By Kevin Brooks
Scholastic, $17.99, 295 pages
This is not a book for young children. Tom Harvey acquires an iPhone the hard way in iBoy: Search. Shock. Destroy; it becomes part of his brain giving him special powers. He then finds out that the girl he loves has been viciously attacked; he then faces the choice of how to avenge her. Along the way he learns more about himself, and more about his parents than he ever wanted to. He may have access to all of the information in the world, but there are still some questions that he has to answer himself.
The story works on a number of levels. This is definitely not a book for the younger kids; the swearing and violence push the limit, but the gang rape pushes it over the edge. The plot is dense enough and is built rather well, with everything building logically and nicely. The characters are realistic; they are not always sympathetic, but you can easily see these people actually existing. This is a great book, with some really nice but bumpy twists and turns, and it will be fun to see where it leads to next.
Reviewed by Jamais Jochim
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