Finally Friday is a meme started by me (Jessica, aka @coffeelvnmom) and J from @life_love_fandoms. This week's I-finally-read-this-waiting-on-Wednesday-book is: Duplicity.
A computer-hacking teen. The girl who wants to save him. And a rogue mirror reflection that might be the death of them both.
In private, seventeen-year-old Brandon hacks bank accounts just for the thrill of it. In public, he looks like any other tattooed bad boy with a fast car and devil-may-care attitude. He should know: he’s worked hard to maintain that façade. With inattentive parents who move constantly from city to city, he’s learned not to get tangled up in things like friends and relationships. So he’ll just keep living like a machine, all gears and wires.
Then two things shatter his carefully-built image: Emma, the kind, stubborn girl who insists on looking beneath the surface – and the small matter of a mirror reflection that starts moving by itself. Not only does Brandon’s reflection have a mind of its own, but it seems to be grooming him for something—washing the dye from his hair, yanking out his piercings, swapping his black shirts for … pastels. Then it tells him: it thinks it can live his life better, and it’s preparing to trade places.
And when it pulls Brandon through the looking-glass, not only will he need all his ill-gotten hacking skills to escape, but he’s going to have to face some hard truths about who he’s become. Otherwise he’ll be stuck in a digital hell until he’s old and gray, and no one will even know he's gone.
(This review first appeared on Goodreads in March of 2015. I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
First off, let’s just get the blurb out of the way, shall we? Does it give somewhat of an idea of the storyline? Yes. After reading the book, however, do I think it says enough? Not really. (Not that that’s bad. I like not knowing what I’m reading about. Blurbs with spoilers make me sad!) There’s a whole lot more to the dual identity storyline than you think, and I’m sure most readers would agree that the direction it went was not expected in the slightest.
The premise of Duplicity is basically Brandon and his dissatisfaction with his parents and his life. Things are going one way, and he is at the point where he can’t handle anything good because he’s not used to being around it. Enter the plot point that makes everything you thought you knew you were going to read about disappear, because whoa the storyline totally comes right outta left field. I liked it, I enjoyed being surprised by it, and even though some of the technical stuff went completely over my head, the concept and despair of being unable to do anything about the situation and the characters IN that situation was pretty cool.
Also, I absolutely love the artistic concept of the cover, though it really doesn’t tell us much, either. (The black and white versus colored parts, however… I’m just realizing the tie-in with that. Smart!!!)
Overall, I’d say Duplicity was a great, quick read, with more than one unexpected turn along the way. It’s in Brandon’s point-of-view, and N.K.’s storytelling, in my opinion, was great. I expect to see a sequel, N.K.!
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