Through the Looking Glass: Don’t Turn Around by: Michelle Gagnon

Don’t Turn Around by: Michelle Gagnon
Publication Date: August 28, 2012
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Series: PERSEPHoNE Trilogy #1
Source: ARC from Publisher (Thanks HarperCollins!)
Page Count: 320
Author Website: Michelle Gagnon
Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Summary from Goodreads:

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.
Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa’s talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation threatens his life. But what Noa and Peter don’t realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who’d stop at nothing to silence her for good.
Filled with action, suspense, and romance, this first book in a new trilogy offers readers nonstop thrills.

My Review:

The first thing I heard about this book was that it was a techno-thriller. While I didn’t exactly know what that referred to, I was immediately interested. Don’t Turn Around is Michelle Gagnon’s first YA book and it was definitely fast paced and had a great plot. It’s something I think even adults could read and enjoy.

Noa is a runaway. She has been in the foster care system since she was a small child and has been to juvie a few times. The book begins as she wakes up, strapped to an operating table of sorts. I think this was an excellent way to hook the reader because I could not put the book down for a while after that. Noa is remarkably resilient throughout the events of the story, which is one of my favorite characteristics. She is trying to piece together what exactly happened to her when she woke up. At the same time, she can’t step out of the shadows or let her guard down for a second because there are men after her. Whatever happened to her, they weren’t intent on letting her go anytime soon.

The book switches perspectives from Noa to Peter, and then to Amanda. Peter is a rich kid with an internet hacking site called /ALLIANCE/. He and other members of the site track down organizations or groups who are working against ethics, rights, or the law, and take them down in the most creative way possible. I love this idea. I hope there’s something like that in real life. Noa is one of his best hackers. He asks her for a favor and from then on him and Noa are basically companions in trying to figure out who’s responsible for Noa’s capture.

The next perspective is Amanda’s. She is Peter’s ex-girlfriend and lost her brother to drugs. I think that the book would’ve been the same or better without her point of view. I don’t think it brought anything special to the storyline.

While goons are chasing their every move, Peter and Noa fight for their lives and the truth and they won’t stop until they find what they’re looking for. Michelle Gagnon’s Don’t Turn Around is an enjoyable thriller with people on the run and lives at stake. It kept me on edge most of the time!

Official Rating:

Three and a half Un-Birthday Cakes!