Sunday, January 3, 2010

Teen Inc, by Stefan Petrucha

I may have said in my book news post that I would read the Howl's Moving Castle sequel, but I decided that I would actually give that series a break and read this book, since I figured it would be a much quicker read. And it was! I read it in just one day!

I reserved this book from the library solely because I liked the last book I read by the author, The Rule of Won, which I reviewed last month. My instinct turned out to be right. ^_^ Really a funny and smart book, the kind I can appreciate. There aren't any fantasy elements in it, so this world is similar to our own. Therefore the characters are easy to relate to.

The thing that gets you to pick up the book in the first place is that it's a story about the first kid ever to be raised by a corporation. Yep. Weird, huh? The kid, Jaiden's, parents worked for the corporation, NECorp, but they died in some sort of accident, so NECorp decided to adopt Jaiden. I know about the expression "it takes a village to raise a child" (which I've never understood in any case) but it's pretty funny to exchange village for corporation.

Anyway, even with more than 2 parents raising him, Jaiden turns out to be a well-grounded kind of guy. I'm not sure if everybody in the company loves him like a parent should, but they take care of him at least, and near the end you can pretty much pick out the characters who really act like parents should. So the main plot is that Jaiden keeps it a secret of how he was raised, and he tries to win the girl of his dreams, even when his romantic interest tells him NECorp is poisoning the waters with mercury somehow (really bad). He tries finding out whether this is the truth and, I guess for the first time ever, rebels against his "parents". The villain in this story was pretty good here, and there's an unpredictable twist that reveals his identity. Well, I didn't see it coming.

Even though the part near the end kind of worked like a movie (in fact, Jaiden and his friends are actually aware that it's like they're in a movie, only it's real life. Ha, yeah right), I think the book wrapped up really nicely. Stefan Petrucha's books are alright. ^_^ I seriously recommend taking his books out. Either the ones I read, or any more you can find, because he's good.

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