"Ok. Not bad" would be enough to define this short story. I really dislike books written in present tense, but I try to ignore if the author does a good job... But Lissa Price didn't. Not in Portrait of a Starter.I never read Starters, but I was really looking forward it. I though it would be one of my new favorite books, but Portrait of a Starter killed my excitement towards it.It's not extremely boring - I manage to read everything (...hm, it's a short story, so it probably doesn't mean much, but still) - but it's definitely not as exciting as the cover (of both books) makes it seems.If you have any interest in reading Starters, just do it already. Skip this.It also showed a little of Lissa Price skills and they didn't impress me. Not at all. I have a wild imagination and usually I don't have any problems imagining what is written, but I couldn't do it with PoaS (properly, I mean). I'm seriously disappointed. When he first put pencil to paper it was to capture her likeness, to capture the essence of a girl he knew and trusted. In this new world after the war there was little that was for curtain anymore but this was, she was. Until his curiosity and protective nature got the better of him and he realized that maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought. When he had finally finished her likeness he realized that he captured more them just an image of a girl, it was a portrait of a starter.Portrait Of A Starter is Michael's perspective of life as a sixteen year old in this post war world. It is a world where the Enders, those who are over sixty, have it all while the Starters, those who are under twenty, are left to live on the streets or worse in institutions with nothing more then what they can beg, borrow or steal. It is an introduction to a unique dystopian world, an introduction to boy living with nothing more then what he can draw, an introduction to a girl with secrets.
What do You think about Portrait D'un Starter (2012)?
For an introduction to this world this story doesn't really bring much.
—Ajmal
