BZRK by Michael Grant

Goodreads
416 pages, YA Dystopian
BZRK #1
My rating: 3 stars

Synopsis

Set in the near future, BZRK is the story of a war for control of the human mind.  Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal:  to turn the world into their vision of utopia.  No wars, no conflict, no hunger.  And no free will.  Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human.  This is no ordinary war, though.  Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain.  And there are no stalemates here:  It’s victory . . . or madness.
 
BZRK unfolds with hurricane force around core themes of conspiracy and mystery, insanity and changing realities, engagement and empowerment, and the larger impact of personal choice. Which side would you choose?  How far would you go to win?

My 2 cents

I was really excited to read this one, because I seem to be on a Michael Grant kick lately. Unfortunately, this one did not live up to my expectations. It was just an okay read for me, and I'm not sure if I'll read the next one that comes out in the fall.

The biggest problem I had was that I just really didn't "get" the concept. Maybe it was too science geekie for me, but a lot of the "biots" and "nanobots" was just over my head. So I was confused for a lot of the story, and I felt I could have used another book, maybe a prequel just to explain all of it better.

The characters and the basic plot were actually pretty good. I was bored at times, but for the most part, it was a pretty quick read. The moments between Noah and Sadie were definitely my favorite parts of the story. Their characters were really well done, as was all the crazy bad guys!

If you are more of a techie, and really get into science, you would probably love this book. I gave it three stars mostly for the characters and originality.