In Lissa Price’s debut STARTERS, most adults are dead. The Spore Wars, during which a contagion spread and killed everyone between 20 and 60, has wiped out much of the population. Callie is one of the many “unclaimed minors,” kids under nineteen without grandparents or other living relatives. Many of the unclaimed minors have been institutionalized, living in dorms built and run by the government — dorms that are rumored to be unpleasant. Which has left Callie with very little in the form of options. Her brother is sick, she’s living on the street with a small band of friendlies including her kind-of-but-not-really boyfriend Michael, and it’s illegal for her to get a job — unless, of course, that job is the underground market for human body rentals.
At Prime Destinations, Callie is given a contract. She will do three rentals, at which point she will be free of her contract and paid and on with her life. Sure, an Ender — an elderly person — will be renting her body and doing who knows what, but at the end of her contract, she’ll be able to afford a place for her and her brother and Michael to live. Of course, things don’t go as planned.
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