Altered by Aubrey Coletti

Title: Altered
Author: Aubrey Colletti
Series: The Academy, #1
Source: Author for Review
Publisher: Escape Artist Press
Publication Date: June 6, 2012
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When Toni, Joseph and Charlie arrive at their new boarding school, they are glad to leave their families - and respective problems - behind. Isolated as boarders, they meet a handsome senior with a personality like iced snake's blood, teachers with a penchant for physical punishment, and four other outcasts who reveal that their being brought to the Academy wasn't random at all. When the arrivals discover that their new school is engaged in "behavior modification" through electric shocks, isolation, restraints, and an ever-evolving set of methods to "fix" them, they declare war on their Academy. During their campaign of sabotage, they fight, hate, scorn, love, and begin to uncover the reasons why they were brought to the school. But as their war against the school escalates beyond their control, will they become the very things the Academy believes they are: dangerous, delinquent - and mad?

Freaking A. I seriously am not doing too well after finishing Altered. WHAT IS THIS? THE FREAKING SCHOOL IS A HOUSE OF HORRORS. I don't understand it all-- AT ALL. What kind of a school has electroshock treatments for DELINQUENTS? I mean, I've heard of alternative schools, but they're usually of the artsy kind. That one was just freaking HORRID.

Sadly, I can't say that I loved this book. I liked it, that is all. As you can see, one of my biggest issues was THE SCHOOL. It just freaked me out a tad bit-- they TORTURE students. In what world is that RIGHT? (I mean, the entire book is built on the idea that it isn't right, but you know what I mean.) Another issue I had was the switching points of view from page to page-- the characters weren't hard to tell apart, but it confused me pretty good for a couple of chapters.

I liked all the main characters (Joseph and Ann especially), but they were just WAY too mature. I could reveal a spoiler, but I just can't do that to y'all. All of our main characters are around 14, but they give off the vibe of being 17-18. That just almost kills it for me, because I went through most of the book thinking that they were all older. It surprised me, is all.

Also, Seth is one sick twisted *insert cuss word here*. Seriously. I really don't like the guy. And I'm sure that the feeling is mutual, so we're good. Charlie and Toni were alright, but they weren't my favorites. Most of the characters honestly faded a bit into the background once I started reading, and I didn't particularly care for that.

All in all, Altered was fast paced and interesting, but I would have liked to have seen less mature characters, and the school just honestly freaked me out.