Debut novel 'Origin' explores immortality in the jungle

For young-adult heroines, even being immortal doesn't deter the googly eyes for the male love interest.

But give first-time author Jessica Khoury credit for going off the grid — literally, to an Amazon rain forest — and crafting a tale in Origin devoid of dystopian futures and vampire romances.

For decades, scientists at the Little Cambridge research facility have toiled in the jungle working to bring immortality to mankind using elysia, a local and super-rare flower, and a mystery catalyst. After five generations, they've finally bred a breakthrough: Pia, a 17-year-old girl with unbreakable skin, amazing reflexes and an immunity to diseases.

Pia yearns to be a scientist one day for this enigmatic corporation (think the Dharma Initiative from Lost) and spearhead the project to create more immortals so she won't feel so alone. Yet Pia is starting to think of her glass house in the rain forest as more of a prison to keep her isolated — even though she's told by her mother and others it's for her own good — and wonders what and who else is out there in the world. In fact, she knows way more about paramecium than Shakespeare.

This burgeoning need for freedom leads her to escape her fenced-in confines and study chemistry of the romantic sort with Eio, a teenage boy and one of the natives who stay clear of the facility. It's a little bit like Romeo and Juliet with jaguars.

Eio and a female cloning expert new to "Little Cam" spur Pia to start questioning her surroundings, and she thinks that immortality maybe isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Whether or not there was a push to out-Katniss the Hunger Games heroine and her ilk, Pia definitely is a step above — and not just because immortality is cooler than a bow and arrow. She is forced to face all sorts of emotional drama and tests as she begins to uncover the truth about the experiments, and it's easy to root for Pia's spirit, which is just as durable as her body.

Once Khoury starts to reveal what's behind the curtain and puzzling relationships between characters become clear halfway through, Origin becomes a crackling good read. But the story get bogged down at times by the blooming romance between Pia and Eio.

There are instances where Pia is dumbstruck by his abs as he emerges from a lake, and dramatic convos that go on for paragraphs slow down the narrative. With immortality and lives in the balance, they tend to be slightly distracting — unless you're a devoted aficionado of the musical works of Taylor Swift, in which case it's all good. (In terms of young jungle love, Pia and Eio prove to be more chaste than even the Twilight kids.)

With a spunky immortal girl and scientific intrigue, though, Khoury's debut novel definitely makes for an impressive Origin story.