The Boyfriend App

April 29, 2013
Audrey McCarthy and her best friend Blake were popular as freshmen, but by senior year, Blake has turned mean, and Audrey's only friends are the computer geeks that Blake and her posse call trogs, short for troglodytes. But it's the trogs' turn to shine when the Public Company (think Apple plus Facebook) announces an app contest, with a $200,000 prize. A talented coder and hacker, Audrey is determined to win. Her first app, a boyfriend finder, starts strong, but fizzles when the couples it's brought together start breaking up. Then comes version 2.0, which builds on the underhanded way Public keeps teens connected to its products. Debut author Sise makes app design fun and approachable, while adding a pinch of caprice into the storyline. Audrey's relationship with adorable fellow-trog Aidan evolves at a slow pace, especially compared to the speed with which the mayhem and scandal result from Audrey's appâand what she discovers about Public. But Sise creates a clever, independent-minded heroine, while exploring the drawbacks of modern technology, and offering painful insight into friendships gone sour. Ages 13âup. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates.

June 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-Audrey McCarthy's tech-savvy and humorous voice carries readers through the improbable events of her senior year. Ever since her father died, money has been tight, and winning the $200,000 scholarship offered by Public Corporation for the most popular app would mean that she could afford college. Audrey builds the Boyfriend App, which uses information from questionnaires to send a phone message when a user comes within 100 yards of a "perfect match." After Audrey's cousin tweets the surprising results of her successful match to thousands of followers of her fashion blog, one message is retweeted by Public's spokesperson and teen pop star, Danny Beaton. The Boyfriend App soars temporarily before a swift decline from failed matches. Then Audrey investigates a strange buzzing from her buyPhone and hacks into Public's site. She learns that the company has installed secret software that emits sounds that stimulate feel-good hormones when teens come near a Public store or download music from buyJams, causing them to purchase more. Adapting this "falling in love" phenomenon, Audrey launches the Boyfriend App 2.0, with instant success. When she successfully deploys it against Beaton during a concert, his kiss wins her the contest. Unfortunately, Public threatens to ruin Audrey if she reveals the truth. With the help of some powerful allies, the teen not only gets to college without Public's money, but also finds romance with an app. Underneath unlikely plot developments lie some serious questions about personal relationships and corporate power, but they never overburden the story's lighter and humorous moments. This fast-paced, clever romance with a smart, likable narrator should find a place in most libraries.-Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2013
What starts as a geek-girl romantic comedy turns into an implausible techno-thriller. When Public, an Apple-like tech giant responsible for social networking site Public Party and the omnipresent buyPhone, announces an app-building contest for high school students, computer-savvy Audrey creates the Boyfriend App to match users with potential dates. After the app successfully pairs her fashion-blogger cousin Lindsay with Audrey's fellow geek Nigit, Lindsay promotes it via Twitter to her audience of thousands. (Luckily for Lindsay, ostensibly religious Nigit doesn't seem to mind when she treats Hindu deities as fashion inspiration). After a brief setback, Audrey discovers a hidden functionality in buyPhones that turns the app into a high-tech love potion: Press a button and point it at a boy and he adores you. (Female users can also point it at a girl, but the only student to do this is a highly stereotyped exchange student whose kiss is portrayed as humiliating.) Public's reaction to Audrey's hacking their phones is suspenseful and engaging, but there are plot holes aplenty. Why does no one else question how the app works? How can every student afford a buyPhone? More disturbing, the ethical implications of users "apping" boys into kissing them are left almost completely unaddressed. Ultimately, too hard to swallow, with too many unanswered questions. (Fiction. 13-16)

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