Review: Revived

Revived by Cat Patrick
Release Date ~ May 8, 2012
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers ~ Hachette Book Group
ISBN13: 9780316094627
ARC received from HBG Canada

Goodreads Synopsis:

It started with a bus crash.
Daisy Appleby was a little girl when it happened, and she barely remembers the accident or being brought back to life. At that moment, though, she became one of the first subjects in a covert government program that tests a drug called Revive.
Now fifteen, Daisy has died and been Revived five times. Each death means a new name, a new city, a new identity. The only constant in Daisy's life is constant change.
Then Daisy meets Matt and Audrey McKean, charismatic siblings who quickly become her first real friends. But if she's ever to have a normal life, Daisy must escape from an experiment that's much larger--and more sinister--than she ever imagined.
From its striking first chapter to its emotionally charged ending, Cat Patrick's Revived is a riveting story about what happens when life and death collide.


Revived is a hard-hitting read that will challenge readers intellectually, by taking a difficult question and putting names and identities to people in a certain situation to help bring it to life. I'm one of those people that is often guilty of thinking that I have all the answers - I wrestle around with hard questions enough that I'm usually able to come a conclusion for myself and stick with it.

But Revived is one story that challenged some of my answers and made me wonder if it was as simple of a solution as I had made it out to be for myself. Daisy struggles with the concepts of life & death and scientific ethics, but in such a way that the reader begins to re-evaluate their own convictions on these tough topics.

And then it rips your heart right out of your chest in a way that's totally unexpected and reminiscent of how real these scenarios are.

1. A story to challenge readers:
   
   If science could bring people back from the dead - if we had this power and were capable of accomplishing such a miracle, how would we use it? For some people, the answer to this will be fairly simple. Others will struggle with it, trying to balance out the concerns on the different sides of the issue. And while Revived definitely suggests its own opinion on this question, it does so in a way that still considers how complicated and MESSY this situation would be. And it leaves you incredibly aware of just how little we really know.
   
2. Lovely story of friendship:
   
   This is probably the aspect that left the biggest mark on me, after reading Revived. I'm really drawn to books that feature strong, loving examples of friendship between characters and Revived is one of the books I've read that has done this best. Daisy's friendship with Audrey was far more memorable to me than most swoonworthy romance I've read in YA.

Revived truly is a fascinating story, as Daisy navigates a number of problems we only consider "ethical issues" but they're her REAL LIFE. What do you do when you have a secret THIS BIG? It isn't as cut and dry as you  might think.

And in a lot of ways, I really felt like the story was stuffed into a book that was a little bit too small. There were so many struggles and questions that felt so big, but I didn't feel that they got the time or development they deserved to really give them life. As a result, I felt like some areas struggled such as the romance and some of the final events didn't have as much of an impact as they should have.