My Rating ~ Three and a half stars

3half-gold-stars copy 2

RELEASED: 6 September 2018

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Format: Paperback

Pages: 460

RRP: AU$19.99

Source: Received from Allen & Unwin in exchange for an honest review

Blurb

Harry and Charlie are teenagers who meet at a time when gene-editing technology is starting to explode. Now, with a lab in the garage, anyone can beat cancer, enhance their brain to pass exams, or tweak a few genes for a year-round tan and perfect beach body.

But in the wrong hands gene-editing is the most deadly weapon in history. Killer T is a synthetic virus with a ninety per cent mortality rate, and the terrorists who created it want a billion dollars before they’ll release an antidote…

Review

Many thanks to Allen and Unwin for providing me with this copy of Killer T in exchange for an honest review.

Harry wants to be an investigative journalist and he and Charlie meet in chance circumstances when Harry is chasing a story. Charlie is shipped off to juvenile detention shortly after but they remain good friends. As their lives progress, so does scientific technology in society and illegal gene modifying becomes more commonplace. Killer T is the story of Harry and Charlie’s lives as they navigate through a society where killer modified viruses are ravaging the world and people will do anything to survive.

There were parts of Killer T I really enjoyed and parts that kind irked me.

Parts I was not a fan of: There is a lot of sexist language used in the book – I’m not overly fond of seeing two very young teenage girls referred to as ‘sluts’ and constant commenting on their appearance, whether being to the boys ‘liking’ or otherwise. The way Harry reacted to Charlie for sleeping with another guy when they were in no relationship at all was eye roll worthy. Harry bought her a few unasked for gifts and visited her in juvenile detention, so, without him even letting her know about his feelings, he thinks she betrayed him? Why? Because he felt he was owed a relationship? Hmmm. A very macho ‘toss girls aside when we’re done’ theme seemed to be fairly prevalent with many characters throughout the first few portions of the book. Also, the synopsis on the back of the book didn’t actually start to happen until at least halfway through the book, if not more. I honestly thought I was reading a whole different story and was a little confused.

Parts I enjoyed: The story is told through several ‘time jumps’, from when Charlie is 13 and Harry 14, skipping forward through the years until they are in adulthood. This made it quite a nice coming of age story and interesting to see the downward spiral the world was taking. The action and ‘what if’ theme regarding gene modification was great. The story, especially the last few time jumps, was dark and gritty and brought up lots of different moral questions. Although I didn’t particularly like many of the characters in the beginning, I’d really come to care about Charlie and Harry by the end.

Killer T was a little different to what I expected, because I thought it was going to be a story centralised around gene modifying and killer viruses, but while those subjects were part of it, the story was more focused on the characters’ lives and their coming of age. I did enjoy it as a story though. I found it engaging and liked the pace of the book.