Revived by Cat Patrick

When starting Revived by Cat Patrick, I wasn’t sure what to expect.. other than a freakin’ awesome cover. Seriously — check it out! It’s got to be one of my all time favorites.

Anyway, I had read some mixed reviews, and I felt like I didn’t have a very good idea of what the story was actually about. I knew it was about a girl who died many times and was revived by a drug, but I didn’t know what the main conflict of the story would be…

Although I didn’t have many expectations, Revived was completely different form all my preconceptions.. in a great way!

Revived is about a teenage girl named Daisy. Daisy has died five times, and each time she has been brought back to life by a drug called Revive. She is part of a secret scientific organization that creates and tests this drug on a group of kids much like Daisy, all of whom initially “died” in a car crash years before.

The story starts off with Daisy dying for the fifth time. Each time she “dies,” she and her family (which consists of her government agent ‘handlers’) have to relocate under new names. This time, Daisy relocates to Omaha, Nebraska.

In her previous lives, Daisy never let herself become social. It’s hard for her to connect with people, knowing that she’s part of a secret program she can’t tell anyone about, and knowing that one day she might have to pick up and relocate again. But after relocating to Nebraska, Daisy decides to make a change. She’s going to make friends. And she does!

What surprised me is that Revived is a story about friendship and loss. I kind of assumed that it was going to be all about the drug and government conspiracies, but really it was an incredibly moving story about teenagers creating friendships, first love, and Daisy just trying to live a normal life. I got completely sucked into the story from page one and couldn’t put the book down. I mean, any story that starts with the main character dying is bound to be awesome, right?? From there, Daisy meets her first real friend from outside the Revived program — Audrey, and develops her first crush — on Matt!

What makes the story so touching is reading about a young girl trying to cope with loss. We’re talking about a girl who doesn’t fear death since she has died so many times but always came back from it. She has it in her head that death isn’t a scary thing, and maybe even isn’t a “real” thing. But she learns that there are some things that even Revived can’t bring you back from…

I think a lot of the lower ratings for Revived have to do with the lack of action and government conspiracy (I mean there is a bit, but not much). While that’s true, I feel like that’s not what the book was about. It was more about a teenager discovering how to truly be a teenager, and about a young girl who escapes death learning about loss. So maybe the plot summary is a little misleading, but I thought the story was incredibly moving just the same. I laughed, I wanted to cry, and I really felt for Daisy. I loved her relationships with Audrey and Megan. I wanted to be laughing with them and be one of their friends. Plus, Daisy is a blogger! How could I not love her??

So the Revived drug did play more of a backseat role in the book. I mean obviously Daisy was involved with the drug, but I the story really centered around the friendships and emotions. If you’re okay with that, I definitely think you’ll enjoy Revived!

Although this book is science fiction, the emotion and the story felt so real, since it deals with a lot of real issues. In some ways, it really reads like a teenage contemporary novel. I really loved this book 🙂 Thanks, Cat Patrick!

The Verdict