The Body Market

January 15, 2017
Skylar's floundering after the deceptions and betrayals uncovered in Unplugged (2016). She feels responsible for the evils unleashed upon society by her sister, Jude, and by the man who's possibly her father--and she's determined to save her best friend, one of the many slated to have the physical body sold off and to live exclusively in the digital world. But Skylar and Rain are on the rocks, and she feels distant from the resistance. Doing reconnaissance at the Body Market, Skylar's abducted by a hot bounty hunter named Kit. Trapped with him during a blizzard, she quickly learns his angst-y back story, and the two begin to fall for each other. Instead of turning Skylar over to Jude, Kit releases her. Back with the resistance, Skylar and Zeera pass out antique tablets for communication purposes, with hand-wave-y references to "the Wi-Fi" that connects them. In earnest expository dialogue, Skylar recollects history lessons about the devices "and all the division they caused between families and loved ones, all the anger and hurt feelings, all the obsession." Cue a heavy-handed, instant tech obsession among the devices' new users. Betrayals and twists enliven the ending to reel readers back in for the next installment. Though the lead is brown-skinned and the virtual world defaults to Caucasian 4.0, racial issues are not addressed. Skip the lukewarm romance to get to the eventful ending. (Science fiction. 12-18)

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January 1, 2017

Gr 8 Up-In this thoughtful sequel to Unplugged, Skylar has failed to save her best friends, Inara and Sylvia, from the App World, where they've been unplugged from virtual apps. They'll soon be sold to the highest bidders at the Body Market unless Skylar can rescue them. Still reeling from her sister Jude's betrayal, Skylar doesn't trust Rain, the boy she likes, because he's lied to her. When Skylar is kidnapped and held in a remote cabin by Kit, a motorcycle-riding teen bounty hunter, she convinces him not to turn her in. Instead, Skylar persuades Kit to help her overthrow Jude and promises to rescue his sister. In this second book in a planned trilogy, Skylar also finds out that she has a brother, who helps her figure out a coding glitch that will allow them to create an app that would override the plugs and wake up all the bodies. Skylar's brain is the only one that can make that possible, but there's a chance it won't work. Chapters are told from Skylar's, Rain's, and occasionally Kit's perspectives, giving readers a more in-depth look into their motives. Skylar's emotional response when she sees the Real World's ocean and snow for the first time is particularly affecting. VERDICT Fast-paced, full of intrigue and betrayal, and set in a virtual world with diverse characters, this title will appeal to gamers or fans of M.T. Anderson's Feed, Dan Wells's Bluescreen, or James Dashner's The Eye of Minds.-Sharon Rawlins, New Jersey State Library, Trenton

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