Reviews

Imagine yourself a teenager boy (some of us would have to do that) waiting for a friend to meet ya outside their apartment when an iphone is thrown out of the window and its the last thing you see as the iphone cracks open your skull and merges some of the parts into your own brain. You wake up in the hospital from a coma and things are different... Your friend is brutally raped by the gang who threw the phone at you. You have strange powers now... or you go after them? Be the hero... be her hero? Well I won't tell you anymore of this wifi thriller but this book shocked me it was so good and a new author for me... I'll be reading more of Kevin Brooks books in the future for sure. So read this! Enjoy it... like I did!

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read for the second time for rereadthon 2019, still like it!

alboyer6's review against another edition

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4.0

This book does take a little bit of suspension of disbelief. Really, would getting iphone chips accidentally implanted in your brain really give you super hero like abilities? Probably not, but then getting bitten by a radio active spider probably wouldn't either. But after Tom's friends are attacked and he ends up with iphone chips in his brain, he's iBoy, out to set wrongs right. Fun book about a kid in London's projects who has to deal with gangs on a daily basis.. The end is left open enough for more iBoy.

perpetualephemeral's review against another edition

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1.0

What an awful, awful book.

Context: my best friend Jess bought this for me after we watched the film adaptation (which was just as bad). I resigned myself to the fact I was going to have to tackle it eventually, and here we are.

iBoy's plot is awful. It's a mess of a 16 year old vigilante, a load of London criminal gang dealings, and a romance formed on top of multiple traumas. And not only that, but the main gimmick of the book is laughable. Tom is hit in the head with an iPhone, and gains its powers because parts of it are embedded within his brain . He can casually send and receive calls and access the internet, but oh wow - he can also hack into anything he wants - government databases, medical data, bank accounts?? How convenient.

The writing was often very cringey, with Kevin Brooks having the very irritating urge to put the lowercase letter "i" in front of every fucking part of iBoy he references. Brain? No, iBrain. Skin? No shot, iSkin. It DROVE ME UP THE WALL. Also, at one point, Tom spreads a rumor of someone being "a queer". Kevin, I've done some research on you - and I'm not sure you have a right in using that turn of phrase, and even if you did, it's a weird one to use.

I just want to move on from this absolute trash fire of a book. At least it's over.

I give iBoy one star.

itisvivien's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Als eine Schullektüre ein gutes Buch. Es war jetzt nicht so spannend aber trotzdem eine schöne Geschichte.

rhaenyrareads's review against another edition

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4.0

Un 3,5/5. Une histoire autour d'une idée originale qui se lit assez rapidement.

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