The cool thing about this being the third in the YA hacktivist series is this has the benefit of hindsight in both the real world divergence from its fiction, as well as the events of previous books also having aged for a while. The result, I think, actually augments the previous books for me because I did feel they were slightly idyllic—but I read them this year, not when they were published. And this book confronts those notions while also nurturing, through a different tactic, the same ethos found particularly in the first book. Where kids were educating each other on how to not be surveilled and technology was in a place where they could pretty much mask themselves. Today, that’s not really the case. If you’re under targeted surveillance… it’s pretty much over. You’ll slip up at some point. It is not a final solution, or even a realistic one; doubly so for the average consumer.

But the techniques and reasons to shirk the surveillance state exist still, and perhaps for even more reason, because now the people who read these books when young, as the author mentions in the afterward, are now working in tech sector jobs and can Vote! This storyline reflects the growing up and changes the world of Marcus has undergone, but it centres the mmm… not quite villain who pops up in the last two - but morally compromised and the opposite in rhetoric to Marcus, pretty much. This was the exact right book for this series and really works to retrofit the previous books, as we get a duel timeline situation with her past, as well as the moral quandaries she still navigates.

She’s smart, she’s not too far from other girls but certainly badass. And she’s got the viewpoint I think many people in the sector will have doing her work, so her obstacle and quandary is very relatable. Again, though, the writing is certainly YA and as such feels like it explains things very well, but often repeatedly—or more like… dumbed down after it just explained something. It’s a technique you’ll be familiar with if you’ve read the previous books. There will be a technical explanation that has good information design and then the person who already understands the thing clearly, starts explaining it for a laymen. This sometimes is really helpful and sometimes really annoying. Together with the basic writing style, the character work and themes shine through, but the prose always feels, at its best, unobtrusive.