Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

"Surgeon General releases new report on HTS.  More than 19,000 registered carriers.
A new report on Homicidal Tendency Syndrome shows that cases are more dangerous and widespread than originally thought.  The data illustrates a predisposition for extreme violence in HTS carriers and a clear correlation between the HTS gene and convicted murderers.  This information, coupled with the rise in capital crime, calls for increased testing protocols and more severe measures to protect our citizens against HTS carriers..."

In Uninvited by Sophie Jordan the reader enters the world, in the not so distant future, where a new gene has been discovered in order to predict who would commit violent acts.  Initially this plot reminded me of The Forsaken trilogy by Lisa M. Stasse; however, detecting the HTS is still new to this world, so they don't have a secluded island where these teenagers are dropped off on to die.  In Jordan's world policies are still being written. 

Davy has been known through her life by many things, including musical prodigy; however, she never expected to be labeled a killer.  When her test results come back positive for HTS, her life falls apart.  Her wonderful boyfriend who loved her the day before, now only wants her for sex, she can no longer attend her old school, her friends have turned on her, and she must attend public school with other HTS students in a caged in classroom.  She is not safe, because if you have the HTS no one will treat you as a human being.  You can be rapped (if you are a girl, since there seems to be fewer girls than boys that are diagnosed with HTS) and no one would care or believe you, even if it was a teacher.  Her only saving grace in her new life is an inexplicable connection to Sean O'Rourke, a fellow HTS.  Life seems a little less than bearable, but Davy is trying to pull herself together and discover who she is, now that all her hopes and dreams have been dashed.  One fateful day a few labeled as HTS decide to show the world that they are all right and those that are labeled as HTS are all killers, basically if they treat us like killers than let's be killers mentality.  After killing 150 people at a mall, the government decides to take action and put those with HTS in internment camps that mirror the horrors of the Holocaust.  Davy, Sean, and others with HTS that have “special talents” (aka: multi-lingual, prodigies, computer programmers, etc.) are placed into a special program, one that sounds like a ticket out of being put into the camps; however, what they don’t realize is that they will be walking into a fate far much worse than they could have ever imagined. 

This book was highly original and at times very graphic.  I found myself asking and saying things like, “Why would you make teenagers do that!?!”  “Is it necessary for that guy to force…” “Oh. My. God.  She just did that.  There’s no going back.  She really did that.”  Considering that this will be a two part series, I am highly anticipating the next book.  I want to find out what happens with Davy and crew.  Does each character’s actions in this book snowball out of proportion in the next?

4 out of 5 stars.  Thanks Edelweiss!