Somehow managed to be predictable.

Let me start by saying I wanted to like this. I really wanted to. I tried so very hard to like the main character, or at the very least not dislike him. Yet there I sat hours later and still nothing. I couldn’t do it. I wanted to feel bad for him. I wanted to care. This book left me feeling empty. Not the enjoyable reflective type of empty but the “what have I done with all that time” empty.

The Chaos of Now was such a pleasant surprise to read. T be entirely honest, I hadn't remembered requesting it, so I was not looking forward to diving in, but I was really pleased with the entire novel, and I would recommend it to those who love this kind of book.

This was a quick read, but I struggled to connect to any part of the story. A lot of difficult topics were discussed, which I think will be conversation starters.

To be honest, I skimmed the last 100 pages or so of this book. I didn't find the writing to be that engaging, I wasn't emotionally connected to the characters and overall I didn't like it that much. This one was definitely a miss for me.

This was a very interesting story. I quite enjoyed the relationship between the different characters as well as the tech aspects. I did feel like there were times the main character was more of a jerk to his stop-mom than he needed to be. It did deal with important topics, like bullying and suicide. The things it showed about internet and social media culture is very relevant to what we are currently going through.

I received an eARC via Netgalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Let's give some praise to the author for a moment on how relatable she made her characters. The attention to social media and the character's attachment to technology was spot on. I think she did a good job with this because teenagers nowadays are always glued to their phones or their tablets or some other kind of device. This book address subjects such as bullying, suicide, monitoring social media. This book is definitely a page-turner and if you're wowed by the end of this book then you're missing something. In this book, a boy commits suicide at school by lighting himself on fire. The book starts one year later on the anniversary of his death and Eli realizes all these people are saying all these wonderful things about the boy but they didn't even know him. This book will definitely catch your attention. I highly recommend it.

Lots to unpack here. We've got explorations of bullying, cuber culture, and responsibility, protecting teens and personal freedom. The fine line between hactivism and simple criminal behavior. The fine line between defending yourself and becoming a bully. So lots going on and it could inspire some great discussions with a group of teens. That's where I see the value in this one: in a group setting . The characters are maybe two dimensional and the plot isn't always sensible. It drops into moments of sensationalism. It does make some important points and has some really positive moments. The secondary plot of the dad's girlfriend is fairly well developed.

I enjoyed this one, even if some parts were a little farfetched to me. I think it will be a good book to recommend to students who enjoy STEM fields and coding.

My students are asking for books without clear heroes/villains. This fits the bill. When a student, Bishop, is cyberbullied, he commits suicide in a very public way at his high school. Two of his friends contact our protagonist to help create a website to both honor his memory and impress the judges at a cyber competition. We are plunged into a debate over what bullying is, what free speech really means and issues of personal responsibilities. Characters are decently well rounded or at least avoid obvious stereotypes for the most part. Feels very current. Okay for middle school, with the caveat that suicide and its fallout is a major theme.

REVIEW
Hacker culture is explored in The Chaos of Now. It's a book about both finding your place, but also getting in too deep. This intriguing coming of age story will interest fans of Adam Silvera.

AUTHOR
Erin Jade Lange is the author of Rebel, Bully, Geek, Pariah; Dead Ends; and Butter, an ABC New Voices selection. As a journalist, she is inspired by current events and real-world issues and uses her writing to explore how those issues impact teenagers. Erin lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Visit her online at www.butterslastmeal.com and @erinjadelange.

This book surprised me, and not necessarily in a good way. I was unsure what to expect, as I had never read a book concerning coding and hacking before, and I was especially wary of the bullying aspect of the novel. Bullying, albeit a serious topic, often gets treated in a manner by adults which makes it clear they have no real understanding of how bullying actually occurs in this day and age. While this book took pains to make it clear that actions on the Internet can have disastrous consequences, I feel like it lost its message along the way. Overall, I was left unimpressed and with a sour taste in my mouth.

For starters, the narrator was extremely unlikable – and not in a useful way. Filled with nerdy teenage angst and sexual frustration, I felt no attachment to him. At times, he was just plain mean. The humor on display was immature and very forced, and I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with hearing these men talk. Furthermore, there was a lot of anti-sex work rhetoric and objectification of women that was infuriating. Like, we get it, you’re in love with the hot girl in your Spanish class who will never notice you much less speak to you – I’ve heard it all before. And there were moments where suicide was being painted as a selfish act, which is just unacceptable to present to young readers.

While there was interesting commentary on free speech and social media usage, I have to question how well it will resonate with a generation born and bred on technology. The situation was so outlandish I couldn’t suspend my belief far enough. However, the book was surprisingly not overwhelmed with coding jargon, which I was impressed by. I think there is a good audience out there for this book, but I was simply not it.

Things I enjoyed about this book: 

I love the fact that Erin Jade Lange tackles such a prevalent topic bullying. Anti-bullying is my jam so I was super excited to pre-read this book! I also enjoyed that coding was the a main concept in this book, it's not the norm to have some as "nerdy" as coding in a novel. 

The Things I Didn’t Enjoy: 

The Chaos of Now had so many parts that felt far-fetched. It was hard to believe every twist and turn. There were times when it was hard to connect with the characters. I couldn't tell if it was because of ME or because of the writing. 

MRS BIRDS WORDS REVIEW

Erin Jade Lange deserves 3 out of 5 bird feathers for her novel The Chaos of Now. I truly wanted to give this book 4 feathers, but the lack of reality really pulled me back. The plot felt slow in  a few places. I truly loved that The Chaos of Now was littered with coding talk. I appreciated the hard subjects tackled including suicide and bullying. I think these are subjects that need to be talked about. The one relationship that I did love was the main character, Eli and his father's girlfriend. For some reason, I was excited every time they interacted. I don't often read a book and think, " I'd definitely recommend this for a boy." I do think many boys would find it interesting. With that said, I think girls would enjoy it too- perhaps just more relatable because of the three male protagonists not because its about coding... Girls should code!  Overall, I'd recommend it but would be prepared for some literary stretching. 

Parent’s Guide:

Swearing, sex, crime, and suicide. It would make a great conversation starter to read with your teen and discuss! 

©CLVB2018



http://mrsbirdswords.com/2018/09/05/the-chaos-of-now/

Thank you to Netgalley for the free advanced copy.
I had a difficult time connecting with the main character, which in turn made this a hard book to finish. Based on the synopsis, the book centers on the emerging issues concerning cybermonitors and dealing with bullying. As bullying has moved farther and farther into our personal lives via many forms of technology, this is a pressing topic that does need to be examined. The author does a good job showing the potential failings of cybermonitoring without appearing too one sided, but some of her examples are so extreme that it takes away from the message.
The main characters are written as true to life teenagers. Similarly, the family life depicted feels authentic. The author clearly has a talent at developing believable characters with each having their own quirks and unique personalities. However, I still felt that this book fell somewhat flat, especially considering the topics should have stirred more emotion. Overall, I gave this three out of five stars.

First of all, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of The Chaos of Now by Erin Jade Lange in exchange for an honest review!

After much deliberation, I decided to give this book 3/5 stars. I had a difficult time staying interested with this book, but I'm glad I read it because it focuses around important topics such as bullying and mental illness. The age recommendation I saw was 14+, but I'm not sure that I would recommend this book to patron's that are that young in my library, as some of the book is very graphic. I debated on giving The Chaos of Now 4 stars, but the ending knocked it down to 3 for me, I wish the author would have given me a little more!

Eli Bennett is a Sophomore at Haver High. He doesn't consider himself popular, or anything really- he's just Eli. He's getting through school by putting in minimal effort and spends most of his time in front of his computer. Eli is a teen hacker, and very good at it. He's frustrated, along with many other people in his school, when new laws are put in effect after his classmate, Jordan Bishop, commits suicide after relentless online bullying. Eli is approached by two classmates, Seth and Mouse, who also spend their time coding and hacking. They ask Eli to join their team in a coding competition, and he quickly accepts so they can get to work. Eli soon realizes that winning the competition isn't the only thing Seth and Mouse are after. The two boys had been friends with Jordan prior to him committing suicide, and their ultimate goal is to expose and humiliate anyone who contributed to his death. Things start off seemingly innocent, but quickly spiral out of control. Lives are changed forever and Eli realizes he may be in over his head.

Gave up a fourth of the way through the book. Just didn't thoroughly capture my interest. Gave up a fourth of the way through the book. Just didn't thoroughly capture my interest.

Do you ever think about how much you don't know? Like, for example, the internet . . . I mean, I had to take a compulsory coding class in library school, but yeah . . . surface level right there. Not even scratched surface level, digging in towards encryption and security with a nail file.
On one level this book is about teen suicide, bullying, avenge/revenge, first amendment rights, and what happens when a school seeks to take away student rights. But there is this other part where the consideration of parents having no idea what a child can do online. I like the story from this point of view. That is more of a 4-star story . . . the other parts are sort of run of the mill YA, but that's new territory and a worthwhile read.

I found the Eli's story to be very interesting and certainly a timely topic. While there is not really "action" the plot does continue to move you through the narrative and wondering what will happen next either with Eli, Seth, and Mouse, or Eli's friendship with Zach, or his budding romance with Isabel. I'm not sure I'm totally satisfied with the ending, but I enjoyed the story overall.

Thank you for this early copy!

I would recommend this to anyone who loves a well-written young adult novel. It was interesting read,

This was a thought-provoking read that shows the ambiguous gray areas with topics of bullying/cyber bullying. Specifically, the protagonist receives an intriguing invitation to join a team of hackers to enter a competition, and one of the components is a "real-life" hacking challenge. The two team members proposition their new recruit to help them launch an anonymous website that allows the "underdog" to humiliate those on top of the social food chain (and were complicit in the graphic/public suicide of their friend the year prior). However, the main character wrestles with moral misgivings after seeing the aftermath of the public shamings., as they continue to escalate. What was once billed as "vigilante justice" has now spiraled, and there is a lot more to the story than first appears. Do the two hackers responsible for recruiting the other operate with pure intentions or do they have more sinister deeds to atone for? This story definitely deals with heavy subject matter (bullying, suicide, sexual shaming), and has moments that make you think and even feel uncomfortable. I suppose everyone can find some aspect to relate to, and you find yourself questioning your part in social interactions. The story makes the point that those that are the obvious malicious players aren't the only ones who work toward tearing others down; those that stand by, see it and fail to act are as well.