3 stars
Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.
Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa’s talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation threatens his life. But what Noa and Peter don’t realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who’d stop at nothing to silence her for good.
Filled with action, suspense, and romance, this first book in a new trilogy offers readers nonstop thrills.
REVIEW:
When I first started Don’t Turn Around I thought it was a dystopian novel. Only after reading about a third of it, did I realize it was a contemp/sci-fi sort of novel based around computer hacking.
Noa has been in foster care for nine years, spending the last year pretending to be living with a family. In and out of homes until she couldn’t take it anymore and was able to create a fake foster family by hacking into the necessary databases, State welfare, DMV all by learning the Linux system in public school.
She’s kidnapped by a corporation who is trying to find a cure for a disease that is killing the youth. When she escapes a man-hunt ensues. This company is determined to find her and she’s determined to figure out who they are.
Peter Gregory is a computer hacker who is to nosey for his own good. He finds himself bored and decided to snoop around his father’s desk and finds a file. More curiosity drives him to hack into this company’s server to find out who they are. Only to find himself face down on his floor by some thugs, his computer taken and his front door missing.
Something like this would likely deter people from looking further, but not Peter. He hires one of the hackers from his own hacking website to find out more.
He hires Noa.
While she’s hacking for him, Peter is discovering that his high school turned college girlfriend is no longer in love with him and his parents are part of this mystery company. As if things can’t get any worse for Peter, his parents kick him out.
Noa discovers that the company Peter is looking into is the same that kidnapped her and she’s being watched.
What happens next is a cat and mouse game of mystery and murder. Noa learns that this company takes street kids because they won’t be missed – but Noa isn’t a street kid, she has a fake family who works and pays rent, so this is where I became really confused as to why she was targeted. Maybe the sequel will shed more light on this.
Don’t Turn Around reminds me of The Net with Sandra Bullock.
