Ocean’s 8 meets The Breakfast Club in this fast-paced, multi-perspective story about five teens determined to hack into one billionaire absentee father’s company to steal tuition money.For Nari, aka Narioka Diane, aka hacker digital alter ego “d0l0s,” it’s college and then a career at “one of the big ones,” like Google or Apple. Keagan, her sweet, sensitive boyfriend, is happy to follow her … boyfriend, is happy to follow her wherever she may lead. Reese is an ace/aro visual artist with plans to travel the world. Santiago is off to Stanford on a diving scholarship, with very real Olympic hopes. And Bellamy? Physics genius Bellamy is admitted to MIT–but the student loan she’d been counting on is denied when it turns out her estranged father–one Robert Foster–is loaded.
Nari isn’t about to let her friend’s dreams be squashed by a deadbeat billionaire, so she hatches a plan to steal just enough from Foster to allow Bellamy to achieve her goals. Fast-paced and banter-filled, Lillian Clark’s debut is a hilarious and thought-provoking Robin Hood story for the 21st century.
“This well-paced debut follows exceptionally smart, thoughtful, and loyal friends navigating the morally ambiguous areas of life.”–Kirkus
“A smart and fast-paced debut that will intrigue heist aficionados and modern-minded Robin Hoods.”–Booklist
“Gleefully engrossing.”–The Bulletin
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Immoral Code is fun and thoughtful. This novel is about five friends as they plan to cyber-steal some money from one neglectful dad to help one of their friends go to college. What a brilliant thought and unique as well. By the synopsis, it almost feels as though it is a reach, as though the narrative would require the reader to suspend too much belief in order to follow the plot, but it does not. These are five kids, each of them brilliant in their small ways, and each narrative, each persona allows the reader to get to know them and connect to them. These are bright kids, and they are all doing this not only for their friend but also for themselves. Following each persona, going into their backstory in little tidbits keeps the momentum of the story going while also building the characters more, allowing them to become more than five names in a book each with a skill set essential for pulling this off. Their internal narratives, their issues both personal and familial layer the story and make it something more significant than some young adult prequel to Ocean’s 8. There is depth to the novel and the characters as they each have to face something, something personal. The heist is a challenge to them, but not because it is some impossible plan that has a slim chance of winning, but because they are forced to challenge their perceptions of right and wrong, of personal choice.
What is also captivating about the characters is that they are not just a gang of hetero-normal white kids; they are diverse. Santiago is Mexican-American, first-generation; Nari is Japanese American, and Reese is asexual/aromantic. These are some of the identifiers that layer the story with intricacies and conflict. The gang all face internal conflict but those bubble out and soon become external conflict which makes the story realistic. They re risking their very bright futures to commit a felony that is bound to create conflict, and to see the conflict bubble up slowly, inching its way through the narrative is captivating. The reader knows there is going to be a blowout, but the when and how is unknown, it keeps the reader hooked because of the characters, because of how different and devoted they are to one another.
It is a page-turning novel that grips the reader through the character development and dynamics flowing at a brilliant page that keeps the reader intrigued throughout.
Wow. Wow. Wow. And Wow. Okay. First of all, you’re going to love this. Honestly. Clark wrote a book filled with such real, vibrant, complex characters, that I’m looking around my living room wondering where they are. These distinct (brilliant) characters wriggle through the nuances of a moral dilemma while battling their own inner demons, and you, reader, get to go through the deliberations with them. Twenty out of twenty would recommend to their friends.
Immoral Code is a great read. It follows five friends, Reese, Nari, Santiago, Keagan, and Bellamy. At first I thought it was going to be difficult to follow these five but it wasn’t. Each character brings a different quality to the story. Bellamy had gotten in to MIT but she is denied finical aid because she has a rich dad that has nothing to do with her. With her ability to go to MIT in jeopardy, her friends hatch a plan to get her money from her father. The story had me hooked from being to end. These friends are definitely the type of friends you want on your side. This one was a great YA read.
A novel by Lillian Clark
Narioka Diane Okada and Bellamy Bishop have been best friends since second grade. Now, in their senior year in high school, and on the brink of adulthood, their relationship is stronger than ever.
Dissimilar as they are, tall, beautiful Nari and short, nearsighted Bells, have personalities that compliment each other. Dr. Okada, as Nari is sometimes known, is a leader, while brilliant, 165 IQ, Bellamy is a follower. Both are exceptional students; Nari’s goal is to study computer science at U.C. Berkeley, while Bellamy dreams of going to M.I.T. to learn how to design spacecraft that will make interstellar travel possible.
By force of personality, kindness, or luck Nari and Bells have swept three other friends into their circle, all high achievers in their own right. Santiago, a champion diver and swimmer, is headed for Stanford with dreams of Olympic medals. And Keagan the lucky, also a jock, who doesn’t know what he wants to do. Last comes Reese Ethel Gregors the acearo, flamboyant graphic designer, dancer, and performance artist. All five are smart kids, good kids, with worlds to conquer. And graduation is mere months away.
The fly in the ointment: After being accepted and submitting the financial aid paperwork, Bellamy’s dreams of a scholarship to M.I.T. have come smashing down. Never wealthy, her mom has raised her with only miserly support from her biological father. That man, Robert Foster, whom Bellamy has yet to see, is fabulously rich, a billionaire many times over. When that information comes to the attention of the people at M.I.T., it is little wonder that they balk at paying his daughter’s tuition. What to do? How to get the money? Well, after Robert hangs up on Bellamy without saying a word, the default position becomes; steal it!
Narioka is a gifted hacker, she can break into just about any system and access the information in its most secret files. And that is what she does with Robert’s company, Foster Innovations, or FI as it comes to be known. Her proposal: skim $.01 from every sale or transfer over a million dollars. With billions of dollars in capital, hundreds of accounts, and tens of thousands of transactions, no one will ever notice or miss such a small amount. It is a brilliant plan. Everybody joins in. As Reese asked rhetorically before embarking on the scheme, “What can go wrong?” Well, briefly, everything. To include being successful, or landing in prison.
At first glance “Immoral Code” a bit of a sappy, untenable morality tale, and I’ll bet that you are saying to yourself, “Well, that sounds familiar.” Stealing cash by skimming accounts via computer, that is. Heck, it is such a meme in computer fiction that Nari got the idea from an old movie! And the reason for the theft? Just about anyone can look at Bellamy’s situation and in two minutes be thinking of five ways to achieve the same ends without the extrajudicial flapdoodle. So, let’s just say that “Immoral Code” is not convincing in concept on the surface.
More in-depth though, it is the story of five friends who love one another and will risk their futures for one of their own. The writing is sharply done. Each character has a vibrant persona with a colorful and unique voice with which they explain themselves and their involvement in the crimes. The story has wit, humor, intelligent dialog and, that YA prerequisite, sweet teen romance, too. It is apparent that Ms. Clark has done her homework, as the scenes, descriptions, and activities are acutely characteristic of today’s young adults. Nor is the writer shy about the conflicted nature of what Nari and crew are engaged in. She bluntly asks difficult questions of her players, something you don’t often see in YA novels. So, in sum, even though I find that “Immoral Code” has shortcomings, I recommend it for its lively sparkle. Hey, even smart kids do dumb things, right?
I say, “Please, can I have some more,” to Ms. Clark, Random House Children’s Books, and dear old Netgalley! What would I eread and review without you and your Advance Reader’s Copies?
5 friends embark on the biggest and craziest scheme ever. Can she write the program to save her friend and her dreams of M.I.T. or will they go down in flames. A story of triumph and the support of friends to achieve your dreams. These high school friends set out to show support and love for one of their own and find out more about themselves in the process. Great YA read from this new to me author.