Review: Origin by Jessica Khoury

Title: Origin
Author:Jessica KhouryEdition: hardcoverSeries: noneReleased Date: September 4th, 2012Publisher: Razorbill 

Goodreads / Amazon Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home--and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.
Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin--a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.
Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.
Pia is perfect. That's what everyone has described her as since she was a child. And it's true - she's an immortal that was created for scientific purposes. Pia has always been obedient and has trained to become the next scientist in Little Cambridge. The only thing is Pia doesn't know what lies beyond Little Cam and she's anxious to find out. After finding a hole in her town's fence, Pia adventures out and meets Eio. She continually returns to Eio's town and gets to know the people and uncovers secrets about her origin that are not meant to be uncovered. 

I was not expecting to love this book as much as I thought I did. Truly, I thought it was going to be boring and a bit confusing. I sure was wrong! Origin took me on an adventurous and emotional journey that I wouldn't mind reliving again! 

I really liked Pia's character. At first, she was annoying. She kept bringing up how she was perfect and beautiful and whatnot. But then I noticed that it was what she was taught to believe. Her whole life the people around her would say she's perfect and so she just got used to being called that. She wasn't vain about it. She just thought she was perfect - like it was a scientific fact. But as I flipped through the pages and got invested in the plot, I also got invested in Pia. She pulled me in as she learned new things about her surroundings and the truth about people she thought she knew. The way she grew and became more human throughout this novel was simply flawless. Jessica Khoury is awesome. You go, Jessica Khoury. 

Along with Pia, Eio's character had me intrigued. He was a normal boy character that you find in most novels. There wasn't anything really spectacular about him, but the feelings between him and Pia were so real. He brought out certain things in Pia that helped move along the novel as well.
My gosh, there were a lot of supporting characters. Yet each and every one of them had it's impact on the novel. There's Ami, the little girl that's like a sister to Eio; Luri, the mother Pia wished she had; the rest of the Ai'oan tribe; Uncle Paolo, who I had mixed feelings about; and even Alai, the jaguar best friend. It seemed that each of these characters were crafted perfectly and all had an important effect on the book. As you can tell, Jessica Khoury wrote flawless characters.
Don't be thrown off about all the science-y stuff and the weird names. I know I was definitely weary when I was going into this novel because I thought it was going to be difficult to understand and just plain weird. I was definitely wrong, and this book is so real - I feel like it could be going on right now in South America.
Seriously, if you haven't read this book you need to. It may seem like a difficult book to get into, with it's length, the weird names, and other unique features - but it all adds up to one awesome book that was easy to follow. As you can tell, I loved this book. I wish there were a sequel, just so I could have more of Jessica Khoury's characters, but the way this book wrapped up was wonderful. 5 stars, for sure.