An inventive take on dystopian YA that pits the analog against the digital.
A former social media star rebels against the culture that made her in this dystopian YA novel from Delahanty (Believe, 2016, etc.).
Your social media reputation is everything when this book begins in the year it identifies as “20X5.” People literally invest their money in you on the Social Stock Exchange, and if you fall too far in the Index you might as well be dead. Ella Karman was destined to be an Influencer. The daughter of a Hollywood power couple, she debuted on the Stock Exchange at its highest price ever. Ella doesn’t enjoy the two-faced life of an Influencer, however, and after she is betrayed by her best friend, Deena, Ella decides to walk away from the whole thing. She fakes her own death at her 17th birthday party and, under the new name Elisha DeWitt, joins the Disconnects: rebels who live off the grid and eschew digital technology. She enrolls at Keystone, the Disconnect school for thieves who steal analog history records before they become reappropriated and distorted by corporations, and a master thief tells her: “Tape recordings, printed books, films, photographs—proof of history—are decaying and becoming scarce. Digital information is easy to tamper with, and there are forces at work that want current society to reflect their version of the past.” For her Initiation Heist, Ella/Elisha will have to return to the world of Influencers—along with Disconnect hunk Garrett—to prove that she really has become a different person. Delahanty’s prose is suspenseful and lean, and she skillfully reveals the layers of Ella’s emotional landscape: “Up until that moment, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Disconnecting seemed like an exciting fantasy—a way to stick it to my parents—but deep down I didn’t think I’d go through with it. There was no way I was brave enough to give up everything I knew and start over in a strange place.” The characters and their relationships are sometimes stunted in a way that is common in YA fiction, but the book makes up for its familiar flourishes with its imaginative exploration of “Influencer” culture. Young readers will enjoy the flirty teen spycraft fused with a thoughtful critique of the way social media now shapes the teenage experience.
An inventive take on dystopian YA that pits the analog against the digital.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64063-824-2
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Despite some stiffness, however, after being captured by the frigid mountaintop sacrifice of Munray in chapter one, readers...
Alternating first person accounts create a multi-genre adventure with an intriguing plot.
Chapter one is told by an Inca girl in 1458 as she’s taken high up on a mountain in Peru and left there to freeze to death as a human sacrifice. Fast forward to the present, where 38-year-old professional treasure hunter Jake scales said mountain and discovers the mummy. The amulet that Jake steals from the mummy turns out to be a rare metal alloy that governments, corporations and crooks want desperately. Is there more hidden in the Peruvian Andes? Jake brings 15-year-old Emma (niece) and 11-year-old Joel (nephew) on the quest. Peruvian anthropologist Estrella joins them as they hike into the wilderness seeking the alloy and lost Quechua culture and architecture. A violent, unscrupulous usurper follows them as they discover poverty stricken Inca descendents and a hidden cave with a wealth of information. Alongside the mystery, Pritchard crams in other genres–environmentalism, problem novel (Emma’s an amputee with a prosthetic arm), dense science and mountain-climbing technicalities and bits of fantasy–that, joined with the copious historical background, slow the pace. Many of the adventure plot points are improbable or too convenient, and an adult perspective awkwardly pervades the voice of both narrators.
Despite some stiffness, however, after being captured by the frigid mountaintop sacrifice of Munray in chapter one, readers will certainly want to follow to the end the fate of her people’s descendents. (Quechua glossary, chronology of Incan emperors, bibliography) (10-12)Pub Date: March 10, 2005
ISBN: 0-595-33674-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Well-written and entertaining.
In this exciting if somewhat implausible detective story, seventh-grader Jeremy becomes involved in the investigation surrounding the murder of his family’s dog-walker.
Even though Digger, Jeremy’s bloodhound, enthusiastically tracks down the killer, the case remains open. What was the underlying motive for a seemingly random stabbing in the park? Detective Joe Perillo suspects that a drug cartel may be behind the crime, but needs proof. After Jeremy’s mom unaccountably allows him to accompany Joe on his investigations, Jeremy becomes hooked, and can’t stop sleuthing on his own–especially when he begins discovering useful leads. Despite stern warnings that he could endanger both himself and Digger, he sneaks back into the apartment of the primary suspect, where the inevitable happens. Jeremy and Digger are appealing characters and the author effectively builds the suspense as Jeremy investigates the suspect’s apartment. Though a bit more violent than most mysteries for this age group, this is quality detective fiction that will have special appeal for the reluctant teen reader.
Well-written and entertaining. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2006
ISBN: 0-595-41011-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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