"Pandora Lynch lives in Alaska with her single dad, an online therapist for Silicon Valley's brightest and squirreliest. Homeschooled by computer and a self-taught hacker, Pandora is about to enter high school to learn how to be normal. That's the plan at least. NorCal runaway George Jedson is a hacker too--one who leaves the systems he attacks working better than before. After being scooped up by a social media giant, will George go legit--or pull off the biggest hack ever? Not even his therapist knows for sure, but maybe ...
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"Pandora Lynch lives in Alaska with her single dad, an online therapist for Silicon Valley's brightest and squirreliest. Homeschooled by computer and a self-taught hacker, Pandora is about to enter high school to learn how to be normal. That's the plan at least. NorCal runaway George Jedson is a hacker too--one who leaves the systems he attacks working better than before. After being scooped up by a social media giant, will George go legit--or pull off the biggest hack ever? Not even his therapist knows for sure, but maybe the headshrinker's daughter... After meeting in cyberspace, the two young hackers combine their passions to conceive a brainchild named BUZZ. Can this baby AI learn to behave, or will it be like its parents and think outside the box?"--Provided by publisher.
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When two hackers join forces to help stop social-media led suicide rates - but how do you teach an AI about the value of human life and how to preserve it?
Buzz Kill really intrigued me by its blurb but ended up confusing me in its execution. The first 30% I found a weird mixture of amusing and sad. I enjoyed learning about Pandora and her father Roger and I found the description of her and her school life quite funny in places. We then learn about her grandmother Gladys who is suffering from dementia, which is where the book takes a turn into the depressing. The subject is heartbreakingly written but I did find it compelling reading that kept my interest.
It was when we start to learn about George and his job at Quire and the creation of the AI called Buzz that I started to find the book becoming a bit of a slog. Although I have a bit of understanding of coding and didn't really find it too technically difficult to understand, it just gave the impression that the author was just trying showing off how clever he could sound. I didn't find it very engaging to be frank and found it hard to have the impetus to pick it up and read it, despite the lack of other distractions in Quarantine! The only bits I enjoyed reading in the latter half of the book was the rest of the chapters on Gladys but even they started to get too repetitive. I found the ending confusing and there were some serious unanswered questions from about ¾ of the book which weren't even resolved at the end (no spoilers).
There are serious topics of suicide and dementia which are explored well and I enjoyed the banter between the two main characters. Pandora is particular is interesting and well-rounded and I enjoyed the fact she has a hyper-expressive face that can't hide how she feels. I didn't really get how old she was supposed to be -she starts off the book at school but the subject of her education seems to drop off by the middle of the book and her intellect and experience seems a lot higher than than 14/15 (?) she is supposed to be. I also found it odd that George's company doesn't keep more of an eye on him, content for him to just do nothing for weeks. We learn a lot about his boss as well that seems to come to nothing in the end.
Overall, I found Buzz Kill to be initially interesting but came to a disappointing and confusing conclusion with far too many unanswered questions. Thank you to NetGalley & 47North for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
