Immoral Code

by Lillian Clark

Ocean's 8 meets The Breakfast Club in this fast-paced, multi-perspective story about five teens determined to hack into one billionaire absentee father's company to steal tuition money.

For Nari, aka Narioka Diane, aka hacker digital alter ego "d0l0s," it's college and then a career at "one of the big ones," like Google or Apple. Keagan, her sweet, sensitive boyfriend, is happy to follow her wherever she may lead. Reese is an ace/aro visual artist with plans to travel the world. Santiago is off to Stanford on a diving scholarship, with very real Olympic hopes. And Bellamy? Physics genius Bellamy is admitted to MIT--but the student loan she'd been counting on is denied when it turns out her estranged father--one Robert Foster--is loaded.
  Nari isn't about to let her friend's dreams be squashed by a deadbeat billionaire, so she hatches a plan to steal just enough from Foster to allow Bellamy to achieve her goals. Fast-paced and banter-filled, Lillian Clark's debut is a hilarious and thought-provoking Robin Hood story for the 21st century.


"This well-paced debut follows exceptionally smart, thoughtful, and loyal friends navigating the morally ambiguous areas of life."--Kirkus

"A smart and fast-paced debut that will intrigue heist aficionados and modern-minded Robin Hoods."--Booklist

"Gleefully engrossing."--The Bulletin

• ISBN10: 0525580476
• ISBN13: 9780525580478
• Publish Date: 19 February 2019
• Publish Status: Cancelled
• Imprint: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 272
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

After working for years and finally achieving her dream of MIT, Bellamy thought she was shut out, because her estranged father was too wealthy limiting her financial aid, and he had not offered to help with tuition. Nari hoped to right this wrong using her hacking skills, as she and the rest of their friends embarked on this morally grey mission.

I am starting with a warning: This book features five points of view. I see many readers lament about too many POVs, but I thought Clark did a good job keeping them distinct. There was only one chapter, where I thought Reese didn't sound like herself, but other than that, I easily distinguished between each character, and I must say, this was quite an interesting bunch of people.

I loved how they all brought something unique to the table. From a desire to explore space to Olympic dreams, I found myself wanting to learn more about these teens. And, they were also dealing with common issues - divorce, parental expectations, panic about the future, romantic relationships, and such. I liked that these things were included, and felt like they were woven into the overall story quite well.

From the synopsis, you would think this book was all about the Ocean's 11 style heist, and it did occupy quite a bit of the book, but what drew me in and kept me there, was the beautiful friendship shared between them. How many of your friends would commit a felony for you? That's some fierce loyalty.

Another thing I really liked was the outcome of the mission. They went into it, ready to get the MIT money, but each of them gained something intangible as a result of this challenge. All of them changed in some way, and so did the group dynamic, and I think all the changes were very positive.

Now, we're gathered here today in the name of the Family You Choose, to cement this union with the most lasting and strongest of glues, shared guilt and criminal activity.

Overall: A solid debut highlighted by a fierce friendship.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

While I had some fundamental issues with this book, I think the YA world in may just love it.

Immoral Code tells the story of five teens, best friends since forever, taking action against injustice.  Bellany is brilliant and could go full-ride to MIT... except that her umber rich father still shows up on her FAFSA and she can get an ounce of support.  Even though her father abandoned her before she was born.  When Bellamy tries to call him, he hangs up on her.  So that's it.  No MIT.

Except her friend Narioka, hacker extraordinaire, has a different idea.  What if they just... stole it?  And so starts the heist!

Where heist films like Ocean's Eleven do really well is that all the players are bringing something to the table, and they all have a good reasons for being there.  In building a teen-based heist, especially one that requires a road trip and where they're all friends and not professionals, Lillian Clark set herself up with some challenges.  First of all, there is a single clear mastermind.  With Nari's age, it stands reason that it requires a little suspension of disbelief.  Nari, more or less, plans this entire heist by herself.  There's an early section where she's connecting with other hackers, but in the meat and potatoes of the story, that doesn't seem to be happening. In fact, a lot of the planning doesn't make it to the page.  I really would have liked to see the planning before two days before the heist, but I also feel like Lillian Clark needed to use the time developing the characters and their relationships.

It took me a while to get into the characters.  Firstly, this book is told with five first person POVs.  I'm not crazy about multiple first person POVs; I feel like it is difficult to differentiate the characters.  Even at the end of the novel, I'd occasionally have to flip back to the start of the chapter to remind myself who was speaking.  Their individual voices weren't different enough, but fortunately, I got to know each character well enough through someone else's voice.  The characters aren't underdeveloped, they're just difficult to connect with.  That said, you know, I'm almost thirty... a sixteen year old may find these characters incredibly relatable all the time and I think that's fantastic.

Oh, and honestly?  All the asides in parentheses and second-guessing rambling drove me crazy.  I understand why it's there, but I don't feel like it added anything.

All this negativity aside, I did end up enjoying Immoral Code.  I really thought I would hate it at the beginning.  I was getting frustrated with some perceived inconsistencies and the characters themselves.  I still don't like the beginning, but this really picks up in the middle and it gets better from there.  There's a scene with Reese during the heist that was absolutely fantastic, filled with life and passion.  There were also a handful of scenes just before the heist where Keagan questioned the morality of it, and I think that contact was so important.  While I wasn't crazy about how things turned out with that, I appreciate that the argument was made.  It was so, so necessary.

The ending seemed way too easy for me, but the journey was interesting.  I think Immoral Code will appeal to any reader who enjoys YA and heist stories.  Don't expect an epic fantasy situation, a la Six of Crows or The Gilded Wolves, but it's a great contemporary companion to the heist subgenre.