{Book Review} Origin (Lux #4)

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout

Genre: YA science fiction, fantasy
Published: August 27th 2013
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Pages: 364
Source: Purchased Paperback
Available at: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Goodreads Summary:

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together?

My Rating of this Book – 4 out of 5 stars

My Review:

I think Origin is the first Lux novel I haven’t rated a 5 star. Like the rest of Jennifer’s Lux series, I LOVE her writing style, her characters, the romance, and the duel pov between Katy and Daemon—which added a great perspective. But in my opinion, Origin’s plot just didn’t hold up to the rest.

First off, there were aspects that didn’t make sense to me. Take for example the DOD weaponized onyx spray in the first chapter. The use of it made sense in the third novel, Opal, when the DOD sprayed the onyx right onto the skin. But to use it like an aerosol on a specimen the DOD hoped to convert? I just couldn’t see it. It’d be a high risk, not just to the hybrid, but to anyone standing in the room, especially considering no one was wearing a mask. That stuff would be like breathing sand, getting caught in everyone’s lungs. And in Katy’s situation, it could’ve burned her from the inside out. Not something I imagine the DOD would want. And yet, they did it anyway. Why?

Second, I found a good portion of this novel to be dull. So dull at one point I actually skipped an entire chapter. I think that was a first, like, ever! But I couldn’t take it anymore. It was taking forever to reach the climax.

But the biggest thing that really didn’t hold up for me in the plot was the Daedalus’s true mission. In the three novels before, I was captured by the DOD’s plan to weaponize hybrids. In fact, at the end of Opal, I was horrified what they might do to Katy to get her to cooperate. My imagination ran wild! But once Daedalus’s true quest for the “perfect race” was revealed, I just about gagged.

I’m sorry, but I’m so tired of the quest for the “perfect race” in novels. Just like love triangles, it’s overdone. Plus, it really taints all the swoons for me. Every kiss, every special touch between Daemon and Katy, a voice in the back of my head just kept whispering, “This is exactly what the DOD wants.” Yuck. I really do wish the whole “perfect race” thing was never brought into the plot. The only good thing that came from it was Archer.

I will give Jennifer L. Armentrout this: she’s really getting into some great cliffhangers! And overall, it’s still a great read. Just not her best. I can’t wait to see how the final novel ends.