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1.5 stars not because it's a BAD book, but because it's ultimately unsatisfying because of the misleading blurb and, well, a bunch of other reasons.

I was pretty into it when I started--it's fast-paced, very much in the now, and you've got the same questions as Robert--what am I? What's going on?--and the action-packed excitement of his escape and harrowing chase and chance encounters when he has to decide to trust people or not range from decent to great. Some of the descriptions in the beginning are beautiful and some are quite poetic, and in general the writing is solid and reads quickly, though it lost some steam in the last third. All in all, it was interesting and relatively enjoyable--

But.

This is book is NOT a thriller. It actually doesn't even really have a plot. This is very much a character-based book but the problem lies in the fact that Robert doesn't have much character. He's sort of Boy Everyteen, confused and frightened and angry about what's happened to him, but he doesn't have any attachments or family or a life before the operation that begins the book. In fact, notes on him that he reads one point call him cold and distant, which is kind of how he comes across in the first-person narration. But he's also an orphan who got moved around a lot from home to home so he has no friends and no roots and no family and no history and doesn't really talk about or mention anything about his past because it was so boring and for half the book I didn't even know how old he was (he's sixteen, you find out eventually).

All right, perhaps it's unfair to call this a character-driven book then. The fact that Robert has no past and IS Boy Everyteen could still work to the book's advantage since it's titled Being, and the book's thematic focus is on What It Is To Be [Human], and not knowing what might really be inside you, but what matters is what you feel and etc.

But here's the thing. You know how the entire setup of the book is that this endoscopy reveals that there's something shocking inside Robert that sets all sorts of powerful people after him, and Robert questioning what he is (and no bones about it--there's an endoscopy video as well as something Robert himself does that make it clear there IS something going on inside him) and this great big focus on the mystery of what's going on with him, a mystery that is pushed throughout the entire book?

Imagine how INCREDIBLY UNSATISFIED YOU WILL BE WHEN (view spoiler)[you never find out what he is or where he came from or ANYTHING ABOUT HIM OR THE PEOPLE WHO ARE AFTER HIM. (hide spoiler)]

It also doesn't help that (view spoiler)[the book ends with him basically brutalizing the guy who's been chasing him and then choosing NOT to kill him because he wants the guy to live forever not knowing what Robert is. As a reader, I feel kind of like Robert was giving me the same "fuck you" treatment. And I'm not really into having books slap me in the face like that. The point may be that we're not SUPPOSED to know, wich is why we never find out and I can appreciate the message, but what I do not appreciate is wading theough an entire book in the expectation that there will be a Big Reveal and then...there deliberately isn't one. (hide spoiler)]

Mind you, I understand where the book is coming from--thematically it makes sense since it's about being yourself, whatever that may be, and living in the moment, and the book ends where it does because it's closing a major chapter of Robert's life, and if we were to have the answers to everything it would defeat the entire purpose of the book. Maybe if the blurb hadn't pitched it to me as a mystery thriller, I wouldn't have been so disappointed--well, maybe if the BOOK hadn't kept plastering the question WHAT AM I across almost literally every page and cram-jamming the beginning of the book with hooky action and mystery, I wouldn't have been so disappointed and unsatisfied. Maybe if Robert had had more depth and character, I would have rated this book higher, but he didn't come across very well as a real three-dimensional person, which is ironic considering the story.

So, ultimately, the book made me uncomfortable for multiple reasons, which I think it was trying to do and is a good thing in some ways, being thought-provoking. But it wasn't done quite in the right way. Honestly, this book would have been much better as a short-story because its shortcomings would have been much less noticeable and possibly have even been turned into strengths--and the ending could have worked because there's be less buildup toward that immense unsatisfaction.

Hence the 1.5 stars--it wasn't bad, but I felt very cheated in the end.