iBoy

October 10, 2011
Brooks’s latest novel may have a goofy premise, but this revenge story is no less intense a thriller than his earlier work. Sixteen-year-old Tom lives in the rough Crow Town projects in London, where gangs run rampant. As he heads to one of the towers one day to see his friend Lucy, an iPhone is thrown from her apartment, shattering his skull and embedding itself in his head. When Tom wakes up in the hospital after surgery, he finds that some pieces of the phone have merged with his brain, and he has newfound powers that include mentally browsing the Internet, hacking cell phones, and zapping people. He also learns that Lucy was being gang-raped while he was en route to visit her, and the rest of the novel consists of Tom’s attempts to retaliate against the gangs and the culture that creates them. Brooks (Dawn) delivers something that’s less a work of science fiction than a brutal rumination on vengeance, near-limitless power, and their effects on people, with believably flawed characters and a harsh setting that serve the story well. Ages 14–up. (Nov.)■

October 1, 2011
Tom Harvey's world is upended after he's hit by a smartphone thrown from 30 stories up. Living with his grandmother in the projects known as Crow Town, a grim, sprawling urban jungle where drug-dealing gangs rule by intimidation, Tom keeps his head down and dreams of turning his childhood friendship with Lucy into something more. That life ends when, waking from surgery, he's told that parts of the iPhone fused with his brain and can't be removed. That fusion endows Tom with powers that give new meaning to "hacking." It feels exhilarating to apply his new powers to paying back a local gang that carried out a brutal sexual assault on Lucy, but revenge can't bridge the gulf between him and Lucy or heal her psychological wounds. Using his powers is changing Tom; he'd like to stop; yet against an unscrupulous enemy that's utterly amoral, don't his moral scruples amount to weakness? Those aiming to attract the elusive teen male to teen fiction have no better ally than English novelist Brooks, whose lean, suspenseful thrillers feature compelling heroes facing tough choices, and this is no exception (Being, 2007, etc.). This classic superhero plot, at once cutting-edge science fiction and moral fable, is guaranteed to keep even fiction-averse, reluctant readers on the edge of their seats. (Science fiction. 14 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2011

Gr 8 Up-All that was on Tom Harvey's mind that afternoon was meeting up with Lucy, the girl he kind of liked, at her apartment in the slummy south London Crow Town towers where gangs run rampant and violence is a way of life. "Hey Harvey!" someone yells, as an iPhone sails out a window 30 stories up, striking Tom in the head, sending phone fragments deep into his brain. When he comes out of a coma 17 days later, he realizes that he and the phone have become one. He learns that Lucy was gang raped and uses his abilities to try to bring a sense of justice to what happened to her. The story goes with a superhero feel rather than trying to attempt a scientific explanation of Tom's ability to access top-secret files internally, surf the Web, channel electrical charges, watch and blink to record videos, and mentally email and text friends and enemies alike. Amid detailing his comic-book superpowers and his fight with a villainous villain, the author raises some interesting points for discussion. Was Tom wrong to transfer 1 each from 15,000 different accounts into a single account so his grandmother could pay the bills? Is his vigilante revenge justified? This book is not for serious scientific readers, but it's just the thing for those with a willing suspension of disbelief who like some grit and challenge with their "Zap!" "Pow!" and "Smack!"-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2011
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Brooks (The Road of the Dead, 2006) is a master at revealing ugly and brutal aspects of relationships among family and friends as well as plumbing each individual's capacity to reach deep within to find character traits that can lead to redemption. Here, South London teen Tom Harvey suffers a bizarre but compelling accident: when someone throws an iPhone at him from a 30-story public housing tower, his skull is split, and small pieces of the communications device cannot safely be retrieved during brain surgery. While recovering, Tom learns that his friend Lucy was brutally raped during the same incident. He also discovers that the bits of embedded iPhone have given him the power to search the web, listen to phone calls, and manipulate messages sent by cell, all through his thought processes. Motivated by the need to punish those who hurt Lucy, Tom sets out to identify and take revenge on local gang members. Brooks' writing, as always, is smooth; his dialogue realistic; and his characters and setting fully developed. The ethical issues Tom encounters during his crusade will resonate with readers of any social class, and this novel should lead to many a discussion about the unsteady fault line between good and evil.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)