iBoy

iBoy by Kevin Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Every story holds a grain of truth and reality. iBoy is no different. Kevin Brooks creates characters who experience so much of what many young people live with every day including gang violence, lack of trust, feelings of alienation and isolation.
The main character must come to terms with two critical realities. First, he has been physically harmed when an iPhone cracks his skull with part of the technology becoming embedded within his brain. Second, his friend and possible love interest is brutally gang raped and now lives in fear of retaliation. Even though parts of the novel are incomprehensible in terms of actually happening, particularly the fact that the main character can read the texts and email messages from thousands of phones, the fact of the matter is clear that technology is embedded within our lives just as parts of the phone are embedded into his brain. Teenagers every day are faced with circumstances beyond their control and for which they are not able to handle.
Kevin Brooks brings to the forefront of our consciousness the need for validation of tragedy and the force of the human will to reconnect and create a new reality.


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