BOOK REVIEW: Unplugged

Title: "Unplugged"
Author: P.D. Quaver
Rating: 5 stars

Description:

What would happen if some modern kids were forced to live without their modern devices? 

The teens enrolled in 'The Natural Path'--a school for device-addicted kids run by the smooth but vaguely sinister Dr. Zarkov--quickly find out when the school turns out to be nothing but a front for an elaborate kidnapping plot. Trapped on a remote tropical island and facing what looks like certain death, they will have to band together if they hope to defeat their ruthless captors. But it will still take all their ingenuity just to survive... 

A realistically detailed and thrilling story by novelist P.D. Quaver which will appeal to young adults (13 and over). 

My Review:

“Unplugged” had me mesmerized.  At the beginning, I found it a little difficult to connect with any other characters other than Max, but I think that’s how it was meant to be.  All of the characters are so wrapped up in themselves and their panic over the fact that they’re losing their connections to the outside world that it makes it difficult to get a real read on who’s who.  Some traits become obvious – the preppy, self-absorbed girl who thinks the world revolves around her and the guy who seems like a higher-than-thou jerk stuck out in particular.

Throughout the book, in all of the struggles that await them (and there are many struggles, believe you me!), all of the characters grow.  Some of them have fates that are heartbreaking.  In fact, all of them seem to have fates that are going to be heartbreaking for a while.  It’s never clear, before any of their challenges occur, how one of those challenges will go.  Some of what you think would never in a million years work end up working out perfectly, while other situations that seem likely to succeed crash and burn.  Throughout everything, they never give up and continually keep each other motivated and working together to survive and find a way off of their island prison.  All the while, they are growing as people.  Without any technology and very few tools or food supplies, they have to get creative and figure things out using only their brains and brawn, something that some of them have never really had to do before.

By the end of the book (I will refrain from ruining it for you by allowing you to read it yourself and come upon it naturally), all of the characters have come a long way physically, mentally, and emotionally.  They have been forced to grow up and learn to be mature, responsible decision-making adults at a very young age.

I believe this book teaches a very important message.  In our world today, everything runs by technology.  What would we do without it?  In reading this story, we aren’t fed some story about a crazy world blackout that requires us to live without.  It’s something much more old-school, and honestly, it’s much more believable.  A group of kids are kidnapped and held for ransom.  When they are left alone on a deserted island, out of the path of any commercial shipping or flying traffic with no hope of communicating with the outside world, they are forced to learn how to live without any technology whatsoever.  They are forced to learn to live without much at all.  It’s a reminder that, while difficult, living without technology is possible.  If these kids can live without the comforts of computers, phones, internet, tablets, or electricity of any kind, it is certainly possible for the rest of society to do it, especially when one stops to think of how much more we have to work with in our normal world than these kids had in theirs.

I give major props to P.D. Quaver for tackling this idea and for writing a great, thought-provoking book.  Once the action started (and it didn’t take long for it to get underway), I was hooked.  If it weren’t for my busy schedule, I probably would have sat all day and read it all in one sitting.  It will keep you reading as challenge after challenge affects this group of kids, who will also grow on you as you see them struggle to survive.  They are all different and unique characters who have a different skill set to lend to their plight.

But don’t let me tell you the story; go buy it and read it for yourself!  You won’t be disappointed, I promise.