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thinkingrobot's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
7drops's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
allmadhere106's review against another edition
4.0
Tom is a good kid living in a bad neighborhood, and one day that catches up to him. Someone throws an iPhone of the top of a 30 story building and Tom is hit in the head, an event that causes bits of the iPhone to meld with parts of Tom's mind. Tom can suddenly do everything that an iPhone can do and so much more. With his newfound powers and his need for revenge concerning the gang rape of his lady love, Tom becomes iBoy and begins his path as a vigilante.
The pacing is steady enough, the premise is a cliche with a new spin, and the mixture of technical and colloquial writing fits the plot perfectly. All of those points considered, it was extremely difficult for me to get through, maybe because I wasn't expecting it to be so realistic in terms of the violence. With a plot like it has, I was expecting more camp but it was really well handled. I would say in terms of content and Brooks's was of addressing difficult content, the book gets 4 stars. It's not something that I would reread often though, so it may actually be lower or closer to 3 in my mind.
The pacing is steady enough, the premise is a cliche with a new spin, and the mixture of technical and colloquial writing fits the plot perfectly. All of those points considered, it was extremely difficult for me to get through, maybe because I wasn't expecting it to be so realistic in terms of the violence. With a plot like it has, I was expecting more camp but it was really well handled. I would say in terms of content and Brooks's was of addressing difficult content, the book gets 4 stars. It's not something that I would reread often though, so it may actually be lower or closer to 3 in my mind.
lollidekoriererin's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
moogen's review against another edition
2.0
By the time a kid is old enough to deal with the issues here, they'd want a more sophisticated narrative and writing style.
marpesea's review against another edition
3.0
The premise of this book is unique-- While walking home from school an iPhone smashes through Tom Harvey's skull and parts of it meld with his brain. After spending weeks in a coma Tom awakens to find he has a whole host of strange abilities based around accessing information and electronic force-fields. Like many other superhero origin stories this one has roots in realistic violence and crime which in this story include drugs, rape, and murder. Whereas Tom would have had to grit his teeth and bear the gang violence in his neighborhood iBoy can do something about it...
The premise was well-executed, but I didn't feel much of a connection to the characters. The Tom/iBoy internal conflict never really convinced me. He mentioned feeling a little bit of disgust at the violence he caused, but it felt superficial. I don't think it actually had any impact on his actions. Tom doesn't have it easy, but it seemed that every time he needed to solve a problem a new ability would manifest.
At the same time, Brooks did an excellent job of creating a modern superhero. iBoy is truly a superhero for this age of technology and information overload. Brooks draws on various real news articles and quotes for the introductions to chapters. In fact, the article about the prevalence of gang rape was one of the most chilling things I've read in a while.
In short, if you want a unique, teenaged superhero fighting violent crime in south London you should pick up iBoy.
The premise was well-executed, but I didn't feel much of a connection to the characters. The Tom/iBoy internal conflict never really convinced me. He mentioned feeling a little bit of disgust at the violence he caused, but it felt superficial. I don't think it actually had any impact on his actions. Tom doesn't have it easy, but it seemed that every time he needed to solve a problem a new ability would manifest.
At the same time, Brooks did an excellent job of creating a modern superhero. iBoy is truly a superhero for this age of technology and information overload. Brooks draws on various real news articles and quotes for the introductions to chapters. In fact, the article about the prevalence of gang rape was one of the most chilling things I've read in a while.
In short, if you want a unique, teenaged superhero fighting violent crime in south London you should pick up iBoy.
reading_octopus9's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Good light read
novelheartbeat's review against another edition
DNF
This was really more of Middle Grade than Young Adult. While the concept was cool, the writing was flat and boring. And so were the characters. The idea of a boy getting pieces of an iPhone embedded into his brain, thus developing the power to do some awesome things, was very neat and original. But the delivery was horrific. The way things were explained was a train wreck. It was all over the place, and repetitive - I felt like I was running up a downward escalator. It was exhausting!
And the text talk, really? Who the hell actually talks like that? I understand using 2 and u instead of the real words, but come on. People don't abbreviate EVERYTHING. I don't know even one single person that texts like that. I actually had trouble figuring out what the supposed text messages were trying to say. Plus there were WAY too many dots in the conversations. The pages were so overloaded with "blah blah...." pauses that it was distracting and made my brain hurt. What's wrong with using a f*cking period?
I was bored out of my mind and I didn't give a crap about the story or the characters. I couldn't bring myself to get past 100 pages.