Title: Ageless
Author: Paul Inman
Rating: 5/5
At first, young Aless was a target for the Nazis. After her escape, she was a target for the CIA. A genetic difference makes the girl immune to harm and disease, and slows down her aging drastically. At 16 years old, she bears the body of a child — at seventy, the body of a teenager. For Aless, the world is dangerous, and she spends the majority of it running from those who wish to exploit her differences. For Aless, this immunity is not a gift, but a nightmare.
What a wild ride! The first five chapters were quite confusing, but still I kept on reading, because the premise of this book interested me. This story flashes forward and backward in time, and you only get the last pieces of the puzzle once you’ve reached the last chapter. It’s a complex type of book to read, and it either misses the mark, or (like The Night Circus) it hits it dead on. This book is definitely the latter.
The characters are all well-crafted, and their development is quite wonderful to see. I rooted for each of them individually, and I’m quite sad that the book is a stand-alone. It was wonderful to close the book and really get closure on every front, though. The cops to the scientists made wonderful villains; they were the kind who truly believe that what they’re doing is right. The heroes were also flawed, and the author made Aless relatable.
Squeamish readers might want to steer clear from this book, however. There were pretty graphic descriptions of violence that might make some readers uncomfortable. I would nonetheless recommend this book to anyone who can stomach pretty descriptive violence in a few chapters.
I would like to thank Inkshares, as well as Netgalley, for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.