Review: Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon

Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: August 28, 2012
Rating: 3 Stars

In Michelle Gagnon’s debut YA thriller, Don’t Turn Around, computer hacker Noa Torson is as smart, tough, and complex as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Lisbeth Salander.
 The first in a trilogy, Don’t Turn Around’s intricate plot and heart-pounding action will leave readers desperate for book two. Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her hacking skills to stay anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in a warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa’s talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation threatens his life in no uncertain terms. But what Noa and Peter don’t realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who’d stop at nothing to silence her for good.(Goodreads)


So, I have to say, even though I only gave it three stars, I liked this book. Noa is a runaway foster kid that's been able to avoid bring sent back to foster care by creating a fake family with her computer knowledge. She she wakes up naked on a table, all heck breaks loose. She's lost three weeks of her life and people are after her. At the same time people are after Peter, a fellow computer hacker. The wind up running together. There's a lot more than that, but it's more interesting when you're discovering it all as you're reading it.

The reason I didn't give this book a higher rating is because I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I liked Noa, I felt for her, I really did, but something kept me from connecting with her on a more personal level. Same with Peter. They were good characters, but I needed just a little more from them.