Don't Turn Around

by Michelle Gagnon

Overview

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.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062102911
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	07/09/2013
Series:	Don't Turn Around , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	271,777
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Lexile:	HL710L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Michelle Gagnon has been a modern dancer, a dog walker, a bartender, a freelance journalist, a personal trainer, and a model. Her bestselling thrillers for adults have been published in numerous countries and include The Tunnels, Boneyard, The Gatekeeper, and Kidnap & Ransom. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews called Don't Turn Around, her first novel for young adults and the first book in the trilogy about Noa and Peter, a "pulse-pounding scary-great read. A surefire hit."

What People are Saying About This

Katie Crouch

“A sophisticated, mind-bending thriller.”

Harlan Coben

“A fast-paced, rip-roaring thriller for all ages.”

Editorial Reviews

A sophisticated, mind-bending thriller.

Katie Crouch

Gagnon's writing draws readers effortlessly into an adrenaline-packed ride. This is a smart, gripping addition to the growing hacker-action genre with strong appeal to fans of Doctorow's Little Brother and Falkner's Brain Jack.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A fast-paced, rip-roaring thriller for all ages.

Harlan Coben

Gagnon’s writing draws readers effortlessly into an adrenaline-packed ride. This is a smart, gripping addition to the growing hacker-action genre with strong appeal to fans of Doctorow’s Little Brother and Falkner’s Brain Jack.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Gagnon’s writing draws readers effortlessly into an adrenaline-packed ride. This is a smart, gripping addition to the growing hacker-action genre with strong appeal to fans of Doctorow’s Little Brother and Falkner’s Brain Jack.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Gagnon’s writing draws readers effortlessly into an adrenaline-packed ride. This is a smart, gripping addition to the growing hacker-action genre with strong appeal to fans of Doctorow’s Little Brother and Falkner’s Brain Jack.

The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

Teens all around the world are dying of PEMA, a mysterious and incurable wasting disease. Noa and Peter are two teens with advanced hacking skills but radically different backgrounds. Peter is a rich kid who started /ALLIANCE/, an online group of hackers, and Noa (reminiscent of Dragon Tattoo's Lisbeth Salander) is a former foster kid who has gone off the grid, making money under an assumed identity by testing and setting up website and company security. The two teens are brought together when Peter starts poking around one of his father's business interests. This leads to a home invasion by "men in black" type goons who take his laptop and threaten him. Noa wakes up on a metal operating table with an incision in her chest, strapped to an IV, and wearing only a cloth gown. She barely escapes and goes on the run. After tapping into some money she has saved, she gets a new computer which puts her into contact with both Peter and the mysterious A6M0 who warns her when she is in danger. Realizing they are both being chased by the same people, and that it has something to do with PEMA research, they start working together to figure out what is going on and what was done to Noa and why. This fast-paced thriller will keep all readers, including adults, on the edge of their seats. This is a must-purchase title, especially for libraries looking for something besides the paranormal. Be prepared to stay up all night reading; the ending can stand alone or support a sequel. Reviewer: Suanne B. Roush

VOYA - Suanne B. Roush

Gr 8 Up—Teen runaway Noa has managed to make a tolerable life for herself. She has an apartment, a job as a freelance computer security specialist (she's a hacker), and a fake foster family to make it all legal. Most importantly, she is off the grid and all but invisible-until she wakes up on an operating table with no memory of the past three weeks, a strange scar, and a ton of questions. She needs help and she needs answers, but first she needs to escape. Peter, a privileged suburban kid who leads a computer hacktivist group called /ALLIANCE/, has stumbled onto a terrible secret that may involve his whole family. Suddenly the two of them are on the run, chased by a powerful company willing to do anything to catch them and keep their secrets. Don't Turn Around is a tight, well-written thriller from a best-selling adult writer. The story opens quickly but then takes a while to gain momentum. However, by the time Noa and Peter get together, the action and the developments come fast and furious all the way to the end. The teens come across as authentic young adults and deftly walk the fine line between teenage hard-headedness and being appropriately sympathetic. There is a certain amount of computer jargon but it never slows the action, and everything is reasonably explained. The ending is left open for a possible sequel, which will surely excite anyone who reads this first installment.Erik Knapp, Davis Library, Plano, TX

School Library Journal

Teenage hackers Noa and Peter band together for vengeance and discover an inconceivable conspiracy. Sixteen-year-old computer whiz Noa Torson has escaped the Child Protective Services system by creating a fake foster family that includes a reclusive, freelance IT-guy of a father who draws a tidy salary working "from home"; she thinks she's safe. When she wakes up in a hospitallike operating theater with no memory of how she got there, she doesn't take the doctors' lame explanation that she was in a car accident and uses her smarts to escape. Meanwhile, Boston child-of-privilege Peter pokes around his father's files and is interrupted by armed thugs who break down the door and storm off with his computer (leaving a warning for his parents). Peter enlists his hacktivist group /ALLIANCE/ (of which Noa is a member) to, first, research the subject of those files and then to attack his attackers via the Net. The attack only serves to dig the teens in deeper when they uncover a frightening conspiracy of human experimentation and corporate malfeasance that could mean a quick death for them both. Adult author Gagnon's YA debut is a pulse-pounding scary-great read. The strong characters and dystopian day-after-tomorrow setting will have teens begging for more. The slightly open end leaving the possibility (but not necessity) of a sequel will rankle some; others will just breathlessly smile. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for preteens and teens, a surefire hit. (Thriller. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews