Young Adult Review: Charisma by Jeanne Ryan

I saw Nerve when it was in theaters last summer, and because it’s based off Jeanne Ryan’s second book I went ahead and picked her first book, Charisma, up from the library. It’s about a girl named Aislyn who has crippling social anxiety. She’s offered an underground gene therapy drug named Charisma by a doctor she trusts. She’s told that Charisma will get rid of her shyness and make her one who stands out – on the condition that she tells nobody. After some internal debate, she goes ahead and takes it. There’s a problem, though. She’s not the only one who was given the drug, and others who have taken it have fallen into comas. The doctor who created and administered Charisma is now conveniently nowhere to be found.

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