The Future Will Be BS Free

April 1, 2018

Gr 10 Up-An exploration of a world in which there are no lies. Once their school is shut down, Sam and his friends find themselves with more free time than expected. They band together and create a lie detector. Once they have a working prototype, they are ready to find someone to fund production. Unfortunately for the group, someone discovered what they were doing, and that person will use whatever means necessary to stop them before it's too late. Sam and his friends quickly learn that the consequences of a lie-free world are more far-reaching than they ever anticipated. This novel features a well-rounded, well-developed, likable group of characters who operate with the unbridled confidence and enthusiasm of most teens. This compelling, action-packed story will have readers eagerly turning pages to find out what happens with the group and their truth app. While much of the technology mentioned, such as the truth app the teens are working on, is beyond current technological abilities, this book will find fans in readers of adventure stories and thrillers as well as those who enjoy science fiction. Give to fans of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. VERDICT A first purchase for most public libraries.-Jenni Frencham, formerly at Columbus Public Library, WI

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2018
A group of teens in an America of the not-too-distant future design an infallible lie detector and are targeted by the president as a result.Sam and his diverse group of friends (including Theo, with cerebral palsy, and Boob, who is implied Asian) have been building a device that they believe will identify lies with perfect accuracy. It's tempting when they are offered millions of dollars to turn over their research and plans for the truth app, but they want to retain control. The corrupt America they live in is headed by a female president whose face and name are on everything from shampoo bottles to sodas, who is running for a fourth term after convincing Congress to overturn the two-term limit, and who has suspicious ties to Russia. Things get dangerous when Theo, the brains of the operation, is killed and the president is implicated. The teens end up on the run along with Sam's mom, a disabled veteran of a Sino-Russian war; Mr. Chambliss, their black science teacher; and a growing group of adult bodyguards. Cyborglike scientific advances and their easily escapable quandaries sometimes stretch even science-fiction credibility.Deserving of comparisons to The Hunger Games for its incisive critique of American sociopolitics, even as the plot gets too busy at times. (Dystopian. 14-18)

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May 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 It's always best to tell the truth, right? McIntosh (Burning Midnight, 2016) explores this concept in his latest novel, a dystopian story about five teenagers who create an app that detects lies. They want to make the world a better place, but their motives don't matter when their invention sends them running for their lives as they try to keep the app away from those with ill intent. The dystopian world and the characters inside it lack solid development, making it hard to feel a real connection with the plot. However, the action is nonstop from beginning to end, and the notion of truth is well explored from multiple viewpoints. Readers will find themselves exhaling only at the end of the novel, when a realistic resolution is achieved. McIntosh doesn't give an answer to the question the novel poses, and he doesn't try to preach. Instead, readers will see the teenagers' conclusion and be inspired to derive their own. It's certainly a BS-free way to present a deep and fundamental question.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2019
In the not-too-distant future, high schooler Sam and his friends pool their knowledge to build a lie detector that they hope will bring an end to a corrupt leadership. Of course, the powers that be catch wind of this invention and will stop at nothing to get it for themselves. The teens find themselves in a fight for their lives and at the center of a burgeoning revolution in this action-packed (if somewhat overstuffed) dystopian thriller.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)