Un livre dont je n’attendais pas grand chose et qui effectivement n’avait pas grand chose à apporter. Je ne me suis pas particulièrement attachée aux personnages, et l’intrigue bien qu’intéressante (on a envie de savoir la suite) n’est pas révolutionnaire, mais encore une fois je ne m’attendais pas à quelque chose d’exceptionnel

It moved a tad bit slow at first, but, all in all, I liked it and am excited to read the next one! An interesting take on the foster system and the potential dangers we face but not paying attention to teens who fall through the cracks. I especially like Peter and Noa's relationship and hope they will end up back together in the second one!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for teens? Even though I wasn't exactly a fan of that one, this book with it's creepy cover and title drew me in like a moth to flame. Maybe I'm just really interested in cool people who are good with computers? Who knows.

Right off the start we meet Noa, the impressively skilled computer hacker waking up in a creepy warehouse with an IV in her arm and a giant scar on her chest. Cue awesome action of her breaking out and going on the run to try to find out what the heck happened to her.

And there we have Peter. Leader of a hacker alliance and spoiled rich boy. He goes digging into his fathers files and finds out about something mysterious group called AMRF... and he needs someone as skilled as Noa to help him. What neither of them know though is that Noa is really important to AMRF and they aren't exactly going to just leave her alone.

Wow, this book. It really starts off with action and was totally exciting! I immediately loved Noa and how smart and resourceful she was, and how she can really take care of herself. From being in and out of foster homes and then by herself most of her life, it's really had an effect on her abilities to handle things. Crying little damsel who needs her love triangle guys to save her? None here!

And Peter? Well... he was there. Okay I just wasn't a fan. I didn't get him and I thought he was kind of an idiot at some times.

Like for instance, he was supposed to be some awesome hacker guy. And yet how did the bad guys find him so quickly when he was snooping? I also didn't like how he was supposedly "charming" but didn't really see that even though it was said multiple times.

I also didn't feel the relationship between him and Noa. Yeah I get it that they ended up in this thing together but I didn't get exactly why they were subtlety into each other aside from them both suddenly noticing the other was attractive. Maybe we'll see more of that in a sequel. (But I love there was no insta-love!)

The thing here also, I wasn't aware that the whole thing would be about some medical experiments and the disease. Unless it's a zombie virus, I kind of zone out. Which makes me curious as to why The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was named dropped on the back and in the jacket. I really didn't think Noa was much like Lisbeth aside from the computer hacking skills and straight forward-ness. Also, the rest of this book was not similar at all to GwtDT.

Oh also! The techy stuff was not shyed away from while also not making me totally confused at what was going on so props for that!

Another thing, I normally do love the dual POVs. It's always nice to see different points from completely different people but ahhh. Not here! I didn't like Peter in the first place, I didn't want to see anything from his view. I just wanted to follow Noa and the excitement that was going with her. I felt like there was some disconnect between them as well. Any time that it switched back to Peter I just took a break from reading it. I finally did get used to him and didn't hate it as much until oh hello there Amanda! Why the freak did you just start getting a POV as well? How are you relevant to these things? I did sort of get the connection but still. It was the weirdest thing for her to come in literally half way through and get some pages after only being there briefly.

And yes, I didn't like Amanda that much either. She seemed like the kind of girl who would get up in my face for eating meat and then tell me that I suck at life because I don't spend 20 hours a day supported to a cause. (Taken, her cause was important and I admire that she was so behind it.) But if you call a guy "the one" after dumping your boyfriend hours earlier you automatically go to my list of "I hate you".

To the point of the plot and pacing. It was very interesting. I believe it did earn it's genre as a thriller! There was hardly a dull moment and there was so many questions that really needed answers. Why exactly does the disease PEMA kill only teenagers? Where does it come from? Where does AMRF come into play? How many people are really involved in this? Are the experiments that are going on really for a cure?

Will you get answers for those? Not in this one! But never fear, this is apparently part of a trilogy.

While Don't Turn Around probably wasn't my favorite book of all time, it is definitely worth the read.

** 4 stars **

Alright, I was going to give this book 3.5 stars, but then I read the last page of the book and it instantly boosted it up to 4 stars. Dunno why, it was jut a fantastic way to end the first book.

This is not "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" Definitely not as disturbing as that.

You have two main characters :
Cold, lonesome, hacker Noa and rich hacker Peter.
Noa, lived all on her own for the past few years, being in the system for awhile she escaped and lived on her own.
Peter, he had everything. A girlfriend, money, two parents, and the best public school in town. However it may seem impossible that these two could even share the same story, they do.

The writing is pretty good for a young adult novel. The characters might not of been that captivating but they did have their times when you felt for them, except for Noa. I got a bit annoyed with her at times, how she was always so cold. However, I did grow attached to her and I was always rooting for her. The thing about this book is that the story is original. As you read and find out more about the story, which I don't want to spoil for you, you might think "How is this original?" It is pretty original and especially when they mix in the hacking except. I've never read a book where the character(s) are hackers. So it was a pretty interesting read.

DON'T FRET - there might not be a lot of romance, hardly any actually - but it is in there. Gagnon doesn't fling it around like most YA authors do which is just fantastic. I love when books actually have romance but its subtle and the book isn't revolved around it.

However, I do think that the next book will have a love triangle, for those of you who like love triangles.

And yes, we are left with unanswered questions and puzzling things, but I know Gagnon will write us a fantastic book and they will be answered. Of course they will probably be followed with more puzzling things and questions, but that's the fun of suspense and mysteries.

The last page of the book, it was incredible. Short but yet so cliff hanger-ish. I immediately thought this for the next book.

First in the PERSEFoNE thriller series for Young Adults, which revolves around Noa and a group of teens who have survived an infection and are pursued by the government.

My Take
Whoaa, this was excellent! It's chases and theorizing for the most part with lots of tension and drama. Gagnon is consistent in dropping in hints and slowly releasing possibilities, and she does a nice set-up, teasing out clues that Noa picks up right along with Amanda, but not connecting the two girls, leaving them each their particular subplot. Ones that will connect down the road.

The part I don't get is if Peter is such a hot computer hacker, how come his browsing about resulted so quickly in the home invasion? I do like that Gagnon has Peter cocky, but then shows him as just another kid as Mason tracks him again and again, as his parents berate him. But Peter does learn along the way as does Noa. It's a nice real-world progression, sadly slow in one instance, but definitely realistic.

Who are these parents?? Can we trade them in? Maybe send them to an animal shelter that puts dogs down within 24 hours and hope the two are mistaken for beasts in need of being put down? I can't believe these people!

I like that Noa is smart enough to not go straight home. I also liked the problems Gagnon created for Noa by not having cash/ID drops. She may have figured out a way around the foster care system and done well, but she's young, and it's not an issue she's encountered in the past. So it makes sense that she's not prepared for the current pursuit.

That ending scene was intense. I really thought Noa had a brilliant plan. I would never have guessed the angle that Gagnon threw in here. What I really hate about it is that I'm going to have to wait for Don't Look Now!

Lessons learned: set up cash drops and spare IDs.

The Story
Waking up on a surgical table in a warehouse is not what Noa was expecting. Nor does she intend to hang around and ask questions! Unfortunately, she needs cash. Now. And a lucky chance---or is it?---brings an email from Vallas at /ALLIANCE/, needing someone to hack into a company's website after thugs break down his door and take his laptop, leaving him with some nasty threats.

Threats that Vallas ain't takin' lyin' down!

The Characters
Noa Torson, a.k.a., Rain, a.k.a., Nora Latham, is a sixteen-year-old runaway from the foster system. She's smart and very computer-savvy, doing freelance computer security as "Ted" Latham. She thought she had covered her tracks.

Peter Gregory, a.k.a., Vallas, is a bored high school senior who discovered his own computer skills, putting them to use with /ALLIANCE/, a secret vigilante group that "targets Internet bullies, animal abusers, sexual predators, and everyone else who took advantage of the weak". His parents—Bob is a "do-gooder investment banker more interested in appearing good" while Priscilla is a high-priced defense attorney—pretty much ignore him. Well, actually, they view him as the wrong child who lived. Jeremy is/was their older son who died of PEMA.

Cody Ellis was Jeremy's best friend; they were rooming together at college when Jeremy got sick. Pam is Cody's neighbor; Ethan is her baby. A6M0, a.k.a., Zeke, is another runaway with a secret.

Amanda Berns is Peter's college-age girlfriend. She's obsessive about social work and volunteers at the Runaway Coalition; Mrs. Latimar is in charge at the Coalition. Drew is the new boyfriend; he's pre-law and a community organizer wannabe.

AMRF and associated people include:
AMRF is an organization associated with Pike & Dolan, a pharmaceutical company. Mason is its primary thug along with Cole.

Missing runaways including Dulcie Patrick, Randy Quinn, Alex Herbruck, Rob "Tito" Garcia...and more. PEMA is a teen-focused virus that's incurable.

The Pratts were the type of foster parents who had to ensure you knew how lucky you were, how wonderful they were for taking in older foster kids.

The Cover
The cover is a gold-to-brown gradient with a flexible grid as someone's hand presses against it, trying to escape. I do like the consistency of the angled text as it also goes through a color gradient from a bright yellow at the top to a bright red in the bottom text. It conveys a sense of urgency.

I suspect the title is the first rule in being chased---Don't Turn Around, as you're likely to slow down and be caught!

3.5 rounded to 3
Romance ok, but could have done without it, not sure, wether you would call that a love-triangle, also when the book ends, it is open who loves whom.
Could have done with more hacking, but what was there was ok, without details, so as not to give a blueprint for aspiring hacker-wannabes (I dare to count myself in that group, with a basic knowledge of Unix, bash, html and having learned more than 25 years ago Cobol85, Assembler and Modula 2).
Too expensive, should have cost helf that. Will try to read the next books in the series sometime, but with KU or if they are cheap!

Project Persefone (ik moet er nog altijd aan wennen dat het met een f geschreven wordt :P) is een spannend en intrigerend boek vol actie en vaart. Toch was het voor mij geen pageturner en had ik niet de neiging om het zo snel mogelijk en het liefst in 1 ruk uit te lezen. Waar dat aan lag is lastig onder woorden brengen. Het verhaal zit namelijk steengoed in elkaar, de personages zijn boeiend en interessant, het boek kent een interessant plot en mooi verteltempo. Het kent een perfecte balans tussen omschrijving en actie. Toch wist het mij niet 100% te pakken en ik denk dat we kort kunnen zeggen dat het er ongetwijfeld aan zal liggen dat het boek en ik gewoon niet helemaal matchen. Geen enkel personage was echt herkenbaar voor me en hoewel ik computers geweldig vind, heb ik er te weinig verstand van, ben ik bang. Daardoor was het voor mij een boek wat ver van me af stond en uit ervaring weet ik dat dat voor mij minder goed werkt. Dat het dus drie sterren krijgt ligt niet aan het boek, maar puur aan mij als persoon in combinatie met dit boek :D