Review: Enders (Starters # 2)

My Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Enders is the sequel to Lissa Price's debut novel, Starters, and the conclusion to it. After Callie Woodland's donor, Helena, fails to kill the Senator as she had planned since renting Callie's body at Prime Destinations, Callie regains control of her life. She and her brother, along with Michael, remain to live in Helena's house as she leaves it to them as a reward for Callie's help. Things are slowly starting to settle for Callie and her loved ones. But the peace doesn't last long and soon enough, Callie finds herself in the middle of a dangerous conflict between Enders and Starters.

The Old Man can now access Callie at any time through her chip. What's worse is that he can seem to have more control each time he contacts Callie. At first, he can pretend to be someone else by speaking in different voices. Later, he can literally use Starters to do whatever he wants in his attempt to obtain the victory he seeks. Callie is determined to find and stop him.

Along the way, Callie is separated from her little brother whom she can no longer protect. She meets mysterious Hyden, who just so happens to be the Old Man's son. Hyden has his own plans to defeat the Old Man but he needs Callie. Together, they team up in the attempt to stop the Old Man's cruel plans. Working together, they begin searching for other Metals, Starters who have chips in their brains, and they assemble a team to fight against the Old Man's army.

Eventually, they get closer and closer to the Old Man but are ambushed and kidnapped by Dawson, who wants nothing else but to use them. Callie finally finds Emma, except she's not what Callie would have expected. In the attempt of having their chips removed, Callie and her friends ask for Dawson's surgeon help. Emma's surgery goes horribly long and she is killed by the chip. After they manage to escape Dawson's facility, they finally make it to the Old's Man hideout. It is here where Callie learns the true identity of the Old Man, discovery that threatens to separate Callie, Hyden and Michael. However, they stick together to the very end and they manage to defeat the Old Man.

Enders isn't any better than Starters, in my opinion. When I first started this series I had high hopes but unfortunately I didn't really like it. I was mostly bored throughout the whole book and I'm surprised I actually managed to finish it. I was expecting a little bit more romance between Callie and Hyden but I didn't get to see that either. The plot twist about the Old Man's identity didn't shock me either - I simply wasn't affected by it at all. I'm not trying to judge this book or the author, I'm just stating my honest opinion. I thought this book had a lot of potential but it really wasn't extraordinary. Maybe it just wasn't my style.