Control by Lydia Kang is about a girl named Zelia in a future world where human genetic mutation is forbidden, but it is done nonetheless. When her doctor father dies in a freak accident, Zelia's world is just beginning to turn upside down. Her sister gets taken away in the middle of the night, and everyone around Zelia tells her to forget about her sister. She is relocated to Carus, a house off grid for genetically mutated people. But Zelia can't just forget about Dyl, and so she plots to get her back. But things are much weirder than they appear, and Zelia's life is about to be forever changed.

Okay, so this was a book I was figuring would only warrant a 3 star (at most) review. I picked up the second, Catalyst, at a Dollar Tree. Right there I figured, "meh, it's probably a poorly written dystopian story that I'll end up getting rid of when I finish...but what the heck, the cover is pretty." Then I got Control as a gift, so I didn't really have a reason not to read them, but they weren't high on my TBR. These sat on my shelf for almost a year, plus they are an older duology as it is. So when I was looking for a duology or short trilogy to read between longer books, I thought "what the heck" and picked up Control. Let me tell you, this book pleasantly surprised me!

I will say I didn't immediately like the characters. Zelia seemed a little arrogant about her intelligence, and the way she described Dyl made me think she was just an airhead pretty girl. But as the story dives in deeper, Zelia became more intriguing, and I actually found myself chuckling at some of the things that ran through this girl's head. Plus I got major X-men vibes with the traits the Carus house occupants had, which, come on, who can pass that up? I also liked that more of the scientific aspects of their traits was brought in since they all had to research their own traits.

Another thing I enjoyed was the fact that even though they were illegal personnel, they did regular teenage things, like sneak out and disobey the rules. There were also some plot twists I wasn't expecting which was nice. It was really easy to get into, and easy to stay engaged. I have already dove into Catalyst, and am more than 100 pages in. I would recommend this dystopian novel to anyone who is a fan of X-men and easy to read writing styles.