shelley_pearson 's review for:

Fake ID by Lamar Giles

4.0

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I chose this book primarily because the main character’s name is Nick Pearson, which is my last name too! Except Pearson isn’t really his last name, because he’s in the witness protection program. The story starts when Nick and his family move to a new town and Nick starts a new school. On his first day, he meets a beautiful girl and her brainy brother Eli. It turns out Eli has secrets of his own, like that he’s investigating a conspiracy about their town. Nick wants to learn more, but before he can, Eli dies! So Nick has to decide whether or not to continue Eli’s investigation with the help of Reya, Eli’s hot sister.

I thought this story was pretty exciting. I haven’t read many YA thrillers, and this had a lot of good twists. The mystery sucked me in and kept me interested. My favorite parts were probably about Nick’s family, though. His father is a criminal turned informant, which is why they’re in witness protection, and Nick’s feelings about his dad seemed realistically conflicted.

The thing that really surprised me was how negatively so many characters viewed people in the witness protection program. I always thought of them as victims, being hunted. But I guess they are people who committed crimes themselves. But hating their kids so much seemed really excessive. It’s not the kids’ fault!

There was a moment when a girl screws Nick over and his response is to call her a skank, which I didn’t love, and there are a couple of characters who are described as being fat like it’s their only defining quality, but overall, I was entertained and wanted to keep reading.