Claire McNab (1940–2022)

this was a quick and easy to read little mystery that wasn't spectacular but was also not bad. it was enjoyable and the solution was not obvious. we didn't get a lot of character depth, but what we saw i liked. it was easy to keep reading and pick up when i had to put it down. i'm not sure i'd go and read the entire series or anything, but i wouldn't mind reading another.

the only thing that really bothered me (the homophobia was appropriate for 1988 when it first came out) was this show more discrepancy in how terry treats sybil and how we're supposed to feel about it and him, and how sybil and carol treat each other and how we're supposed to feel about it and them. so for example, terry is smarmy and gross and always insisting that sybil does what she doesn't want for him (from calling him to having sex with him) and we get that he's terrible and stalking her and awful. when carol says to sybil that she doesn't want sybil to kiss her but sybil does anyway, we're supposed to be ok with that because we know how carol feels. but really, sybil is doing the same thing (i mean, ok, not as drastic and disgusting) as terry is doing, but we aren't supposed to look at it the same. maybe in 1988 i wouldn't have, and it's not a huge deal, but i wish people would be less likely to just dismiss the bad behavior of people we like while castigating people we don't like for similar behavior. (end rant.) oh, and i don't believe that carol would have slept with a suspect, not even if she didn't believe she was guilty. she wouldn't have risked her career like that. but in the end these are minor quibbles. it's a decent (simple, not complicated) mystery. show less

Tayor Trent's family takes in her backward "farmie" cousin Barrett after his uncle dies and leaves him with no remaining relatives in Simplicity. Barrett is not very excited about having to live in the "chattering city", but he doesn't really have much choice. The chapters describing Barrett's first reactions to the advertisements are a great jumping off point for a media awareness discussion. When Taylor discovers that she isn't who she thought she was, things escalate. She and Barrett are show more locked up because they know too much, but ingeniously manage to escape and join a media circus where Senator Maynard is about to brainwash an entire crowd into believing they need the Cue-Cure his company can provide against a plague that he actually had a hand in starting. Would be a great novel for a futures unit, but only for gifted middle schoolers or grade nine and ten students. show less

Ash and Kayla’s father is not 6 months dead ( accidentally electrocuted) and their mother is already going out with his creepy business partner Stu Riling. Some things don’t add up – their father survived a hit and run only a few weeks before his death – was someone trying to kill him? And why is Stu so bent on finding their father’s new software game? Or, is their fertile imagination and way of coping with their father’s death? Ash and Kayla are determined to find out?
9-10 =some show more sexual references.
Computer references are also a little dated. show less

In the same vein as Carmichael's "Adds R Us", the author looks at the dangers of a world that relies so much on technology to connect people to one another. The Five are a group of teenagers who have grown up together from kindergarten and now attend the same high school. Their connectedness is helped by their iZods which allow them to text, surf the net, make calls and listen to music. (Sound familiar?) even to the point of sending notes in class.

But then Rick, the most fragile of the show more group because he lost his parents in a car accident is suddenly a Disconnect - nothing works for him - no iZod, no school network, passwords; nothing - it is like he has ceased to exist and in fact the only time he can now talk to his friends is face-to-face. He tries to get re-connected but the company that makes and runs the iZod blame the government and vice-versa, and slowly Rick begins to fall back into depression.

Meanwhile, Petra, another member of the Five, has been cyber-bullied by someone sending messages across the internet that she is a slut and various other defamatory things. The Tal , Rick's best friend, suddenly becomes a disconnect too but it seems that his girlfriend Allyx is more upset that him because she can't contact him anymore and she is decidedly cool with him at school because he just shrugs and says he's working on it.

But this is only the beginning, as the company that make iZods has hired a Pseudo doctor to conduct experiments of teenagers to see how being connected effects them and what it is like when you are not. When Rick refuses to join the program, he suddenly finds himself part of a huge hoax where he has supposedly threatened to kill everyone in the school (broadcast via the iZods of course) and when the other members of the Five save him from having his brains blown out by a trigger happy police sniper, he is whisked off to the new clinic as a mental patient.

What is going on? Who is the mastermind behind the sudden rash of Disconnects and why ? And can Tal, Petra and the others rescue Rick before he is so mentally damaged that he cannot recover?

Excellent premise; very thought-provoking and, as the mother of a teenage girl who I see emailing her best friend with one hand while texting her boyfriend with the other and listening to music and surfing the net at the same time , I wonder how teenagers of today WOULD cope if suddenly they lost connection to their peers. I have asked my daughter to read the book as a favour to me and discuss it with her friends - what would it be like if you were suddenly cut off from everyone? How would you cope? It will be interesting to see how they answer! show less