Review of 'Feedback' by DL Richardson

Feedback

by DL Richardson

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BLURB:

Ethan James, Florida Bowman, and Jake Inala are three teenagers who need organ transplants. When they receive the organs of deceased CIA agent, Dylan Black, they inadvertently take on the task of completing the mission Dylan died midway through, that of deactivating bacteria bombs threatening millions of lives. The teenagers are kidnapped by a man who believes in the theory of feedback, that information is retained in the memory of organs, in this case those of the dead CIA agent. And their captor will stop at nothing to get the information retained inside their bodies. With their lives under threat, the memories stored in the CIA agent’s mind begin to awaken within each of them, except the one piece of information they are abducted for - the location of the bombs.

**My thoughts**

The concept of feedback, or muscle memory, is one that I heard about many years ago. I am sure that it has been done in other books, but this is the first one I have read about it. The concept is fascinating, scary, and almost unbelievable, all at once. It is usually presented as something simple, such as a vegetarian suddenly craving meat, because the person who donated the organ loved his steak. I never dreamed of taking it to the extreme that Richardson does. These kids get to experience full-blown memories, almost as if Dylan is a second voice in their own heads. 

Each one of them seems to remember different pieces from Dylan's memory. How those three pieces end up fitting together and working together is beyond me. It is as if the three of them are spiritually joined as one person [Dylan] and can easily work together. It also felt like the three of them are destined to work together in possible future installments of a series. It is one I would read.

Richardson spends a lot of time developing her characters. In fact, the entire first half of the book is dedicated to their stories, explaining their path to getting Dylan's organs. We also get Dylan's story from his point of view. That seems like such a long time for introductions, and is, but I appreciated getting to know all of them. I just got a little confused from chapter to chapter, needing to pay close attention to the title to know who was telling the story. As for the action, you are drawn in from the very first page. It plateaus a bit while the backstories are developing. Then, the action picks right back up again as the three teens race against the clock to try to locate and diffuse the bombs. I read it in two separate sittings and really enjoyed it.

Buy links

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Read about how the author researched her book here.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

D L Richardson writes speculative fiction. She currently has three young adult teen novels published and one short story anthology. Her first two YA novels The Bird With The Broken Wing and Feedback were best sellers and highest ranked YA fiction at OmniLit. Her third YA novel Little Red Gem was runner up on Paranormal Books Best Standalone YA book of 2013 and the book trailer was featured on USA Today website.

Upcoming works include Curious, a limited edition bundling of three YA novels, a serialized science fiction novel, Fear of Falling Further the second anthology of short stories, and Poison in the Pond, a novella adapted from of an unpublished novel written in 1996.

She lives in Australia on the south coast with her husband and dog.

Author contacts

Email: dlrichardsonbooks@bigpond.com
Blog: dlrichardsonwrites.blogspot.com
Website: www.dlrichardson.com
Facebook: facebook.com/dlrichardsonbooks
Twitter: twitter.com/#!/DLRichardson1