Book Review: Variant by Robison Wells (Variant #1)

Synopsis from Goodreads
Title: Variant (Variant #1)
Author: Robison Wells
Publication Date: 26 September 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Format: Paperback, 376 pages

Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Acadmey would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.

He was wrong.

Now he's trapped in a school that's surrounded by a razor-wire fence, where video cameras monitor his every move and where breaking the rules equals death.

All Benson wants is to find a way out. But when he stumbles upon the real secret the school has been hiding, he realises that escape may be impossible.

My Review

Benson is a seventeen years old boy who does not know who his real parents are, which lead him to move from one foster home to another. In his last foster home, his foster father used to make him work a lot and over-exhaust him. He was not able to make any friends, and his social life was even worse. Tired of it all, he filled up an online application to enter a fancy boarding school, which in fact changed his life drastically, but to the worse. Variant was very intriguing and original. What I mo...more Benson is a seventeen years old boy who does not know who his real parents are, which lead him to move from one foster home to another. In his last foster home, his foster father used to make him work a lot and over-exhaust him. He was not able to make any friends, and his social life was even worse. Tired of it all, he filled up an online application to enter a fancy boarding school, Maxfield Academy which in fact changed his life drastically, but to the worse. Variant was very intriguing and original. What I most liked about the book was how it started. It wasn't draggy, and Robison wells introduced us to the plot straight away. Also, he did not concentrate a lot on the surroundings, which was actually perfect for me because I wanted more of the story rather than how the school, or forest looked. Having that limited description, made me come up with my own imagination of how things looked. The book kept me to my toes the whole time; there were times where I skipped sleeping, just to continue with the action. I did not enjoy such a book for quite a long time. There are many twists in the story, which literally left me dumbfounded; there were things I did not expect at all. The ending was wrapped up pretty well, there wasn't a single thing I hated about Variant. On the side note, I just realized that I do not read a lot of books with male protagonist. Reading this novel might change things for me :) This book is highly recommended because it is action packed, and thrilling. 5/5 Xoxo Meera