Need
by Joelle Charbonneau
Summary: "No one gets something for nothing. We all should know better."
Teenagers at Wisconsin's Nottawa High School are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need . . . regardless of the consequences. Soon the site turns sinister, with simple pranks escalating to malicious crimes. The body count rises. In this chilling YA thriller, the author of the best-selling Testing trilogy examines not only the dark side of social media, but the dark side of human nature.
Source: I received a digital copy from NetGalley
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Review:
I started reading Need hoping it would be dark and somewhat creepy in anticipation for the Creeptober ReadAThon I’m hosting with Booknerderie. However, Need did not live up to my expectations.
In Need, teens in a small town were introduced to a social network they were prohibited from talking about in which they could enter in what they needed. To get their first need fulfilled, teens had to invite 10 people from their high school to join. Once all the students joined and needs were beginning to be fulfilled, the students could ask for their second need. However, the requirements to fulfill the need were more dangerous or risky or weird and teens continued to meet the requirements to get what they “needed” from the site.
Of course, the novel brought up some great points about the differences between wants and needs, how far people would go for things they coveted, and what makes people good or bad. Is it still murder if you didn’t realize your actions would hurt somebody? I liked those aspects, but the book itself was kind of slow, hard to believe, and it just kept getting more and more over the top until it was just too much.
I didn’t enjoy the book because it was way too over the top and I felt like the main characters were not easily relatable and somewhat naïve. This was one of those times I felt like I was reading a book that I was too old to be reading and I just couldn’t get into it.
Labels: mystery, netgalley, Review, YA
