Revived ~ Cat Patrick

Cat Patrick must have very strange dreams. Her first book, Forgotten, was a thriller centered on a girl who only retained "memories" of the future. Everything that had happened was forgotten unless she'd written it down. But everything that hadn't happened to her yet roiled about in her brain, giving her often disturbing prophetic visions.

This book, Revived, is similarly mind-bending. Daisy ________ (insert last name at will) has died. Many times. But she's still waltzing around in the world because she is part of a secret FDA drug study, along with 20 other teens who all crashed and died in a tragic school bus accident when she was very young. The drug is called Revive, and it brings bodies that have suffered traumatic death back to life. The catch is that the drug does not work on adult bodies yet, nor will it ever bring back a diseased or severely damaged body.

Because it is a secret study, Daisy is forbidden to tell anyone about it, forbidden to tell anybody about this central part of her life. Naturally, she has few friends outside the program, and her friends inside the program are spread across the country.

When she dies — again — from a bee sting at the beginning of her sophomore year of high school, their "family" (study subject and two researchers disguised as parents) must uproot and reinvent themselves. Again. This time they settle in Omaha.

And this time Daisy meets Audrey McKean, her first-ever school friend, and Audrey's older brother, Matt, her first-ever boyfriend. This time the rules of engagement are shifting faster than Daisy can track. Not only does she feel guilty on principle for lying to the McKean siblings about her past, but Daisy soon learns that Audrey is dying of cancer.

Revive will not work on Audrey. Daisy knows this. Yet after Matt tells her about Audrey, Daisy feels compelled to tell Matt about the drug anyway. This is a violation of her promises to the program and a violation of trust with her guardian, Mason, who has put faith in her multiple times. So much so that Mason is treading dangerously close to breaking protocol himself.

What follows is a lesson in ethics, cloaked in grief and rage and betrayal. Daisy must decide what is right when there is no absolute right and every path will lead to heartbreak. Or worse.