Don't Turn Around (Don't Turn Around, #1)

by Michelle Gagnon

Merritt Hicks (Narrator) and Michelle Gagnon (Narrator)

In Michelle Gagnon's debut YA thriller, Don't Turn Around, computer hacker Noa Torson is as smart, tough, and complex as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's Lisbeth Salander. The first in a trilogy, Don't Turn Around's intricate plot and heart-pounding action will leave readers desperate for book two. 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 hacking skills to stay anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in a 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 in no uncertain terms. 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.

• ISBN10: 0062227718
• ISBN13: 9780062227713
• Publish Date: 28 August 2012
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 November 2014
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Audiobook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber]

I've had Don't Turn Around for just under a year now, and I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I wasn't writing a recap for Recaptains. I don't know, it just never really appealed to me to the extent of having to pick it up RIGHT NOW. Some books do that to me, you know? It turns out that my intuition (that I never knew I had, mind you) was completely on target with this book. It's okay, it's good, it's average. Nothing in particular stands out to me, but I did enjoy it.

The book is told from a couple of points of view, the most prominent being those of Noa and Peter. Out of the two, Noa is definitely my favourite. Peter was very bland, and to be honest I don't care about what happens to him. He could walk off the face of the Earth and I wouldn't notice. For a supposedly smart computer hacker, Peter did a lot of stupid things. He wasn't appealing in the slightest.

Noa is everything a great female protagonist should be: intelligent, quick-witted, interesting. I really enjoyed gradually learning about her backstory, and how she came to look after herself. There is a good chunk of information on what Noa's life was like growing up, which Gagnon covered really well. The only negative - and I don't think it even counts as a negative - for Noa is that she was missing that spark that would have made me adore her. She's forgettable, and she's already moulding in with the rest of the "just good" YA characters for me.

There is a lot of action in this short book, which worked well with the feel and the pacing of the novel. There were only a couple of slow moments, which I didn't really mind because it was realistic for the characters to have a few hours to cool down until they were back to being chased by crazy people again.

I was also grateful for the lack of romance. I was expecting instalove between Noa and Peter, I must admit. And while there was something there between them (although some people might try to tell you otherwise), it was hardly even relevant. It didn't annoy me, and to be honest I completely ignored it. Since Peter is so dull, it was easy to do so.

Don't Turn Around didn't seem very mysterious to me. While the characters were running around chasing their own tails, I was ten steps ahead of them and frowning at the pages. I thought it was pretty obvious what the bad guys were up to, and what their whole mission was. I was hoping to be shocked. Alas.

Can I just point out that Noa has a Guardian Angel kind of person? BECAUSE SHE DOES AND IT WAS AWESOME AND I HAVE A SHIP. It took me a good 80% of the novel to actually get to that point, but once she met the person who had been looking out for her the entire time, I was gone. And said person isn't even my type. What is going on.

The ending of Don't Turn Around was my favourite part. I loved the pacing, and I loved meeting the mysterious protector (hello, new ship!) and the very last scene gave me chills. If it wasn't for that ending, I doubt I'd be picking up the sequel to this book. But the ending did happen, and it was great, so I'm actually really looking forward to Don't Look Now. I wish I could say it was for more reasons than my ship and Noa's badassery, but that would be lying to you and I don't do that.

This review has also been posted on Books of Amber.
Follow me on Twitter: @booksofamber

[inlibrisveritas]

This is said to be a book that feels similar to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but for teens, and I’d have to agree. It has a similar flow and style, and the two main characters have a slightly similar aesthetic as Lisbeth and Mikael. That being said if you have read Tattoo then don’t expect a carbon copy and the similarities are vague enough that it is certainly its own story.

I’d say the overall premise of this one is what caught my eye, it’s not everyday that I run across a book that’s heavy on the more technological aspect of the present day. So I was curious to see how well a YA novel could pull off explaining the intricacies and complexity of hacking and not make it sound like a computer manual, and I’d have to say that Gagnon pulled it off. You can tell she did some serious research and while not all of it may be true, it certainly felt that way. There is also the heavy topic of kids in social care and how easy it is for them to be pushed to the side, which Gagnon highlights by adding the seriously creepy threat of kids being abducted and used as laboratory rats. AMRF is a rather shadowy figure in the book and while their presence is mostly certainly felt the entire time, you don’t actually learn a whole lot about them. The reasoning behind their shady dealings is revealed in part but I can’t help but feel there is much more to it, and I’m hoping the second book touch on that.

Noa is one tough cookie and I liked her depth. She has a lot of emotional scarring from her past and she’s put up a sort of protective barrier around her, but at the same time throughout the book you get these wonderful glimpses of her true feelings. I liked that even though she’s capable of doing some incredibly brave things, she’s capable of feeling fear and uncertainty. Peter took a while for me to like because I kind of typed cast him as the rich kid of with too much time on his hands, but as his story unfolds you find that the kid has a real heart and all of the work his done is extraordinary for one so young (and privileged). The relationship between Peter and Noa was one that moves from being tense to one of friendship, with more slowly budding under the surface. It’s nice to see a relationship in a YA novel that doesn’t immediately spring forth, I like the added tension and the earned trust. It makes the relationship worth my time.

The way the novel tied up really left me wanting more, because there are some questions left unanswered and Gagnon really opened up the reader (and the characters) to how big this whole AMRF thing is. I’ll certainly be looking forward to continuing this series.

First, I was thrilled to see that Gagnon wrote her first YA book. Being a fan of her previous writings I was intrigued to read what she can come up with for a younger audience.
I wasn't disappointed.
The story was fast paced and the characters were well developed.
I truly couldn't put it down and it kept my attention throughout. (Always a plus for a YA book)
The short advertisement behind this book states for ages 13 and older, however I feel that it is better suited for an older teen. The book references an attempted rape (no details), adultery (no details), running away, dismemberment, and drug use (no details).
The mentioning of these subjects are extremely vague, but they do exist. The ending has a few cliff-hangers, maybe this is a lead on for a 2nd book?
Overall, I found this to be a suspenseful read, gripping and exciting.
Gagnon's talents go even further and will now entertain a different type of audience with this YA read.



Disclaimer
*I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book in a First Reads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content disclosed in my review. *

[Ashley]

booknook — Young Adult book reviews

A Young Adult sci-fi thriller book for computer nerds. YESSSS!! Where have you been all my life?

If you read my blog regularly or if you've at least seen my Bitchin' Book Blog section, you probably know that I'm a huge computer nerd. I love coding websites, I love learning PHP (but I'm still a noob), I love watching my boyfriend write out complex code stuff that goes way over my head (I think it's sexy), and I was one of only two people who signed up for the Computer Science class in high school. Hi, my name is Ashley and I'm a computer nerd. Don't Turn Around called to me!

This book is insane. There's conspiracy, crazy scary medical procedures, hacking, evil guys in suits, more hacking, and more hacking. It's awesome O_O The cool thing about this book is that it keeps you guessing. It's classified as a "mystery" because the whole point of the book is trying to figure out WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!! The main characters Noa and Peter have to hack into web servers to steal information, then try to decipher that information, and figure out who the hell is trying to kill/capture them!

As a computer nerd, there were a few things about this book that didn't quite fit that I couldn't ignore. Most people probably won't be bothered by these things, but as a computer nerd who has a boyfriend with leet programming/web developing skills, they were small details that irked me. :P They just made the story a little less believable for me, but anyone who's less of a nerd than I am probably wouldn't notice! Really, I'm just nit-picking. So just keep in mind that these will probably only jump out at you if you're really into computer stuff!

1) Noa uses a MacBook Pro for all her hacking.
It's perfectly possible to hack with a Mac, but it's certainly not the norm. Most hackers use Linux because it gives them more control over the operating system.

2) Noa didn't immediately recognize "WoW" as "World of Warcraft."
Any teenage computer nerd would immediately know what WoW means, especially when said in context ("It's the name of my avatar in WoW"). Noa didn't seem to know what it was at all, and even when Peter explained it was World of Warcraft, she clearly wasn't that familiar with it, although she was at least able to identify it as "a video game". WoW is huge in the online community. Even if computer nerds don't play it, they all know what it is!

3) Apparently Noa had never heard of a domain name being stolen.
This happens all the time in the online world. It can be done a variety of different ways, the most common probably being social engineering. I'm not even a hacker and I've seen this happen to websites I work with many times.

Okay, that's enough of my nit-picking! Other than a few details, this book had some really interesting computer elements that I loved! I was fascinated by the Anonymous references, because I know some people who have gotten involved in hacktivism. And if you don't know much about it, you'll probably love reading about it. It's interesting stuff! It's all about people who 'voice' their political opinions through internet hacking, which includes defacing 'evil' corporation websites, organizing denial-of-service attacks, hacking into private servers to leak information that they feel should be made available to the public, etc. It's illegal... but interesting.

Don't Turn Around was actually a huge surprise for me, because it took a really unexpected direction.. but I loved it! I thought it was going to be all about computers and hacking and conspiracies, but I had no idea that Michelle Gagnon was going to throw viruses into the mix! It kind of came out of nowhere, but it was great! I love books and movies about viruses. That's probably why I like dystopian books so much, because they're so often about viruses killing off the population and society having to rebuild. Don't Turn Around combined my two loves: computers and viruses (but not the computer kind of viruses! LOL!).

So why the three stars? Although I liked the characters, I never got hugely invested in them. I almost don't even know how to explain it. I just felt a little distanced. There is also a lack of romance. I'm the kind of girl who likes a little bit of romance in all my books, and Don't Turn Around was missing that. Finally, the ending wasn't very satisfying. I didn't feel like there was much closure or resolution. I was left with more questions than answers and that frustrated me. I will definitely be reading the rest of the series when it comes out, because I'm dying to find out what happens, but I would have liked more of a wrap-up at the end of this book.

I loved this quote!! It's kind of funny, but it totally resonated with me!

"You want to touch another hacker's computer?" She arched an eyebrow.
"I know, I know," he said, grinning. "We don't know each other all that well yet, so it's early to be sharing computers—"
[..]
Noa was loath to let anyone else touch her computer. It was kind of a geek thing, the way chefs brought their own knives to work. No one else handled the tools of your trade.
—Don't Turn Around, Page 222

When I see someone else on my computer, it's like someone is looking into my soul. I feel naked and exposed. I feel like I need to supervise their browsing, or whatever it is they're doing on my computer. It's not that I have things to hide, it's just that it makes me feel uncomfortable. My boyfriend is the only person I allow on my computer unattended, lol!