Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Gagnon’s writing draws readers effortlessly into an adrenaline-packed ride. This is a smart, gripping addition to the growing hacker-action genre with strong appeal to fans of Doctorow’s Little Brother and Falkner’s Brain Jack.
Katie Crouch
A sophisticated, mind-bending thriller.
Harlan Coben
A fast-paced, rip-roaring thriller for all ages.
The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books
“Gagnon’s writing draws readers effortlessly into an adrenaline-packed ride. This is a smart, gripping addition to the growing hacker-action genre with strong appeal to fans of Doctorow’s Little Brother and Falkner’s Brain Jack.
Kirkus Reviews
Teenage hackers Noa and Peter band together for vengeance and discover an inconceivable conspiracy. Sixteen-year-old computer whiz Noa Torson has escaped the Child Protective Services system by creating a fake foster family that includes a reclusive, freelance IT-guy of a father who draws a tidy salary working "from home"; she thinks she's safe. When she wakes up in a hospitallike operating theater with no memory of how she got there, she doesn't take the doctors' lame explanation that she was in a car accident and uses her smarts to escape. Meanwhile, Boston child-of-privilege Peter pokes around his father's files and is interrupted by armed thugs who break down the door and storm off with his computer (leaving a warning for his parents). Peter enlists his hacktivist group /ALLIANCE/ (of which Noa is a member) to, first, research the subject of those files and then to attack his attackers via the Net. The attack only serves to dig the teens in deeper when they uncover a frightening conspiracy of human experimentation and corporate malfeasance that could mean a quick death for them both. Adult author Gagnon's YA debut is a pulse-pounding scary-great read. The strong characters and dystopian day-after-tomorrow setting will have teens begging for more. The slightly open end leaving the possibility (but not necessity) of a sequel will rankle some; others will just breathlessly smile. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for preteens and teens, a surefire hit. (Thriller. 12-16)
