Teen Inc. by Stefan Petrucha

 Jaiden Beale wishes he lived an ordinary life, but when you are the child of a corporation, yes as in a business, it’s a little hard. See when Jaiden was just a few weeks old his parents were killed in an explosion that was caused by a faulty valve made by NECorp, who is the same company that “adopts” him.

Now in middle school, Jaiden just wants to fit in, but that’s a little hard when you have a whole team of people trying to make decisions for you. When he finally finds the perfect girl to date (after many meetings where he gets shown a slideshow of possible girls that don’t appeal to him at all) his plans for a study date get immediately foiled. After enough persuasion though Jaiden is able to convince his guardians to let him use the company house and have the girl over. As soon as she steps in the house though, he wishes he had never pushed so hard. In short the date was a disaster and Jaiden is furious with the corporation.

Now he has to face how to grow up in a nonconventional environment and maybe, just maybe have somewhat of a normal teenage life. And maybe there is a chance for him to make up with the perfect girl and work things out.

Well the book started out really well and I was really excited about the concept, but by the end of the third chapter it started to go down hill. The plot didn’t really move much and the story became so predictable that I didn’t really want to continue.  I thought that Jaiden’s character became very whiny and unenjoyable, and he I felt like he kept talking abut the same thing over and over again. While I didn’t like the story, I thought that the author’s writing style was really good. He made the book feel real and provided enough detail to answer my questions, but not too much that it was a bore. Overall I was disappointed with the book, but think it may work out better for a younger audience.