Altered

Jennifer Rush's thrilling debut takes a memorable foursome of male amnesiacs on a journey to rediscover who they are--with a girl whose past is equally mysterious.

A clandestine company, the Branch, built a lab beneath a farmhouse in Treger Creek, N.Y., for an experiment involving four genetically altered boys. Anna Mason has been helping her father observe them and record data for the boys' treatments for the past eight months. She's also been sneaking down to see the boys, specifically Sam, for the past five years. The four suffer from amnesia, an "unplanned side effect" of "alterations" that have made them stronger, their senses sharper. Anna suspects they're being prepped to be superheroes. She discovers she isn't far off when they resist the Branch's agents, who try to bring the teens back to headquarters, before fleeing the lab with Anna.

The boys are constantly running from the Branch, with occasional well-detailed fight scenes, while trying to make sense of the letter-scars on their bodies. Rush creates a fantastic dynamic for the altered boys as they struggle to remember who they are, while also suspecting their memories may be better left buried. The author also equips the boys with their own quirks, to distinguish them from one another, and their haunting flashbacks will win readers' sympathy.

Plenty of codes to decipher and adrenaline-packed scenes make Altered a good match for False Memory fans, and Rush's memorable ending teases to the second installment in her trilogy. --Adam Silvera, reviewer and former bookseller

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