Immoral Code by Lillian Clark

40610706Today is the release day for Immoral Code by Lillian Clark.  I have a love-hate relationship with this novel.  

 I received an e-mail for the advanced copy at the beginning of the year.  I was instantly drawn in by their tagline: "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." 

 Should have been suspicious at the 8 instead of 11, but I was completely focused on The Breakfast Club--easily one of my favorite movies.  I didn't read the synopsis much further than that when I clicked the request button.  It took awhile for the request to be approved, and I mostly forgot what the story was all about by the time the ARC hit my inbox.  

 I really need to read synopses in much further detail before I request books.  It bites me in the butt when I don't.  Hence the love-hate relationship.  

 This is a story told from five different perspectives.  The author does an okay job of achieving unique character voice in this style.  Most of the chapters really just feel like more of the same voice, the kids are not that unique from one another.  (But I honestly feel that this is true teenage mindset, so not a disaster point in my opinion.)

 There was plenty of action and drama to keep the story line from getting stagnant.  I didn't have trouble with the grammatical writing.  I had trouble with the concepts and lessons presented.  I understand it is Immoral Code, and it is about hacking and theft, but I figured there would be a correlating message.

 Points I loved:

  • Keagan's moral compass
  • Keagan's battle with being moral in a group of amoral idiots
  • Keagan and the conservation he has with his dad
  • Bellamy's logical viewpoint on life and the emotional complications that come from being logical 100 percent of the time

Points I hated:
  • Nari
  • Keagan's relationship with Nari
  • Reese
  • Santiago
  • The amount of diversity pandering
  • The resolution of the story
  • Stance on regret

I honestly never would have requested this title had I read through the synopsis better.  It is not in a genre that I read or have any wish to read.  At times, it was a struggle to get through the novel, but there were bright points that made me give it a chance.  Before I knew it, I was at the end of the book struggling with how I was going to come up with a review.

There are good things that can be garnered from the book, but on an overall scale, I think it has more negatives than positives on what an impressionable young person will walk away with.  Therefore, I won't recommend it.  I'll just put my opinion out there, and then you'll do whatever you feel best suits your needs.

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