By: Mary Koch

‘Uninvited’ is the first book in a 2 book series written by Sophie Jordan, and ‘Unleashed’ is the second one. I read the books the first time in 7th grade for English class, and they’ve been my favorite books since.

The first book follows Davy Hamilton after she tests positive for HTS, or the kill gene. People who test positive for HTS are supposed to have killing in their genes, so the government is putting extra control and rules around carriers. They have special classrooms in schools, curfews, and a social worker constantly checking up on them.

There’s also always the threat of getting an H tattoo on their necks which is meant to mark the more dangerous killers.

Before she got her test results, she was popular, nice, and she was going to Juilliard, but that ended when she was forced to change schools.

Eventually the government decides that carriers need to be quarantined, so they make camps, but some teenagers will be taken to schools to become trained killers. Davy, and her new friends Gill and Sean were taken to the schools where they had to escape.

The book is exciting, and the author made the characters relatable. They aren’t perfect people who randomly save the world. They all make mistakes, and they learn from each other.

The book also doesn’t get too boring with lots of serious talks from the government. At the end of a lot of the chapters, there are letters and updates that give more information about what’s going on in the world that Davy might not know about yet.

The story has a good pace, it’s not a quick read, and the characters take their time, but the story isn’t prolonged or over-filled.

If you’re looking for a new book to read, I recommend ‘Uninvited’, and the sequel, ‘Unleashed’.