This review was first posted on http://rubysreads.com 
 I wasn't much interested in Origin when I picked it up at BEA. My copy is signed, and I happened to be at the Penguin counter when Jessica Khoury was doing an in-booth signing. After that, it was kind of just another book in my BEA stack. Which may sound ungrateful, but there you are. When my father, after perusing my newly stocked shelves, picked Origin out of the crowd, I experienced that childish twinge one gets when someone wants something of yours that previously held little interest for you. I let him have it anyway. Then, last month, when I was house-sitting for my parents, I picked it up. Oh, Origin, how I wrong I was, thinking you wouldn't interest me! I but hope you can forgive me my folly! 
 As the description explains, Origin tells the tale of Pia, a girl raised deep in the Amazon Rainforest. But Pia doesn't live among the native peoples that inhabit the jungle. She lives in a compound of scientists, all of whom have the same purpose: to create and perfect Pia. Carefully bred (no, seriously!), and consciously reared, Pia is the center of her world. She's been told she's perfect so many times it has become fact rather than opinion. And though she has a mind of her own, her life has been so carefully censored that she has little interest in the outside world. 
 All of that changes with the arrival of a new, female scientist. At first piqued by the male interest in Dr. Fields (unused as she is to appreciation directed elsewhere), Pia simply resents the addition to her small community. Indirectly (and sometimes directly) Dr. Fields has an enormous impact on Pia's worldview. For the first time, she wonders what is outside her borders, and what the scientists that raised her haven't told her. Finally, on her 17th birthday, Pia leaves the compound for the first time and meets a boy named Eio. 
 While Pia is, at first, a hard character to connect to, I loved Eio the moment I met him. It's hard to resist a handsome, smart, funny, and conscientious shirtless boy. Plus, he doesn't hesitate to check Pia's enormous ego. Pia's ginormous self-respect is the result of her rearing, and while I understood that, it was a bit difficult to stomach at first. It's important, though, because ultimately the concept of "perfection" is part of what Origin sets out to explore. In fact, while Eio and Pia's budding love is sweet-and at times hot-it doesn't play as large a role as the description suggests. Origin is not a love story, though it does contain one. 
 Within this one book, so many difficult questions are addressed. Pia herself is a model to study for nature versus nurture. Her very existence gives rise to issues of scientific ethics. Dr. Fields makes us question the lengths we'll go to protect those we love. But none of these thought-provoking issues are addressed in preachy, "Think about it!" fashion. That's what makes it so awesome! I love books that make me think, whilst simultaneously providing me with a satisfying story. Origin was absolutely, definitely, one of those books for me. I can't wait to see what Khoury has to offer next. If Origin is what she can accomplish at 22, I'm prepared to be blown away.