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A review by marpesea
iBoy by Kevin Brooks
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.