Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

Noa finds herself on the run after she wakes up alone on an operating table. Desperate for cash, she agrees to help Peter, a fellow computer "hacktivist," research the shady organization that's threatening his family and uncovers a conspiracy that could destroy them both. Fast-paced and full of slow-building tension, this tech-thriller is a solid entry in the genre.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

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)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

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)

ALA Booklist (Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2012)

Talk about a rude awakening. Sixteen-year-old Noa wakes up in a strange lab with an IV in her arm and an ominous scar running down her stomach. She busts out of the compound with nowhere to turn; thankfully, her past as a perennial runaway supplies her with the skills to survive. She contacts 17-year-old Peter, a fellow hacker who until now she has only known anonymously, and together they discover that a shady corporation is involved in "Project Persephone," a secret program involving stealing homeless children to be experimented on in an unspecified way. Noa and Peter know too much, and soon vicious goons are pursuing them all over Boston. Gagnon has a heck of a knack for developing character through nonstop action, and despite the high-tech slant and gruesome premise, this has all the pinwheeling, disorienting fun of a good, old-fashioned paranoid thriller st swap yesteryear's top-secret briefcase for a laptop. Mileage may vary based on your tolerance for chase scenes, but for sure this is a smart, adrenalized good time.