Solid
by Shelley Workinger
Product Description/Synopsis (from Amazon.com):
Clio Kaid may be 17 and just beginning the last summer before her senior year, but her life is anything but typical.
She’s just discovered she was genetically altered before birth and is now headed to a top-secret Army campus to explore the surprising results of
the experiment.
Follow Clio and the other teens as they develop fantastic super-abilities, forge new friendships, find love, and uncover a conspiracy along the way.
My Thoughts:
I love science-fiction, and I love YA novels, so when I received an email from author Shelley Workinger asking if I’d be willing to work Solid (book one of the Solid trilogy) into my summer reading schedule, I said I’d love to. I hadn’t anticipated, at the time, that it would take me nearly a month to get around to reading it. I finally finished Solid on Sunday night, and my only disappointment is that it was only the first book of three. By the time this post goes live, I’ll have already purchased book two from Amazon, and set an alert to let me know when book three is available.
As to book one, however, I found Solid to be engaging and interesting, with teen characters who reminded me a bit of my own teen experience (though we didn’t have ipods or laptops to worry about.)
Clio Kaid, the lead character is delightfully snarky, but realistically awkward. I like that. I like that she’s not perfect, that she makes social gaffes and even that she regretted her choice of spaghetti on her first day on campus because of the potential for making a mess in front of a cute boy. As someone who cannot EVER wear white when going out for pasta or sushi, I totally related to that concern.
Author Workinger kept a good pace going in her story, bringing in new characters when necessary, but never glutting the plot with too many new names to learn. While the choice of lead antagonist was a little predictable, it would probably be less so to younger readers, and it served the need of the story: setting up the continuation of the series.
Bottom line: while Solid is very much the first book in a trilogy, it is also satisfying in its own right, and I look forward to seeing more from these characters, and this author.
Goes well with a plate of spaghetti, as long as you’re not wearing white.