Friend Me by Sheila Averbuch
The Hook:
Roisin has moved from Ireland to Boston because her mom got a new job working on an Artificial Intelligence project. Roisin is super unhappy about the move. The kids make fun of her because of her accent, her mom is ALWAYS working, and a girl named Zara is bullying her both in person as well as online—in fact, a lot of kids are ganging up on her with social media. She tries to ignore them as much as possible but it’s hard. She finds a lifeline in a girl named Hailey who she meets online. Haley seems like a true friend who listens and understands her struggles and gives her advice on how to cope.
When Zara has a very scary, mysterious accident where she winds up in the hospital, it makes Roisin think back to some of the things she and Hailey talked about online. She starts to wonder if Hailey really is who she says she is or is she someone more dangerous?
For a great mystery with a twist at the end, you gotta read Friend Me.
This book is in our library. It’s also in Sora as an ebook. It is 7 AR points.
My Thoughts and Recommendations (Careful! There Could Be Spoilers!):
I give this book 4.4 stars. While most of it is predictable there is a little twist in the end. I wasn’t sure whether to put this in mysteries or science fiction, but I settled on mysteries for fear of giving away the ending.
At the beginning of the story, Roisin visits a tech store where a man puts an app on her friends. The reader sees right away that her new online friend is not going to be who they say they are online even though Roisin does not clue in immediately. But the twist is that it’s not a real person on the other end but AI that has gone out of control even with the app's designers. I like that this is timely subject with all the news lately of AI taking over the world. I think readers will experience the creepiness and horror as Roisin realizes she is baring her sole to someone who is not who they say they are.
I would recommend this for anyone in 5th-8th grade. It is a great mystery and science fiction novel rolled into one. It is 272 pages so a medium sized book that will appeal to all.
