Review: Origin by Jessica Khoury

Title: Origin

Author: Jessica Khoury

Genre: YA Sci-Fi

Source: Purchased  

Fave Quote(s):

"Get your emotions under control, Pia. Keep your eye on the goal, not the steps you must take to reach it. The goal is everything. The steps are nothing. No matter how difficult the journey is, the goal is always worth it."

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"Love makes you weak. It distracts you from the important things. It can make you lose sight of the objective." 

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Origin on Goodreads

I read Origin by Jessica Khoury a few weeks ago. It was a really great read but it kind of left me with a book hangover. And it took me a while to get my thoughts together to get my post written. Bottom line is the great should be at the top of your TBR pile!

I was thoroughly impressed by Origin. I had the chance to see author Jessica Khoury when she was at the Decatur Book Festival this past year. She looked very young and as it turns out she is 22 years old! (Holy crap! I'm 28, what I am I doing with my life! But I digress.) 

Jessica Khoury is on the far left side at the Decatur Book Fest Panel (2012). See the rest of my DBF post.

Anyway, from the one panel I saw her on and the few moments of talking with her while she signed my book she seemed very mature and wise beyond her years. Still I wasn't sure what to expect from her debut novel. I was pleasantly surprised with just how good this novel was--not for a 22 year old, not for a debut novel but just as a book in general. Origin is really a great read.

In Origin there is enough  tragic "love story" for the romantic in me. Some beautifully touching moments as well as heart pounding fight and/or flight moments. There's lots of science type stuff for nerd in me but not so over my head I didn't get it. It was the perfect mix really.

I like that Origin posed some difficult ethical questions. And I appreciated how we discovered all the pros and cons of the experiment along with the main character, Pia. 

Part way through the book I was totally on board with what was going on with Little Cam, sure it was odd but yeah whatevs they are making some crazy cool scientific advancements. But as we progressed through the novel and more and more of the true nature of Little Cam was being exposed I was ready to go down to the Amazon rain forest shut it down myself.

If you like Beth Revis' books I think you would probably like Origin, only Origin is in the jungle not space. But they have a similar sci-fi feel. I give Origin 5 out of 5 stars. The signs of a good book: it left me with a book hangover for a couple of days and challenged me to think about demanding ethical choices.

Ms. Khoury did confirm on Twitter that she is working on another book. She tweeted, "It will be a companion novel to Origin--same world, new characters, new setting, new science. =)" And that the "next book will be out (tentatively) next winter." YAY!!! I'm so psyched, I can't wait to read more.

The book trailer just gives you a glimpse at the Origin world. Hello, hot jungle boy!

Educational Day Trip: Toccoa

Last Saturday hubs and I took day trip to the Toccoa, Georgia area. I wanted to share with you guys some of the pictures we took.

First, the historical site of Travelers Rest which used to be a stage coach inn. It was pretty cool walking around the grounds. And I was made aware of how grateful of modern convinces I am, namely electricity and indoor pluming. For more info on Travelers Rest click here.

We also visited the the Currahee Military Museum. This was pretty pretty awesome. They have some really amazing artifacts from World War II at this location. The white dress you see below is wedding dress fashioned out of a parachute! (Wow!)

We went out to the memorial at the base of Curahee Mountain and up the mountain. We just drove up but I can not even image the troops trying have to run the "3 miles up, 3 miles down!" in training for the War. While sitting at the top and looking over the valley I was overwhelmed with gratitude with all our military has done.

We had a really great day checking out some nearby historical sites. Sometimes you don't have to go very far to see new things. I recommend checking out the local sites around you. Make a day of being a tourist in your own areas!

And since this is usually a book blog...while we were in Toccoa I was reminded of a couple of books I already have sitting at home in my to-be-read stack! Now I'm even more excited to read them. So I'll share those with you as well...

Origin, author Jessica Khoury is from Toccoa! See Goodreads info here.

Fireworks Over Toccoa by Jeffrey Speakoff, Goodreads info here.

Where do you like to go for a day trip? Any good sites near you? Leave me some comments about great places to vist!