Review: Zero Day by Jan Gangsei

Zero Day by Jan Gangsei

First Published: January 12th 2016
Published by: Disney-Hyperion

Source: ARC
Genres: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary, Cyber-Terrorism

   

This book had me since the first page. It’s full of mystery and suspense to keep you on edge for the whole 360. There is the right amount of crime and drama to lure anyone in. I love double crossing and espionage in general. This book had just a fascinating premise and kept my fascination all the way through the book.

There was never a dull moment in the book, the plot kept on going that it was hard for me to take a breath between one chapter and the next. When we learn more about what Addie was doing those eight years, I really wish it was developed better. We only know a few things but we have no insight on how Addie learned her skills at all. Just on who did. I wish we could’ve known more of Addie’s past due to the fact I believe it would be epic. I still have plenty of questions, and with the way book one ended, I’m expecting a book 2.

I feel that this story would be better told in first person. My main reason for this is because there wasn’t much character development. If the story was told in first person, there would be a greater chance for us to know Addie better. Otherwise, it was hard to connect/understand any other of the characters as they were all one dimensional. There were a lot of character and little page time for each. I would’ve cut down on some characters. I still don’t know most characters motives, I don’t know why they do what they do and in the cases which the author introduced the why, it was just a statement. There was little elaboration on the character actions in my opinion. Which leave to my previous expectation, book 2, to allow Jan Gangsei more pages to elaborate these characters. The multiple-POV would still work, just it would be so much better in first person.

I loved Addies development through the book. She burns down her barriers and starts to let others in. By doing so, she allowed space to reconsider her actions. This made the book a whole it more interesting. If more was elaborated, I feel that the book would have had a greater emotional impact on me as a reader. I definitely would have felt something more for Darrow when said things happened to him, but i didn’t.

I love that Jan Gangsei took in this cyber story. Cyber terrorism and espionage is not commonly done in YA so its very fun to read. With this book, I opened my eyes a bit more to political problems in the cyber world, Ill certainly be paying more attention to such things from now on. I would certainly recommend this book to thriller fans interesting in cyber infiltration’s, but it could use some work. Even as it is, Zero Day is a pretty great book!