An emotionally mature YA thriller that gives hope to troubled teens.
A newly adopted hacker becomes the target of a well-hidden stalker in this sequel.
It’s eight months after the graphic finale of Olivia Twisted (2013), and 17-year-old hacker Liv is now under the care of her wealthy grandfather Carlton Brownlow in Norfolk, Virginia. She’s trying to forget Jack, also known as Z, the fellow orphan and hacker she fell for while staying with the Monroe Street family. On the morning of Valentine’s Day, she wakes to find a white rose on her pillow and, later, a diamond bracelet in her car. She assumes her doting grandfather is responsible for both, but he denies it. Meanwhile, in Richmond, Jack lives with his hacking crew and their guardian, Nancy, at the Briarcreek House. Nancy institutes a no hacking rule so the teens can prepare for college and normal adult lives. Jack, however, has known hacking his whole life and refuses to trade ripping off banks and corporations for eventually working for them. When the Briarcreek emergency bank account is charged for expensive jewelry, Nancy suspects Jack. Hesitantly, Liv and Jack re-enter each other’s lives to find out who is stalking her and framing him. In the author’s second YA thriller, readers benefit once more from deft pacing and intricate plotting. The romance, which sees the protagonists drift fatefully back together, is emboldened by chapters that alternate between Jack’s and Liv’s perspectives. Lovely moments are frequent, like when he notices “the little line between her eyes creasing as she thinks...I remember kissing that crease.” A large cast—including Emerson, Liv’s best friend, and Frank Jones, a driver connected with the villainous Bill Sykes—helps Barnes (Paper or Plastic, 2015, etc.) sprinkle red herrings far and wide. Most impressive, though, is the growth these characters experience. Once bent on humiliating the rich father who abandoned him, Jack realizes that his “anger still boils under my skin, but it feels old, an ache that I can’t cure.” This likable pair of hackers deserves as many more outings as Barnes can conceive.
An emotionally mature YA thriller that gives hope to troubled teens.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63375-490-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Garrett’s failure to produce any sympathetic characters makes her debut tough going.
Burglaries turn deadly for a group of spoiled teenagers.
Harper, Alex, Sarah, Paisley, Benji, and Gin come from similarly privileged homes. Their parents make up for a lack of commitment to their high school offspring by providing unfettered access to life’s material benefits: cars, clothes, and costly vacations. When getting drunk on booze filched from their folks’ well-stocked liquor cabinets palls, they invent an exciting new game. Each time one of the teens’ families goes skiing in Vail or snorkeling in the Bahamas, a designated member of the pack breaks into the unattended house and collects an assortment of trophies to be pawned for ready cash. The rules of the looting are strict. Only one member breaks into each house, nothing is to be stolen that can’t be replaced with insurance money, and nothing stolen from other members of the group. Harper adds one more rule: no stealing from her deaf sister, Maggie. After one full round of felonious fun, the wheels start to come off the crime spree. Sarah dies from a drug overdose. The police can’t decide if it’s an accident or suicide, but Harper is sure it’s neither. She thinks Sarah is too smart to overdose on her own and too conceited to kill herself. And since no one outside her little group exists for Harper, one of her fellow thieves must have killed her. Going to the authorities is a no-go because it would reveal the group’s role in the burglaries and spoil their chances of admission to an Ivy League college. So Harper and her chums sit around and wait to see if anything else bad happens. It does. Unfortunately, even Harper’s protectiveness toward her sister carries its own whiff of smugness.
Garrett’s failure to produce any sympathetic characters makes her debut tough going.Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-929345-30-4
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
Well-drawn characters and playful twists keep this thriller fully charged.
This YA SF novel features a teen who must halt a virus that will kill two-thirds of humanity.
In Silver Oak, Maryland, Alice Sherman is a high school junior enjoying lunch near her campus basketball court. With her is Archie, her brother, a senior and science prodigy who likes equations more than his fellow students. Alice has been Archie’s one true friend since their mother left six years ago. Alice is about to catch up with Lalana Bunyasarn, her best friend, when a sudden “streak of electricity zaps through” her head. The agony intensifies until a Voice enters Alice’s mind, asking her, “Do you want this pain to stop?” The Voice then instructs her to go up to Bandit Sakda, a classmate playing basketball, and say that she loves him. Bandit is a beautiful Thai boy who’s talented and arrogant. Strangely, the Voice calls her Malice and says not to fall for him because “it’ll only make what you have to do later harder.” Eventually, Alice learns that the Voice belongs to someone from 10 years in the future who needs help saving humanity. A virus will be created by a person Alice knows that will wipe out two-thirds of the world population. Following the Voice’s directions can save everyone—except the person Alice is ordered to kill. Dunn’s (Star-Crossed, 2018, etc.) latest YA adventure offers increasingly tantalizing twists that gleam in succession like nested matryoshka dolls. Alice will charm readers with her quirks, especially her devotion to Chris Hemsworth of Marvel’s Avengers films. Tension builds as characters in the large cast, including crushworthy Zeke Cain and the brilliant Cristela Ruiz, become potential targets for Alice’s mission. Details about Thai culture add a splendid dimension to the narrative; for example, Bandit is pronounced “bun-dit” and means “one who is wise.” While the notion of a high school killer may not sit well with some, the author doesn’t use the device lightly. Her book takes a strong anti-bullying stance, doing so through an entertaining narrative that doesn’t resort to preaching. The author’s heart and craftiness make a sequel welcome.
Well-drawn characters and playful twists keep this thriller fully charged.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64063-412-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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