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thelibrarian 's review for:
Immoral Code
by Lillian Clark
★★★★☆
A cute (and kinda hard hitting?) contemporary friendship with a dash of hacker heist.
Alright representation time. Latinx boy with expectant parents (with a twist?); divorced parents queer kid; Japanese American; raised by a single mom. Most of these aren't the focus of the story but they are tied in, not just mentioned and thrown away. I'm not represented by these so I can't give it a passing grade for representation, but it looks pretty good from my privileged eyes.
The characters are the shining star of this book.
They’re WRITTEN differently. They don’t just narrate differently, they are written that way I’m not sure how else to explain it. They have THOUGHTS and FEELINGS
There are self aware teenagers (not all of them) and I always always enjoy reading those because I too am self aware.
Sometimes it does feel a little like the characters are oversimplified. Bellamy is Science, Reese is Angry Art, San is Sport Dreamer, Nari is Computer Whiz, and Keagan is Voice of Doubt. I still do genuinely like all of them, and as you progress through the book, a layer of depth is added. Honestly though, Keagan is my main man (which I cringe as a write because Keagan is... such a bad name.)
I say that there are consequences for their actions and act surprised. That’s not fair to other books, because a lot of other books also have consequences of actions. However, with many many other books it’s written incredibly dramatic or with a disproportionate response. And maybe that’s how YA is written, or maybe it’s just the books I read. But so often it feels like every action a character takes could end in death, serious injury, or losing the affection of their LI. And Immoral Code just pleasantly surprised me with its accurate portrayal of anxiety over an action, and the involvement of parents, and a seemingly proportionate (word check) consequence.
As much as I'm singing these praises, the reader's enjoyment of this book does likely hinge on whether or not they can relate to the characters, because it's such a character driven book. So really it's up to you.
A cute (and kinda hard hitting?) contemporary friendship with a dash of hacker heist.
Alright representation time. Latinx boy with expectant parents (with a twist?); divorced parents queer kid; Japanese American; raised by a single mom. Most of these aren't the focus of the story but they are tied in, not just mentioned and thrown away. I'm not represented by these so I can't give it a passing grade for representation, but it looks pretty good from my privileged eyes.
The characters are the shining star of this book.
They’re WRITTEN differently. They don’t just narrate differently, they are written that way I’m not sure how else to explain it. They have THOUGHTS and FEELINGS
There are self aware teenagers (not all of them) and I always always enjoy reading those because I too am self aware.
Sometimes it does feel a little like the characters are oversimplified. Bellamy is Science, Reese is Angry Art, San is Sport Dreamer, Nari is Computer Whiz, and Keagan is Voice of Doubt. I still do genuinely like all of them, and as you progress through the book, a layer of depth is added. Honestly though, Keagan is my main man (which I cringe as a write because Keagan is... such a bad name.)
I say that there are consequences for their actions and act surprised. That’s not fair to other books, because a lot of other books also have consequences of actions. However, with many many other books it’s written incredibly dramatic or with a disproportionate response. And maybe that’s how YA is written, or maybe it’s just the books I read. But so often it feels like every action a character takes could end in death, serious injury, or losing the affection of their LI. And Immoral Code just pleasantly surprised me with its accurate portrayal of anxiety over an action, and the involvement of parents, and a seemingly proportionate (word check) consequence.
As much as I'm singing these praises, the reader's enjoyment of this book does likely hinge on whether or not they can relate to the characters, because it's such a character driven book. So really it's up to you.