Reviewed by Mrs. Foley
From Destiny Library record, "Hunter Braque, a New York City teenager who is paid by corporations to spot what is 'cool,' combines his analytical skills with girlfriend Jen's creative talents to find a missing person and thwart a conspiracy directed at the heart of consumer culture."

Scott Westerfeld is a very clever author. Here he is making a strong statement about teenage consumerism in a very entertaining book. Although this isn't one of my favorite books by him, anything he writes is worth reading. It would be an interesting book to discuss in a marketing class!
Review from Booklist (September 15, 2004 (Vol. 101, No. 2))
Gr. 7-12. Like M. T. Anderson's Feed (2002), this hip, fascinating thriller aggressively questions consumer culture. Seventeen-year-old Hunter lives up to his name. A "cool hunter,"he's paid by corporations to comb his native Manhattan in search of street style that could become the next new trend. Hunter meets and falls for fellow teen culture-watcher Jen, just before Hunter's boss mysteriously disappears. Jen and Hunter hold the most clues, and their wild, increasingly dangerous search uncovers a plot to subvert a consumer system that dictates what is cool. Readers may have trouble sorting through some of the plot's connections and anticonsumerist messages. But Hunter tells a captivating, suspenseful story about how product desire is created, using a first-person voice that is cynical ("magazines are just wrapping for ads") and precociously wise (he riffs on the origins of everything from the Internet to neckties) while remaining believably naive and vulnerable when it comes to girls. Teens will inhale this wholly entertaining, thought-provoking look at a system fueled by their purchasing power. ( )

I didn't like this one as much as I would like. It just made me want to go and read M.T. Anderson's Feed again (which in my opinion can't be matched for a view of the greedy, corporate future). Not bad, but slight in comparison to other futuristic dystopias. I'd like to read the Uglies trilogy someday, since that's really what Westerfeld is known for. ( )

A great book. Funny and intresting, directed to the people following fads. Definitly not what it seems, so wait until chapter 5 or so too put the book down ;). ( )

Read a LONG time ago, but just adding it now. ( )

Seventeen-year-old Hunter stalks and tracks “cool.” Or to put it better, he is a “cool hunter.” When he notices the originality of how a girl in the park ties her shoelaces, he knows he has met an Innovator. This encounter with Jen James leads to a fast-paced adventure as amateur detectives where they try to rescue a possibly kidnapped friend and attempt to unravel a plot to sabotage the consumer culture in which Hunter is an important player. ( )