UNINVITED

She’s tagged as a killer. But that’s not so bad.

Beautiful, blonde, wealthy 17-year-old Davy Hamilton attends a posh private school in her Texas hometown and spends page after page mooning over her rugby-playing, Zac Ephron–esque boyfriend, Zac. All goes awry, however, when it’s discovered that she has Homicidal Tendency Syndrome, which means she could grow up to be a serial killer (!!!!!). She’s then whisked away from her school and social life and forced to attend a special juvielike school for students with the same diagnosis. At this point, readers might think that terrible things happen to Davy—that she could be put into terrifying danger or might struggle against her own genetic code. But no—she goes to class, slaps her ex-boyfriend, gets tattooed as punishment for acting out and pines after another hot boy in her new school. This nonthriller is packed with more overwrought, lusty musings than a Harlequin romance. Some of the sentences actually work, while others are so preposterous they’ll have readers giggling: “Closing my eyes, I savor the sensation of Zac’s lips on my throat.” But there’s no vampire here, and there’s not that much action. And Davy comes off as a weak, whiny, boy-chasing protagonist who makes Bella look like Lara Croft.
 
A schlocky bodice-ripper disguised as a dystopian romance. (Dystopian romance. 14 & up)