MONSTER REPUBLIC: The Divinity Project by Ben Horton

Kids turned into monsters by a mad scientist and then thrown away only to fight back. That's the premise of this YA action adventure. The writing isn't great, but there's a kernel of a great idea in this book.

Cameron is the all around (want to say All-American, but it's set in the UK) great guy. He's good looking, the jock on campus, and the perfect girlfriend and even stands up for the underdog (kids being bullied). But his eagerness to do the right thing puts him the the wrong place when an explosion happens at the nuclear power plant the class has been taken to on a field trip. When Cameron wakes up, it's to the face of a young covered in fur. She tells him they have to move, but all Cameron has are questions. Why is he so stiff, why is he laying on a metal slab and where are they? There is no time for questions before the Bloodhounds are on them and Cameron's body starts fighting and doing things he never was able to do before. What's more, he's doing them without thinking, by instinct and has to force himself to stop.

When Cameron finally sees his reflection, he's not the same boy he was before, he's made up of parts of other people and metal and machinery. There's even a gun that comes out of his arm. He learns of the Monster Republic, a group of rejects that were thrown away by the great, but crazy Dr. Fry.

Cameron goes through a lot of things in a short time. He tries to go to his family, who don't recognize him and wont listen long enough to hear that he is their son and brother. The Monster Republic don't trust him, because he's not technically a reject, he was liberated by Rora, the unofficial leader of this rag tag group of misfits who have no place in society due to the way they look and act because of the experiments done on them by Dr. Fry, his girlfriends isn't his girlfriend anymore because she's been altered by Dr. Fry as well, and finally his best friend from his old life turns him in because Dr. Fry is holding his mother.

Cameron has to learn that he can't go back to his old life and find his place in the Monster Republic, but show them that they don't have to stand for what has been. It's time to fight back.

I like the lessons in the book. Not everything stays the same and if you rely on what you look like, you must look deeper to figure out who you really are and who you want to be.

As I said, before the writing isn't great, but the story is a great idea.