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Review #15455 - Dated: 3rd of January, 2016
Author: savta |
I have to admit I am a sucker for a good yarn, but this book really had me hooked right from the outset. I read all 390 pages in one sitting because it was far too compelling to put down. It has all the elements of a good thriller plus the added bonus of being targeted at a teenage audience. Not that this should dissuade older people from reading it too - the content is strong enough to appeal to a lot of adults as well.
The format is interesting. The protagonists are a group of fourteen-year-olds who start off doing a three-day work experience module for school, but for some of them things do not pan out quite as they expected. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the young people and this gives the effect of the story being told in 3-D as each writer has a different style of writing and a different angle on events. One of the narrators is in fact a set of twins - Polly and Molly - who write together, identifying from time to time whose voice is being used at that particular moment! I could imagine them actually sitting together and passing the keyboard to each other as they wrote.
What impressed me was the number of different events and the way the author managed to weave them all together so that they all contributed to the final showdown. To go into too many details would give away the plot, but the book includes descriptions of hectic car chases, rock concerts, environmental and ethical issues, high-tech activities including computer programming and surveillance, the role of aggressive marketing, multinational companies, and illegal immigrants. There is certainly a lot of background material for the interested reader to follow up - once he or she has recovered from absorbing the story on its own merits.
One last comment. I liked the way the pages were "decorated" with stains as though someone had spilt their drink on it (which, incidentally, ties in with one of the main events in the story). I did not feel I had to check that my hands were clean before I turned the pages. And that is a good thing as this is definitely a book that I will read again. I look forward to reading other works by this author.
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