Adaptation review

Description: Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

My thoughts: It wasn’t until I started reading this that I realized this was my first book I’ve reviewed that dealt with area 51 related controversies/we are not alone related topics. Which excited me.

In Adaptation we have a big problem that has to do with birds. Then we have a seemingly small problem (but it’s actually pretty big too) involving Reese and David. As you continue to read, assumptions and theories of what happened to them are proven (or disproved). 

And although there were parts of this story where I needed to really suspend disbelief, there were various aspects of it that seemed hauntingly real. Like the birds. The birds freaked me out because it reminded me of how it felt when that was actually happening in real life. And I was almost as freaked out during the occurrences in the book as when it was really happening.

It’s not that Adaptation is scary, like Halloween movie scary (actually some of those are just funny). But some passages did make me feel uneasy.  For instance, I could relate to a lot of Reese's inner dialogue right after she starts discovering things (she's not supposed to) because I know what it feels like to be watched but not know who is actually watching me. It’s freaky! But these are the kind of books I like to read in October. Plus I was sick (still am) while reading this; so it reminded me of when I’d be in bed with a box of tissues, chicken noddle soup, and goldfish watching the X-files. Good times (except for the sick part).

As for the rest of the story, it was an easy read with an interesting plot. I just feel like I really didn’t get to know the characters that well. In fact, even though a lot happens in the story, it felt like it was just touching the surface as far as what was in this peculiar world. Which is why I’m hoping we’ll get to know everyone/thing better in the sequel.

My only real issue that kept bugging me was that Adaptation ended in a way that had me wondering where book two would start.  I think it’s a pacing issue. It felt like I was being led to expect more, then dropped at a not quit random but not quite expected place. Other than that one issue, the book was very entertaining. And I’ll definitely read the next book when it comes out… Now all I need to do is find some episodes of X-files online.