iBoy - Kevin Brooks

Tom Harvey lost his mom at a young age and has been raised by his grandma in the slums of London. He is walking home from school one day and an IPhone is thrown out from the top floor of his building. It breaks open his skull, and he's in the hospital for 17 days. Most of the IPhone fragments have been removed, but a few remain and merge with his brain. After he wakes up he finds out that his best friend, Lucy, was raped and her brother was beat up. In the coming days he uses his iBoy powers to access information about everything going on in Crow Town. Tom also discovers that he can make his skin light up and become impervious to harm, when he is connected to a phone signal or WiFi connection. After he goes to see Lucy he hacks into the police database to see who is suspected in Lucy's rape. Tom then takes it upon himself, with his new iBoy powers to see that they are punished for what they did to Lucy. This draws the attention of Howard Ellman, the head honcho of a gang in Crow Town. He kidnaps Tom and Lucy in the middle of the night, and wants to make them pay for what has happened to the rest of his crew. Can Tom use his iBoy powers and save him and Lucy, or is Ellman going to get his revenge?

I enjoyed this book. It was fast moving and entertaining. Most people would probably want the powers Tom gained from the IPhone fragments. The question then becomes would you use them for good, or be swayed to the dark side to use them for selfish reasons.

T.B. 12/14/11