HAUNTING FRIDAY READS BOOK REVIEW: Duplicity by N.K. Traver

GENRE: Young Adult Contemporary Science Fiction Thriller (I think I just made that up but it works.)

N.K. Traver is awesome. First, she took her knowledge as a computer programmer and combined it with her talent as a writer and voila’ Duplicity was born. Second, because she mentee’d Alison Green Myers, my kick ass Ink Sister in #PitchWars. Alison sings her praises and I do pretty much whatever Alison tells me to do;)

Traver nails the Male Protagonist Point of View (POV) in Duplicity—and I don’t admit that often. I scrutinize dialogue, body language, and inner monologue when a female/male writes the opposite genders POV. Most times when an author tries a different gender he or she uses stereotypical characterizations that make me cringe, but when the author gets it right? Well, that’s time for a Happy Dance.

I heard murmurings of a hacker/cyber purgatory prior to Duplicity. I was intrigued by this mythical place—was it a black hole that sucked you in and never spit you out, was it an alter dimension where hackers walked among us yet could no longer interact with the real world?

When I read Duplicity I thought, yep, that’s what it is. That's exactly what it is.

Natalie slowly changes the main character Brandon. Actually she strips away layers of his appearance then his persona one by one. Brandon doesn’t know what’s happening or why, and he can’t control any of the changes. When he starts to physically fit the mold of a grounded, well-respecting teenager, she rips him out of his hacker/kind of jerk life and throws him into Cyber purgatory. Brandon must hack his way out of this cyber purgatory or the Good Brandon will take over Brandon’s life banishing Brandon to this in-between cyber dimension forever.

Often we don't recognize a good thing until it smacks us in the face. In this case, its our reflection in the mirror.

Great read—I highly recommend it!

Write on,

Kim

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