Dear Friends,
I recently finished the book, Trackers by Patrick Carmen. I started reading this book as a free reading book, something to keep my mind busy. Then I liked it so much I had to write my letter essay on it. I rated this book a seven out of ten stars because while it was good and had a very interesting plotline, with lots of twists and surprises, it used a lot of technological words that most people wouldn’t understand. I had to look up many words, which I didn’t like because it takes away from the story if I have to look up a word every two pages. It slowed down as the book reached the end, but because they used the same words or more understandable synonyms. Other than that, it was a very enjoyable book.
Throughout the book, the character development for the main character stopped after about the first seven-ten chapters. It started back up again in only the last couple of chapters. The other characters, important people but not the main character, continued to grow and change throughout the story.. In the beginning, you learn about the main character, Adam, and how he got into computers at a very young age. It also explains how he came to meet his friends, Finn, Lewis, and Emily. You would expect people like Adam, Lewis, and Emily to hang out together because they are all tech-savvy people, but Adam really only met Lewis and Emily because he and Finn ran into each other one day at school. The four of them hung out all the time after that.
One of my favorite quotes from this book is:
“Lazlo wasn’t about to make it that easy. We weren’t going to step right in and run the place. Sure, we’d proved ourselves, but not enough. Not nearly enough.
I don’t understand.
We had to prove ourselves one last time.
A test?
Yeah, a test.”
This quote stood out to me because not only had they tracked these people using the internet and pure intelligence. Now even though they had clearly shown how intellectual they could be and how familiar they are with tracking technologically, they still had to prove themselves worthy to join this group that Lazlo ran, with his first recruit, Zara, to help him, the ISD. The ISD worked to stop Shantorian, an infamous hacker. They needed the help of the Trackers, but they didn’t feel quite comfortable letting them in even though the trackers had the ability to, in essence, shut down the internet, yet they still decided to put them through one more test, push their limits a little bit farther. I was thinking that they were going to crack. I was wrong, and the tests turned out to be one of the best parts.
I loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a very tech-y book. This book’s author, Patrick Carman, is also the writer of the Skeleton Creek, and Trackers is like Skeleton Creek in that they both come with videos posted online that go with the story. This was a great book and I enjoyed it a lot, even with all the confusing words.
Sincerely,
Emilie Hulse
