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Don't Turn Around
Don't Turn Around
Don't Turn Around
Ebook333 pages5 hours

Don't Turn Around

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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In Michelle Gagnon’s debut YA thriller, Don’t Turn Around, computer hacker Noa Torson is as smart, tough, and complex as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Lisbeth Salander.
 
The first in a trilogy, Don’t Turn Around’s intricate plot and heart-pounding action will leave readers desperate for book two.
 
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 hacking skills to stay anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in a 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 in no uncertain terms. 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.
 

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 28, 2012
ISBN9780062102928
Author

Michelle Gagnon

Michelle Gagnon has worked as a bartender, dog walker, Russian supper club performer, model, personal trainer, and writer. She lives in San Francisco.

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Rating: 3.8434343434343434 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Don't Turn Around was the first book I'd read by Michelle Gagnon, and I really liked it. Noa wakes up in an unfamiliar room surrounded by the trappings of a hospital. How did she get here? Was she in an accident? As her mind starts to clear, she realizes she isn't in a hospital at all, but she does have a huge incision scar from an operation she doesn't remember needing. When the doctors and nurses all lie to her about where she is, Noa knows that she has to escape.

    Inspired by the death of his brother and his less than honest parents, Peter builds an internet organization called /ALLIANCE/ for the purpose of tracking down those who hurt others, especially children. After his most recent hack, Peter's house is invaded by a man named Mr. Mason who warns Peter to stop what he is doing or his family will suffer.

    When Peter and Noa meet, it is clear that Mr. Mason is part of the same organization that Noa is running from. They join forces and start looking for ways to prove that runaways and orphans are being taken to be used as guinea pigs for experimentation.

    This is a very good book with an intriguing mystery, well drawn characters, and lots of action. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fast-paced and surprising with interesting, realistic-enough main characters. I would probably have given it 5 stars if it had given me closure.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Terrible cover, but the book was fun with two plucky kids escaping and hacking the Man (or at least a big evil medical experiment conspiracy) It takes place in Boston/Cambridge/Brookline and the author knows the locations. I'd read another one if she keeps going...
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As they say this was a thrill ride, no really I really liked it. It reads like I was watching a movie. I could see and feel the urgency of the scenes. Of course the thing the book has over watching on a screen whether big or small is that I was able to get into the character's head. I knew what drives them and makes them tick.

    The suspense, mystery and adventure Noa and Peter encountered in the story, separately and eventually together made me nervous, and captivated. I thought the concept and storytelling were great. A really good nail biting read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Noa is a young woman who has spent most of her life in foster care and occasional stints at juvie. Along the way she managed to learn computer hacking and has set up a fictional family online to allow her to exist on her own. She did support work for a computer company to create a nest egg. Her skills were such that the company didn't mind ever seeing her in person. Everything went upside down, however, when she woke up one day on an operating table with no memory of how she got there. A healing scar on her abdomen was troubling. She managed to escape but now has to live in hiding, tough to do in today's connected world.Peter is a young man, also with great computer skills, who is curious about a program he couldn't break called Persefone into that he found on his father's computer. He gets in contact with Noa and the two of them get involved in a sinister story of human experimentation and exploitation of orphaned youths.The audio version of this book is narrated by Merritt Hicks who did a good job of it. The only gripe I had was that she didn't pause one iota when the action shifted from one character to another. It was no problem since The characters' names were given before confusion could set in.Likened to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, parallels include computer hacking, foster care, and a good amount of action. An independent and highly intelligent young woman takes on an evil corporation.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've read all her adult mysteries so I thought I'd give her first foray into YA fiction a try. Plus it's a thriller and it's set in Boston.The two main characters are Noa and Peter, they're both teens and both hackers, but after that their lives are quite disparate. Noa's a foster kid and has been for most of her life, while Peter is a private school kid who lives in a posh neighborhood, and he's a guy who's getting read to be a Legacy at Harvard. Still, their lives come crashing together.Noa wakes up on a gurney and finds she's lost weeks of her life. Meanwhile Peter snoops in his father's stuff and searches for the wrong thing online and he gets a visit from quite the goon squad. And so the thriller starts for both of them.And it is a pretty good thriller. I was never quite sure when they'd be caught vs. when they'd get away, not to mention who would die and who would survive.There was also quite the diverse set of characters in the story, and each of them was unique. I especially liked Cody, and I thought the relationship between Amanda and Peter was something that isn't often seen in especially YA books, and older girl and younger guy in a relationship.Then there was Boston, and the surrounding area. I just don't get how she gets nearly everything about Boston fine, calling it the T instead of the MTA (a different story set in Boston did that over and over, drove me crazy) and heck, she even used the word wicked in the correct New England way in the beginning, and yet, she did one of my pet peeves. She had Noa, who had supposedly grown in and around Boston think, "She didn't know this section of Boston well... Cambridge was dominated by the Harvard Campus". (pg. 98). Well, duh, of course they wouldn't be looking for her there, Cambridge and Boston are two different cities... I guess maybe she did it on purpose, but, somehow I doubt it. Ugh. They're two different cities, with a freakin' river between them. *sigh*
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon is a novel about a conspiracy that gets people killed if that get too close. I would call this novel barely science fiction but definitely suspense. It is a planned trilogy.Noa's parents are dead, and she's been a ward of the state for years. She learned how to hack and can do just about anything on a computer. She wakes up in a room that seems to be a hospital room and has had surgery. She has no memory of needing surgery or being admitted. She has great instincts and knows that something is wrong, so she fights her way out and is on the run from these unknown people who want her back.Peter is the son of wealthy parents whose brother died from a disease that no one has been able to cure, as it kills young people. His father disdains Peter and feels like the better son died, so Peter does his own thing. He has a great car and plenty of money, so who needs parents? Peter established a group on the web that fights against abuses by getting even or making a statement via technology. One night Peter looks through his dad's computer and becomes curious at what he finds. Within an hour of researching his find, men break into the house and steak Peter's computer, telling him to tell his parents Mr. Mason was there. Peter's parents hastily return home but refuse to explain. Peter and Noa come together when Peter recruits her and others to find out who the company is and what is truly going on. Overall, you'll enjoy the novel. It is fast-paced and suspenseful.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway.

    Brief summary: Two hackers, one a boy who has lead a privileged life and the other a girl running from the foster care system, stumble upon a medical conspiracy and fight to protect themselves and expose the corrupt company involved.

    Thoughts: I enjoyed this book I thought it was well paced and interesting. It didn't feel dumbed down (which can happen when an author switches from adult books to YA) and the dialogue seemed realistic. I know very little about computers so I can not speak about the accuracy of the hacks but they seemed plausible and the explanations were short and kept my attention. The parts that were suppose to be sad didn't really make me feel for the characters- I think there was more action and suspense in this book then emotion. I did like the ending- I like that the book didn't just leave you in the middle of a sentence or action sequence although it did leave you in the middle of a mini-climax which is, I assume, meant to set up the next book.

    All in all I would recommend this book and I will probably pick up the next one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great book! A lot like Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Lots of suspense and action. The only thing I didn't like was there wasn't really an ending.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Originally posted on
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Don't Turn Around was an exciting read! This is the story of Noa, a 16 year old who has run away from foster care. Noa is intelligent, tough and fiercely independent. The book begins with Noa waking in an abandoned warehouse on a hospital gurney with no idea how she got there. The action begins to escalate from there. What follows is a tightly woven tale of secrets and medical espionage. I would recommended this book to fans of I Am Number Four and Variant.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Noa Torson is a genius hacker and has figured out how to have a nice life. She spent years bouncing from foster home to foster home and forced to stay in a government halfway house in between. After setting up fake foster parents and fooling social services, nobody has bothered her and she is free to do as she pleases. Everything is going well until she wakes up on an operating table with no memory of how she got there. Noa escapes, but the organization who operated on her sends a constant stream of thugs to get her back. Peter Gregory is the opposite of Noa: rich, privileged, and enjoys a normal life. He is the founder and head of a hacker community called /ALLIANCE/. When digging into some mysterious files about Project Persephone he found in his father's computer, thugs dressed in black invade his house to rough him up, threaten him, and steal his computer. Shocked and dismayed, Peter reaches out to another hacker, who happens to be Noa, to find out more about Project Persephone. Are the two groups the same? What do they want? What is Project Persephone?Don't Turn Around is an exciting, fast paced conspiracy thriller. A lot of people have compared this book to Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because of the hacker elements and Noa's similarity to Lisbeth Salander. There are some similarities, but the two works are inherently different because of the age of the characters, the conspiracy aspect in the YA novel, and the overall tone of both books. Don't Turn Around stands on its own. I enjoyed most of the characters. Noa is my favorite character because of her single minded nature and intelligence. Even when she wakes up completely disoriented and scared, but manages to have the presence of mind and strength to evade and escape her captors. Her ability to put aside her emotions and think clearly to solve whatever problem faces her proves to be invaluable and comes from her background. Peter is much more normal and unused to such extreme situations. He comes from a much more comfortable home life, but the death of his brother basically tore apart his family. Creating /ALLIANCE/ allowed him to help people and punish those abusing power. Both characters strive for the same goal despite their differences and the slight romance between them did not overshadow the larger issues in the book. I had a couple problems with the book. The antagonists are very one dimensional, which makes the main characters seem awesome in comparison. I just felt they needed something extra to make them a little more human. Also, one of my favorite characters is killed and the event only merits a one line mention after the fact. I think it's completely ridiculous to make a great character that the audience would have an attachment to, only to off them in an anticlimactic way that robs any sort of catharsis or real effect. I enjoyed Don't Turn Around. It's kind of like the Love Actually of YA conspiracy thrillers. Each and every character is woven together quite intricately in unexpected ways. The surgeries, experiments, and black clad thugs are linked to Noa and Peter and basically everyone they know and extends even further than any of them expected. I hope Michelle Gagnon continues that theme into the next 2 installments in this series, which I will definitely read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Like Stieg Larsson, Michelle Gagnon keeps the reader interested even with a lot of technical computer terminology. The characters, while young adults, are well drawn and ethical. Now wakes up to find herself on a cold steel table with an IV in her arm. She finds a way to escape from the warehouse complex where she had been held, but has no idea what happened to her. Meanwhile, Peter snoops through his father's desk and computer and begins searching for information about something weird he found on the computer. Soon after, the front door is broken down and thugs take his computer and warn him to stop doing what he is doing.Noa and Peter make contact through their mutual interest and abilities in computer hacking. They work together to find out what happened to Noa and how Peter's father is involved. The pace of the novel is perfect to keep the reader on the edge.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I won an ARC of Don't Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon in a giveaway for free from a blog participating in a Blog Tour- Don't Turn Around was a fantastic read with well rounded characters. I was expecting a little more out of this book, but not a let down at all. This makes for a superb set-up for book two in my opinion and hope to see some of the minor holes filled in. I will be continuing on with this series with high expectations. I can not pinpoint it but something seemed like it was missing.... You could not have asked for more as far as the characters go- 100 percent likable. There was light hints of romance (which was nice and not overdone) and lots of action. If this series heads in the right direction I think it will be a hit. The writing was well paced, smooth, and easy to follow. The book was detailed, but may be not enough in some areas. I like how the book grabs your attention from chapter one. I would recommend Don't Turn Around as a quick- exciting- mystery/thriller and I anticipate the arrival of book two. Don't turn around is a favorite for 2012 and I'm so glad to have won it- Great Addition to my Bookshelves :)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Loved this story because the main character is a kick-_ _ _ female hacker who is a tough and resilient survivor at the center of a mystery involving kidnapped teens. She's not in it alone however - Peter Gregory enlists her aid in checking out an organization, and they discover some interesting things. This is the first book in a trilogy, and I'll definitely be checking out the sequel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Noa’s life consists of two things: computer-hacking and flying under the radar to avoid foster care. So when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with a scar across her chest, she knows it can’t be good. In need of cash after her escape, she accepts a job from Peter, a fellow hacker whose house was raided after he hacked into a website. Determined to find answers, Noa and Peter discover that the same people are after them and stumble upon a secret that threatens both their lives.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Dang you, Michelle Gagnon!A year ago at a lit event, I had the opportunity to hear the author of Don’t Turn Around give her “elevator pitch” for this novel—a 30-second summary designed to hook a potential reader. Michelle Gagnon said, “A sixteen-year-old girl wakes, disoriented, in a hospital bed… in a warehouse. She’s in pain, she has a surgical incision on her chest, and she has no idea why.” That was more than enough to hook this reader. I clamored for the finished product for the next year, and grabbed a copy as soon as I was able.As it turns out, that pitch was just the tip of the iceberg! The teen at the center of this tale is Noa Torson, a young woman that’s become so independent after years in the foster care system that she took the matter of emancipation into her own capable hands. Noa’s been living a quiet life under the radar, making her way using her considerable computer skills to survive—until she’s snatched off the street and drawn into a conspiracy that grows so large that it can’t fit into a single novel! Along the way to uncovering what has happened to her and why, Noa unearths enemies and allies. I’m barely describing the plot because the twists, turns, and discoveries are too delicious to spoil. What I will say is that Ms. Gagnon has created an interesting and well-fleshed cast of characters with which to tell her tale. There is a male protagonist as well, Peter Gregory. This privileged young hacker comes from a different world than Noa, but they may have more in common than they realize. I found myself invested in them from the get go. Yes, Noa does share some characteristics with a well-known Swedish protagonist, but she is very much her own woman. She is also the latest in an encouraging collection of strong female protagonists driving stories that are so propulsive even young men will read them.For better or worse, what has become something of a YA trope, the teen love triangle, is in the process of developing here, but hasn’t reached full fruition quite yet. I don’t have an opinion on that plot element so far, but the mystery at the heart of this tale is an out and out winner. The pacing of this novel is relentless. I keep looking for a novel with Hunger Games-level excitement. This may be as close as I’ve come yet. It’s a full-on, pulse-pounding thriller that can be enjoyed by teens and adults alike. And while book one of this trilogy does have a complete arc, Ms. Gagnon is guilty of doing that horrible thing I freakin’ knew she was going to do—end her novel on a cliff-hanger! And here I am without so much as an elevator pitch to keep me going for the next year. Dang you, Michelle Gagnon!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What an intense ride!The minute I heard about this book I started panting for it. It sounded like a YA Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which I loved. The only thing I didn’t like (about GWTDT) was Larsson’s long, drawn out descriptions, but the stories were great.In Don’t Turn Around we meet Noa, a product of the system who has sworn off foster homes and learned to make it on her own thanks to her amazing hacking abilities. When Noa wakes up on a table with a scar on her chest and an IV in her arm, she has no idea how she got there or why. Since Noa isn’t the type to sit around and just go with it, she kicks ass and escapes, hell-bent on finding out what happened to her. Her research connects her with a fellow hacker named Peter who has troubles of his own. They soon learn that their problems are connected, and that the people after them will do anything to stop them from finding out their secret.I totally loved this book. While there was a lot about Noa that reminded me of Lisbeth Salander, she was still very much her own person. I loved her strength and determination and seeing her vulnerabilities. All of the characters are very well-developed. The plot never disappoints and Ms. Gagnon has expertly balanced the intense action with just the right amount of “down time” to give the reader a chance to catch their breath. I warn you, if you pick up this book, make sure you’ve allowed yourself plenty of time because once you start you can’t stop.Filled with memorable characters, a fast-moving plot and plenty of thrills, Don’t Turn Around is a perfect thriller that is not to be missed. This is definitely one of my favorites of 2012.

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Don't Turn Around - Michelle Gagnon

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