Take a photo of a barcode or cover
wordwoonders 's review for:
Immoral Code
by Lillian Clark
Actual rating: 4.5 stars
CW: bullying, aphobia.
I received an earc of this book from the publisher in exchange of an honest review
Original review posted on my blog : Word Wonders
Hello, what do you do when you read a book and love the cast of characters so much you want to adopt them and would die for their safety and happiness? Because. That’s me. With this book. Immoral Code has been on my radar for a while because 1/ Contemporary teen heist book (!!!) and 2/ One of the MCs is aroace!!!! So when I got the chance to review it, I jumped on it and started reading right away and it did NOT disappoint.
The writing is just like I absolutely love it to be, it’s fun, engaging, with EXTREMELY distinct narrative voices, every main character got their quirks and peculiarities that made them stand out from the rest, which is a necessity when you have five different point of views that all have equal importance. It’s also smooth in switching between action scene narration style and beautiful prose when it’s exploring feelings and emotions and that’s something I really appreciate in a book. It also genuinely felt like being inside teenagers’ heads with a lot of inner ramblings and thought processes getting sidetracked at times, which I really enjoyed.
The book starts when Bellamy, one of our five main characters gets denied for financial aid to attend MIT because of her super uber wealthy estranged father. Only trouble is, Bellamy is poor and definitely can’t afford MIT without it, and said father is estranged to the point where she’s never seen him, talked to him, and is NOT paying for college. Enter, Narioka (Nari, for short), hacker extraordinaire and Bellamy’s best friend, who proposes they steal the money she’s owed from her father’s company bank accounts. Heist and complications ensue.
The one criticism I have for this book is that I wish there was more of the heist? I didn’t mind that much (I mean…I still rated it 4.5 stars) since I adored the characters, but I just wanted *more* about the heist itself and a more in depth, detailed, view into the logistics of it all. That being said, the heist itself GAVE ME HEART PALPITATIONS!!!! These teenagers are such brave, amazing, smart fools. And my heart is so full of love for them that I could NOT handle them being in a precarious situation like that. Other than that, I wouldn’t really call this book *fast-paced*, it has a good pace, but it’s very much character oriented.
The fact that this book centers a heist in a contemporary setting, committed but people who cannot be farther away from criminals, gave way for a discussion of right, wrong and morality. And through having multiple main characters who are very different individuals we got to see very different takes on the issue as well as those views sometimes clashing and sometimes meeting in the middle for a compromise. From the “WHAT WE’RE DOING IS WRONG, PLAIN WRONG!!!” take to the “Bellamy is owed this!!!!” take, including the “Yes it’s wrong, but wrong thing for the right reasons” take and that was extremely interesting to read.
My favorite thing about the book is the characters, hands down, no questions asked. Immoral Code gets you to care so very deeply and so very fast about each one of them. I found myself rooting for them and wanting to know more about them a couple chapters into the book. And the more I learned, the more I loved them and more I wanted to know about them. And I genuinely cannot pick a favorite, which is something that’s never happened to me, I always have a soft spot for one character in big casts like this, but NOPE, not this time.
First up, we have Nari, Japanese-American hacktivist, coding genius, and style icon. She exudes so much confidence and her presence is just so…loud and eclipsing, it’s not only something we’re told from other characters’ POVs about also something that just translated through the pages from her perspective. She’s a natural leader, loud, sassy and very protective of her friends, especially Bellamy, who’s been her best friend since second grade. So much confidence can also make her arrogant at times which she can bite her fingers over later on.
Next is Keagan, Nari’s boyfriend and your local Soft Boy. He’s sensitive, caring, and the definition of a good person and their moral compass throughout the mission. I sincerely believe that they would have gone much farther in their heist if he wasn’t there to pull back a little every time. He’s also the only one of the group who has no big dreams and no clear idea of what he wants from his life after high school, which he’s quite content with, until…he’s not. He starts feeling insecure, especially with having friends with such big dreams and I loved that there was a discussion around this and it was normalized, because teenagers are under so much pressure to have everything figured out at eighteen when…they’re barely starting out on life. So the fact that this book says “Yes that’s cool and all, but not having a clue what you want is cool too” is a huge win for me.
Then we have Bellamy, physics genius, aspiring astronaut and the heart of the mission. She’s somewhat of a shy girl with a heart of gold, she just doesn’t want to inconvenience anyone so she just sort of just…goes with the flow. I also loved how much of a well of informations she was, she just has fun facts about anything and everything. Next up we have Santiago, Mexican-American swimmer boy whose biggest dream is to make it into the Olympics, a dream that’s met with some push back from his parents who want him to focus on school to secure himself a good stable future, which…diving doesn’t guarantee. He’s funny and kind of the bomb diffuser of the group, whenever there’s some tension, he’s the one doing the most to get it under control.
Last but not least, Reese my aroace queen. She has such a “I don’t give a cent about your opinion” attitude and vibe about her because caring about what people think gives them power over you and she is NOT here for that. Her policy is ignorance and she also does not like to meddle in people’s business, even when said people are her best friends, as long as their business makes them happy, that’s all she cares about, she doesn’t need the details of it all (especially when it comes to romance). She’s so utterly comfortable with who she is. I adored that her aroace-ness was never an issue or source of conflict for her, and I adore the discussion around it.
I loved every single relationship in this. The group friendship was great, no one was ever left out of made to feel like a dead weight (especially with there being two couples-ish + Reese) and the way they cared about each other just felt so… real and genuine, they had all kinds of conversations ranging from silly to deep at 3 in the morning. I also appreciated that there was care put not only into the group friendship but into every individual friendship as well.
And can we talk about the romances? Nari and Keagan’s relationship sturdiness and their complete fate for their love in each other and their future together warmed my heart. Even when they fight and disagree, they never thought things wouldn’t work out and that made me so emotional *cries*. And in contrast, we had Bellamy and Santiago, for whom everything is new after so long being friends, the tentativeness of it all was so soft and the way Santiago talked about her as if she hang the moon was CUTE. I just loved it all. And I liked that the author showed more than one example of what it’s like to be in a relationship in high school.
Immoral Code is so nerdy and science oriented, it made my little nerdy heart happy. And that ending was an EMOTIONAL rollercoaster while still being immensely satisfying. I just *clenches fist* LOVE THIS SO MUCH, and the rep that I got through Reese meant the world to my aromantic heart.
CW: bullying, aphobia.
I received an earc of this book from the publisher in exchange of an honest review
Original review posted on my blog : Word Wonders
Hello, what do you do when you read a book and love the cast of characters so much you want to adopt them and would die for their safety and happiness? Because. That’s me. With this book. Immoral Code has been on my radar for a while because 1/ Contemporary teen heist book (!!!) and 2/ One of the MCs is aroace!!!! So when I got the chance to review it, I jumped on it and started reading right away and it did NOT disappoint.
The writing is just like I absolutely love it to be, it’s fun, engaging, with EXTREMELY distinct narrative voices, every main character got their quirks and peculiarities that made them stand out from the rest, which is a necessity when you have five different point of views that all have equal importance. It’s also smooth in switching between action scene narration style and beautiful prose when it’s exploring feelings and emotions and that’s something I really appreciate in a book. It also genuinely felt like being inside teenagers’ heads with a lot of inner ramblings and thought processes getting sidetracked at times, which I really enjoyed.
The book starts when Bellamy, one of our five main characters gets denied for financial aid to attend MIT because of her super uber wealthy estranged father. Only trouble is, Bellamy is poor and definitely can’t afford MIT without it, and said father is estranged to the point where she’s never seen him, talked to him, and is NOT paying for college. Enter, Narioka (Nari, for short), hacker extraordinaire and Bellamy’s best friend, who proposes they steal the money she’s owed from her father’s company bank accounts. Heist and complications ensue.
The one criticism I have for this book is that I wish there was more of the heist? I didn’t mind that much (I mean…I still rated it 4.5 stars) since I adored the characters, but I just wanted *more* about the heist itself and a more in depth, detailed, view into the logistics of it all. That being said, the heist itself GAVE ME HEART PALPITATIONS!!!! These teenagers are such brave, amazing, smart fools. And my heart is so full of love for them that I could NOT handle them being in a precarious situation like that. Other than that, I wouldn’t really call this book *fast-paced*, it has a good pace, but it’s very much character oriented.
The fact that this book centers a heist in a contemporary setting, committed but people who cannot be farther away from criminals, gave way for a discussion of right, wrong and morality. And through having multiple main characters who are very different individuals we got to see very different takes on the issue as well as those views sometimes clashing and sometimes meeting in the middle for a compromise. From the “WHAT WE’RE DOING IS WRONG, PLAIN WRONG!!!” take to the “Bellamy is owed this!!!!” take, including the “Yes it’s wrong, but wrong thing for the right reasons” take and that was extremely interesting to read.
My favorite thing about the book is the characters, hands down, no questions asked. Immoral Code gets you to care so very deeply and so very fast about each one of them. I found myself rooting for them and wanting to know more about them a couple chapters into the book. And the more I learned, the more I loved them and more I wanted to know about them. And I genuinely cannot pick a favorite, which is something that’s never happened to me, I always have a soft spot for one character in big casts like this, but NOPE, not this time.
First up, we have Nari, Japanese-American hacktivist, coding genius, and style icon. She exudes so much confidence and her presence is just so…loud and eclipsing, it’s not only something we’re told from other characters’ POVs about also something that just translated through the pages from her perspective. She’s a natural leader, loud, sassy and very protective of her friends, especially Bellamy, who’s been her best friend since second grade. So much confidence can also make her arrogant at times which she can bite her fingers over later on.
Next is Keagan, Nari’s boyfriend and your local Soft Boy. He’s sensitive, caring, and the definition of a good person and their moral compass throughout the mission. I sincerely believe that they would have gone much farther in their heist if he wasn’t there to pull back a little every time. He’s also the only one of the group who has no big dreams and no clear idea of what he wants from his life after high school, which he’s quite content with, until…he’s not. He starts feeling insecure, especially with having friends with such big dreams and I loved that there was a discussion around this and it was normalized, because teenagers are under so much pressure to have everything figured out at eighteen when…they’re barely starting out on life. So the fact that this book says “Yes that’s cool and all, but not having a clue what you want is cool too” is a huge win for me.
Then we have Bellamy, physics genius, aspiring astronaut and the heart of the mission. She’s somewhat of a shy girl with a heart of gold, she just doesn’t want to inconvenience anyone so she just sort of just…goes with the flow. I also loved how much of a well of informations she was, she just has fun facts about anything and everything. Next up we have Santiago, Mexican-American swimmer boy whose biggest dream is to make it into the Olympics, a dream that’s met with some push back from his parents who want him to focus on school to secure himself a good stable future, which…diving doesn’t guarantee. He’s funny and kind of the bomb diffuser of the group, whenever there’s some tension, he’s the one doing the most to get it under control.
Last but not least, Reese my aroace queen. She has such a “I don’t give a cent about your opinion” attitude and vibe about her because caring about what people think gives them power over you and she is NOT here for that. Her policy is ignorance and she also does not like to meddle in people’s business, even when said people are her best friends, as long as their business makes them happy, that’s all she cares about, she doesn’t need the details of it all (especially when it comes to romance). She’s so utterly comfortable with who she is. I adored that her aroace-ness was never an issue or source of conflict for her, and I adore the discussion around it.
I loved every single relationship in this. The group friendship was great, no one was ever left out of made to feel like a dead weight (especially with there being two couples-ish + Reese) and the way they cared about each other just felt so… real and genuine, they had all kinds of conversations ranging from silly to deep at 3 in the morning. I also appreciated that there was care put not only into the group friendship but into every individual friendship as well.
And can we talk about the romances? Nari and Keagan’s relationship sturdiness and their complete fate for their love in each other and their future together warmed my heart. Even when they fight and disagree, they never thought things wouldn’t work out and that made me so emotional *cries*. And in contrast, we had Bellamy and Santiago, for whom everything is new after so long being friends, the tentativeness of it all was so soft and the way Santiago talked about her as if she hang the moon was CUTE. I just loved it all. And I liked that the author showed more than one example of what it’s like to be in a relationship in high school.
Immoral Code is so nerdy and science oriented, it made my little nerdy heart happy. And that ending was an EMOTIONAL rollercoaster while still being immensely satisfying. I just *clenches fist* LOVE THIS SO MUCH, and the rep that I got through Reese meant the world to my aromantic heart.