This book revolves around the life of a girl named Kiera Johnson. At school, everyone knows Kiera as the only African-American honors student at Jefferson Academy. When she gets home, Kiera gets to be a part of a whole new gaming world, that she and her friend Cicada created. As Kieras’ life moves on, as usual, she finds out that a regular student was murdered. Kiera soon found out that Jamal Rice’s death was because of the game that she had created. This event creates a rift in the two worlds that Kiera lives in. She faces many challenges, difficult situations, and times when she needs to be strong to escape the legal and personal mess that she is in. However, Kiera is able to face everything along with her sister, Steph.
This book helped me see from a different view. Normally, I only see the public view of things, because I am a part of the public. However, this book showed me what it was like to feel under pressure, with everyone questioning who you are. Also, in her writing, the author truly emphasized on Kiera’s feelings by showing her thought process as well. As the book progressed, the author hid more and more twists and turns, to enhance the story. The deep emotions in this novel helped me truly connect to the story, along with understanding it in a better way.
One thing that I found memorable about this book is how much Kiera kept her emotions bottled up inside of her. She felt that she had nobody else to talk to. This feeling really connected me to the story and I felt that she shouldn’t have felt like that. This part of the novel taught me that there is almost always gonna be someone looking out for you, even if you don’t know it.
Reviewed by Shraddha, Twin Hickory Library
HCPL TeenScene's Read + Review 