Girl Gone Viral

March 25, 2019
In this near-future thriller, Ahmadi (Down and Across) questions the benefits of technology and its role in creating instant celebrity, shortening attention spans, and insidiously impacting democracy. When 17-year-old coder Opal Tal’s father, Aaron, went missing seven years earlier, she attempted to track him down by reaching out to his business partner, Howie Mendelsohn. But Opal’s requests were ignored. Now legally known as Opal Hopper and a senior at Palo Alto Academy of Science and Technology, she is given an opportunity to meet Howie by entering the Make-a-Splash competition on WAVE, a virtual reality social media site that Howie created. All Opal has to do is give up her privacy and become a viral media sensation, which she and her friends do using ill-gotten information about how people react to an infamous personality’s very public emotional breakdowns. The narrative blends with texts, transcripts, and other technologies, sometimes affecting pacing, but Ahmadi’s relatable characters keep the story engaging. Ages 12–up. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM Partners.

April 15, 2019
On a quest to find her missing father, a teen and her friends create a virtual reality experience that goes viral. Seventeen-year-old Opal Hopper has a talent for coding, an entertainer's instincts, and an entrepreneur's drive for disruption. She's also haunted by an old mystery: Why did her father disappear, and what is his old partner, Howie Mendelsohn, keeping secret? When Howie's firm, Palo Alto Labs, launches a contest on their VR platform, offering the winner a chance to meet with Howie himself, Opal leaps at the chance to get some answers--even if it means stealing private data. But every strategic step that this smart, complex heroine takes toward fame, fortune, and closure lands her on shakier moral ground and stretches her loyalties. The absorbing narrative takes readers to a near future where smart-voice assistants, self-driving Teslas, the Hyperloop, and delivery drones are du jour. But men still run the big tech companies, female entrepreneurs still struggle with harassment and inequity, and anti-technology movements are on the rise. Despite the unsatisfying ending, Opal's journey raises good questions: Can we be better than our internet selves? What if we allowed computers to track our most private thoughts and feelings? Could robots and humans live in harmony? The answers, of course, are still under development. Opal is assumed white and her best friend is Nigerian. An immersive ride through the near future with a compelling heroine at the helm. (Science fiction. 12-17)

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May 1, 2019

Gr 8 Up-When 17-year-old Opal Tal's father disappeared seven years ago, everyone believed it was suicide...except Opal. After years of desperately searching for her beloved Abba, Opal changes her name to avoid the stigma and attention and tries to move on with her life. But when WAVE, the world's leading virtual reality platform, announces a contest to create the most viral VR experience, Opal has to enter. Because first prize is a chance to meet the company's founder and reclusive gazillionaire, Howie Mendelsohn-the same Howie Mendelsohn who was working with her dad when he disappeared; the same Howie Mendelsohn who was the last person to see him alive. Now Opal must discover how far down the virtual rabbit hole she is willing to go to find out what really happened the night she lost her father. The world of Ahmadi's book is as much a character as any other. Setting his book in a not-too-distant future where Seth Meyers is considered "old school" and political lines are drawn not between Republicans and Democrats but instead between Technology and Luddites, Ahmadi creates a nice balance between the familiar and the future. Characters power the story and, though there is not much action, there are still plenty of surprises and suspense. Ahmadi leaves enough loose ends dangling that a sequel is possible, which would be eagerly anticipated by readers. VERDICT Despite a slow start, this novel picks up the pace and rounds into a very entertaining story with a protagonist readers will invest in.-Erik Knapp, Davis Library, Plano, TX

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Ahmadi's sophomore novel, following Down and Across (2018), is a thrilling, out-of-this-world experience for any reader. Coding is 17-year-old Opal Hopper's life. For a young woman who can create anything she can dream, it's heartbreakingly frustrating that she cannot conjure up her missing father or even find a glimmer of a trail to locate him. Her hope of one day finding him is renewed with the announcement of a virtual reality contest. The award includes a meeting with the billionaire developer her father once worked for. Opal is determined to win the contest at any cost?even if it means hacking, cheating, lying, and unearthing murder. Ahmadi delivers a breathless, sweeping story without shying away from heavy themes like grief, morality, and mental health. Opal is a girl who enjoys all the benefits of being labeled a prodigy, but she quickly comes to realize how easy it is to become tangled in the web of attention and fame. Like all great sf stories, this leaves readers with some weighty questions to ponder at the close of the book, and how much of our privacy we're willing to sacrifice for personalized web content is one of them. This thought-provoking question, particularly in a moment when we are starting to grapple with this exact issue, will make this even more relevant to teens.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)