Top 8
Realistic Fiction
By Katie Finn
Reviewed by Anna D’Arcy
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
Imagine going away on a family vacation feeling great. You have a fantastic new boyfriend and you are closer than ever to your best friends. Once you return, your life is turned upside down. You have been betrayed by someone, but who?
Madison MacDonald is a typical high school student. She despises homework, joins extracurricular activities, and takes advantage of her free time by socializing with friends. She is also, like many teenagers, addicted to social networking sites. Her personal favorite is Friendverse, a site much like Facebook. Over spring break, Madison and her family travel to the Galapagos and spend their vacation on a boat with a few other families. While at sea, the internet was very slow and expensive to use, so she didn’t check her profile. Then, when she gets back home to Connecticut, she begins to panic.
She was hacked. The hacker not only broke up with Madison’s boyfriend, but they turned all of Madison’s classmates against her. Many of Madison’s friends had trusted her with their secrets and now those secrets were posted all over Madison’s profile. Who would do this to her? While trying to figure out her hacker, Madison realizes that it’s hard to trust anyone.
In my opinion, this book was average, but still an enjoyable read. Throughout the entire novel, you want to keep reading to see who hacked Madison. At the beginning, it starts a bit slow but it picks up the farther you read. I would recommend it to anyone who likes teen drama novels that involve troubles with friends, relationships, and parents. Madison deals with many challenges that could be similar to ones you have faced. This might make you feel more connected to her character. Other problems that you yourself may have not faced make you wonder how you would handle the situation if you were in Madison’s shoes. If someone hacked you and you could no longer trust many people around you, what would you do?
