paperback, 304 pages
Published April 26, 2021 by Tor Teen.
Because her mom is always on the move, Steph hasn't lived anyplace longer than six months. Her only constant is an online community called CatNet—a social media site where users upload cat pictures—a place she knows she is welcome. What Steph doesn't know is that the admin of the site, CheshireCat, is a sentient A.I.
When a threat from Steph's past catches up to her and ChesireCat's existence is discovered by outsiders, it's up to Steph and her friends, both online and IRL, to save her.
Content warning Spoilers
Entertaining YA novel entirely ruined by the fact that the security expert mother encrypted her laptop with.... a 7 character password consisting of two dictionary words and one special character?
If you want your daughter to be able to decrypt your laptop maybe give her a physical key or something. SMH.
A book I read down in one day and immediately started the sequel. It is fun, has a diverse cast and a light-hearted tone but is also meaningful. It touches darker issues in a respectful way and has a fast developing plot. But what struck me most when I read this "ten minute in the future" young adult novel is how it describes friendships online and offline. I never before have read a book that described my own way of treating internet spaces and friendships and what they mean to me so accurately.
This was a fun YA book to read. I am not a teenager now and don't know how American teens may behave, but the book gives a believable portrayal of the life of a teen who has been on the run with her mother for much of her life (to hide from her abusive father who once kidnapped her mother), yet finds friendship in a social network called CatNet which, she later discovers, is being quietly run by an AI.
The AI itself likes pictures (especially cat pictures) and is eager to foster good relationships with the people on CatNet. When the teen, Steph, moves yet again to another town and finds actual friendship there and would rather just stay there, the AI decides to 'help' her, and ends up revealing their (singular they) existence to Steph to get her trust.
Unfortunately, the 'help' causes too much attention to become …
This was a fun YA book to read. I am not a teenager now and don't know how American teens may behave, but the book gives a believable portrayal of the life of a teen who has been on the run with her mother for much of her life (to hide from her abusive father who once kidnapped her mother), yet finds friendship in a social network called CatNet which, she later discovers, is being quietly run by an AI.
The AI itself likes pictures (especially cat pictures) and is eager to foster good relationships with the people on CatNet. When the teen, Steph, moves yet again to another town and finds actual friendship there and would rather just stay there, the AI decides to 'help' her, and ends up revealing their (singular they) existence to Steph to get her trust.
Unfortunately, the 'help' causes too much attention to become focused on her location. That, and her mother suddenly falling very ill, makes Steph decide to find out the truth about why she and her mother have really been on the run. The AI, and her friends on CatNet do some digging, inadvertently triggering some trip wires set by her father, who now knows where she is and is coming to get her.
As Steph goes on the run with her friends, the digging she, CatNet and the AI do finally reveal the reason why her father is really after her. But after her father nearly catches here, forcing the AI to act, the AI itself gets into danger. And now it is up to Steph and her friends to rescue them and, hopefully, stop her father and regain her mother.
The book is mostly written from the first-person, switching viewpoints between Steph and the AI, with occasional views of the 'clowder' (group) on CatNet involving Steph's friends. The writing is easy to get used to, despite my lack of experience with the life of a typical American teen in a near future scenario where self-driving cars and robots can be a fact of life.
One note: while reading the book, I was unaware of the use of the term, "Catfishing". It was only after reading that I looked up the term and realized how appropriate it is to the book as it involves people (and one AI) interacting and only later finding out about the reality behind the people on CatNet.
I loved this, especially the first 1/3 or so where you were really just hanging out with a bunch of weird bored teenagers that reminded me of myself at that age. The writing style is so great, just wry and dry and not afraid to be ridiculous. I appreciated the Cambridge parts and hope one day there will be a robot run pastry cafe called Cherry Pi
