sneaks out. She finds a village near Little Cam called A’ioa. There, she meets a boy she likes who also likes her named Eio. She starts sneaking out regularly to see Eio, the jungle, and A’ioa, and becomes more and more curious about the world outside Little Cam. But eventually she realizes she can’t have both and has to make a big choice: her race of immortals, or A’ioa and Eio. Tension and suspicion build up, and the end blows out at you in a very surprising way.

I thought this book was okay. It is definitely very interesting and makes you think in different perspectives, such as “what would I do if I was immortal?” or “do I take life for granted?” Pia is an interesting character, and it’s fun to see her use her immortal powers, such as fast reflexes, fast thinking, and unbreakable skin. But you also feel bad for her that, even though she lives forever, she is also stuck in a tiny cage and has to wait a long time before she can leave. Paolo seems like a smart and encouraging character, and although he is, he holds a terrible secret that’s involved with the ending. The rest of the characters are rather forgettable. The setting is not the best. Although I do like science laboratories, jungles, and native villages, it gets a bit old when you see those things over and over again and that’s all you see. This book I would say is the best for the story, and is pretty much the center of its entertainment value. This book is a page-turner because you learn one thing after another, and just have to find out more. There are many gripping moments full of suspense and force your eyes and mind onto the book, and has a very mind blowing and unexpected ending. If you want story with lots of action, memorable characters, and unique settings, this is not the book for you. But if you just want a story that is gripping, page-turning, and interesting overall, than I highly recommend this book for you.

Book Review by Alex O.