DNF at 32%. Too aware of its own attempted cleverness for me to continue with it. Also, if this forty something reviewer finds the pop culture references dated, how will actual teens view it? (Although maybe what's dated is now new again?!)

After working for years and finally achieving her dream of MIT, Bellamy thought she was shut out, because her estranged father was too wealthy and had not offered to help with tuition. Nari hoped to right this wrong using her hacking skills, as she and the rest of their friends embarked on this morally grey mission.

I am starting with a warning: This book features five points of view. I see many readers lament about too many POVs, but I thought Clark did a good job keeping them distinct. There was only one chapter, where I thought Reese didn't sound like herself, but other than that, I easily distinguished between each character, and I must say, this was quite an interesting bunch of people.

I loved how they all brought something intriguing to the table. From a desire to explore space to Olympic dreams, I found myself wanting to learn more about these teens. And, they also were all dealing with common issues - divorce, parental expectations, panic about the future, romantic relationships, and such. I liked that these things were included, and felt like woven into the overall story quite well.

From the synopsis, you would think this book was all about the Ocean's 11 style heist, and it did occupy quite a bit of the book, but what drew me in and kept me there, was the beautiful friendship shared between them. How many of your friends would commit a felony for you? That's some fierce loyalty.

Another thing I really liked was the outcome of the mission. They went into it, ready to get the MIT money, but each of them gained something intangible as a result of this challenge. All of them changed in some way, and so did the group dynamic, and I think all the changes were very positive.

Overall: A solid debut highlighted by a fierce friendship.

I can't put my finger on what I didn't love about this book but it just wasn't for me. It had a good story, but the writing or characters some how fell flat. I do think that some of my students might enjoy it, it just didn't grab me at this moment in time. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I love a good heist book and 2019 truly seems to be the year of heist books but unfortunately, Immoral Code was not everything I wanted it to be. It’s the kind of book that has good bones but ultimately, neither the writing style nor the pacing worked for me.

The entire time I was reading the book, the characters voices felt sort of inauthentic? But upon reflection I don’t think the fact that they were all self-aware makes them inauthentic, I am an extremely self-aware human being, but I think self-awareness doesn’t always translate as well in writing. This book is written in a very free, stream-of-consciousness style and yes, human beings constantly think that way but also, I don’t want to hear every single thought an MC has.

Throw in 5 povs and it’s basically just confusion galore. I was at least a quarter of the way into the book before I was able to even differentiate whose chapter was whose. WHICH, YES, the heading tells you which character it is BUT STILL. They all read EXACTLY the same. It took me a while to figure out who was in charge, who the crew was committing the heist for, etc.

SPEAKING OF THE HEIST. I was pretty fucking sad that most of the book is actually planning for the heist/getting to the location. The heist itself doesn’t take place until about the 65% mark (based on where I was at in the kindle version) and was honestly not nearly as exciting as I wanted it to be.

There is also a lot of unnecessary drama that could have easily been avoided if the characters, who have been best friends for a long time, just did the bare minimum and COMMUNICATED WITH EACH OTHER. One of the characters is really having a hard time wrapping his head around the moral implications of what they are going to do. He agreed to be part of the heist (which he shouldn’t have) but then has second thoughts. No one takes even a minute to have an open conversation with him about what is going to happen. Everyone is defensive and accusations are thrown and feelings are hurt. ALL OF THIS COULD HAVE BEEN SO EASILY AVOIDED it hurt.

I really don’t have anything good to say about this book aside from the fact that it was tolerable enough that I got to the end and didn’t hate the ending (but also felt that the ending made everything feel pointless.) I don’t think Immoral Code is even an inherently bad book. I personally had a lot of issues with the stream-of-consciousness writing style which made it a lot harder to enjoy the book.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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It's their senior year, their lives are stretching out before them, this incredibly close group of five friends are preparing for graduation, college, etc. -- even (not that they'll confront this quite yet) living without each other. They all excel in one or two ways -- one's a hacker/activist, one's an artist, one's got a real shot at the Olympics -- etc. One is a physics genius (or close enough to a genius to count) who was admitted early to MIT. But there's a catch. She can't afford it. Her mom works two jobs to help the two of them barely make it and her dad hasn't been in her life since he was a poor student and impregnated her mom. Since then he's gone on to become one of the richest of the rich. The kind of rich that people really can't believe exists. So when MIT looks at her financial aid, they roll their eyes and move on to the next student.

Not content to shake their heads sadly at injustice, her friends come up with a plan to hack into her dad's company and skim a little bit of money. Not enough that he'd ever notice -- just enough to pay tuition for a year. Their hacker friend is good, but not good enough to break in remotely -- she has to be physically in touch with the network -- for just a few seconds. Like the tagline on the cover says, "Payback is a glitch." So over Spring Break they take a little road trip -- bigger than their families know -- to get access to the network. It's going to take a lot of nerve, some real disregard for the law, and their combined talents to pull this off.

The question they don't really consider until it's too late isn't what will happen if they fail (although, they all could think of that more), it's what happens if they succeed?

On the whole, I haven't seen many people classifying this as a Crime Novel, despite the Heist story at the core. It's definitely not a thriller. Because the Heist story is just an excuse to talk about friendship, figuring your life out, the pressure on teens to know what they want the next few decades to be about (not the same as the previous item on the list), the complicated relationship that exists between parents and their teens on the cusp of adulthood, and the hugeness of the moment where you leave home/family/friends to start the next phase of your life. Oh, also, morality. Somehow Clark does all that while telling a fast-moving, funny, and heart-felt story.

Which is not to say that the Heist story isn't important, or well executed. And you can read the book just for the Heist. But you'll miss out on a lot -- and you'll probably wonder why I rated this so highly. As fun as the Heist/prep for the Heist is, the heart of the book is the rest.

Each chapter jumps between first-person narration from each kid, keeping things moving nicely. There's plenty to like/identify with in each character. You learn a lot about them as individuals, them as friends, and generally them as children (not that much about them as students, oddly). They're so well-drawn, I'm sure what I respond to in one character or another will not be the same as what another reader responds to. There is one character who serves as the group's Jiminy Cricket -- their vocal and ever-present conscience. Like Jiminy, the character is ignored a lot and fought against. But I appreciated them -- the voice of moral reason, the one trying to save the others from themselves, the only one who demonstrated a sense of right and wrong, not just about what feels right.

The writing is breezy, engaging -- no matter whose POV you're reading. Clark did a fantastic job differentiating the characters, giving them all a unique voice so that you don't even have to pay attention to the indicator at the beginning of the chapter to know whose voice is telling that particular chapter. Now, as each chapter is told from the Point of View of a teenager, and fairly realistically done, that means you have to check your inner grammarian at the door -- so much of this book can drive you around the bend if you don't.

The novel is engaging, it's beyond that really -- it's infectious.There were several points during reading that I asked myself why I was enjoying it as much as I was. Not that I thought I should dislike it, but I liked it a lot more than I should have. I don't mind that I did, I'm just not sure I understand why. I'm just going to chalk it up to Lillian Clark being a very good author -- someone you should check out, starting with her debut, Immoral Code.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Random House Children's Books via NetGalley in exchange for this post -- thanks to both for this.

Posted to Goodreads: Bellamy has spent her whole life trying to be a success so she can help her struggling single mother. Bellamy can finally see the payoff of all her hard work with her acceptance to MIT but when she is denied financial aid because of her wealthy estranged father her friends decide that they can help her. The group lead by Bellamy's hacker best friend, Nari, decide that they will pull off a heist to skim money from Bellamy's father to help her dreams come true.

I loved the premise of this book but the execution just didn't work for me. There felt like there were way too many characters and that they weren't really distinct enough for me to keep them straight. Also, the narrative voice, while unique, definitely needed editing with the characters often going off on tangents that didn't move the plot along at all. I did enjoy aspects of the heist however that was not enough to save this book for me.

I really enjoyed this book. I love that they had charcters from a variety of backgrounds. The story line was superb and I could really identify with the charcters. I really found San and Nari to be my favorite charcters. Bellamy was the one I identified with. Her struggle was very real and is a huge problem within gmanynfamilies in America. The book can be for many different age levels. It was a great read.

This was such a fun, masterful, heart warming YA take on a heist novel! I adored Nari, Bellamy, Reese, Santiago, and Keagan as narrators, each with their own unique voice and hopes and dreams. This took a few unexpected turns and kept me hooked until the last page.

For me, good Young Adult thrillers (I guess you would classify this as one) are hard to come by. This has been one of the exceptions. The heist, while some may think it is petty or unrealistic, is exactly the opposite of those things. The writing paired with the story made for an entertaining story from start to finish.

This was a great book. All the characters are well written and the storyline is fantastic. I loved how each of the main characters had their own issues and quirks and the way they came together as a team to help Bellamy after her dad’s (who has never acknowledged her) fortune prevents her from obtaining the financial aid she needs to attend the college of her dreams. From start to finish this was a great read!

Its been a long time since I've read a book where the characters in the book are written as real as they come. Jist of the plot - 5 friends in the mist of their senior year of high school plan to hack into the bank accounts of a super wealthy entrepreneur to get some petty case to pay tution for one of their own who just happens to be the entrepreneur's son. These kids are not spoiled in anyway shape or form and this is the first time in a long time that I have liked every character in a ensenmble book!

Thank you so much NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This is a story about five teens in the Spring of their Senior year deciding to help one of their group scam her absentee father for the amount of money she needs to go to school at MIT. The kids are all bright, articulate, and best friends.

Nari is a computer genius who has a secret identity as a hacker. She intents to go to college and then have a career at one of the big computer/tech companies. She a self-confident steamroller who has the force of personality to get the rest of the kids to buy into her plan.

Keagan is Nari's boyfriend. He is unique in the group for not knowing what his future will bring. He has no big career plans. He does have a firm sense of tight and wrong which brings him into conflict with the rest of the kids. His parents are this century's version of hippies.

Reese is an artist and independent sort. She self-identifies as acearo which was a new sexual category for me. She dramatic and is dealing with parents who are on the verge of divorce. Her plans are to use the money she's made from her Etsy account to travel the world until the money runs out. After that, art school in New York.

Santiago is a diver who has very real Olympic hopes. He's been accepted at Stanford with a diving scholarship. His parents are Hispanic immigrants who are urging him to give up his Olympic dreams for a more practical future.

Bellamy is a genius who is fascinated with physics and space exploration and most of the other scientific "ologies." She and her mother are poor. Her mother had had at seventeen and has been working two jobs to support her all of Bells' life. She has an early acceptance at MIT but her dreams crash when the financial aid forms come back with no money. The father she's never met and who has paid minimal child support in exchange for no contact has done really well for himself. He owns a venture capital company and is a billionaire.

Nari hatches a plan to skim enough money from his company to pay for Bells' college. After he hangs up on her when she steels herself to contact him, Bells okays the plan.

This story mostly tells about their plans and the stresses it puts on all their relationships as the plan and execute the heist. It talks about how the experience helped each of the kids grow and change. While I did get a little tired of the teen-age banter, each character was distinct and their voice clear and convincing. Each chapter is narrated by a different one of the five characters which gives the reader a change to get to know them all.

Fans of heists and bright kids will enjoy this book. It is also a great picture of the lengths people will go to help their friends.

I am so disappointed that I didn't like this one. This sounds right up my alley and definitely fits in with my reading trends over the last few months. I think the plot of the novel is fantastic and unique, however, the execution just didn't do it for me.

The 5 POVs were way too much for me. I also didn't like how jarring it was to go from one to another. Large amounts of time passed between one character's point of view to another's and it was really hard to keep the timeline straight. I also didn't like the voice or attitude of two of our five MCs so that made everything else really difficult. I couldn't tell the difference between the characters' POVs sometimes either, which didn't mesh well with the confusing timeline.

I think the characterization was the major problem for me. Besides what's listed above, I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters. I needed to fall in love with each of these characters and sadly I didn't fall in love with any of them. It's really hard to make five distinct voices while also making the reader invested in them.

I think this would've been more successful with fewer POVs. I still loved the plot and idea, I just wish it was executed better.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Random House through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.*

Bellamy has worked hard to get into MIT and with her single working mother, she is certain to get enough financial aide to help her go there. However, when the school incorporates the salary of Bellamy’s non-existent father, she no longer qualifies for any aid. Bellamy’s friends won’t stand for it. Nari uses her computer hacking skills to orchestrate the best money-making scheme ever. With the help of their group of friends, Nari is able to skim money off of Bellamy’s father’s company and put it in a secure account for her college. Keagan, Nari’s boyfriend, is starting to have second thoughts, will this group of friends be able to keep it together long enough to complete their plan.

I was not a big fan of the characters. Each character felt over-the-top. I found myself frustrated with the plot.

Immoral Code by Lillian Clark (February 19)
Overview: Five teens- one big heist. A group of friends band together to commit the ultimate in hacking to siphon off enough money to send their friend Bell to college at MIT. Because of her absent father's immense wealth, Bell gets rejected for financial aid at the school of her dreams. Not that her father is agreeing to pay any part of tuition, or even acknowledge her existence. Outraged at this, Nari, coding genius, creates a plan to play Robin Hood and ropes their other friends into risking jail time for Bell's dream. Will they pull off a job that would be ambitious for a team of professional hackers and con men or will they face the steep consequences and ruin five lives? Overall: 4

Characters: 4 There are a lot of characters to take the stage, and they're each uniquely themselves. Bells is a science genius with a bright future despite having to fight against the near poverty her father sunk her and her mother into when he abandoned them when they were still in high school. Bells wants to earn enough money to one day support herself and her mother.
Nari is a coding master. She can manipulate computers like no one else. Her boyfriend Kegan is her perfect counterbalance. Nari is going to take over the world, and Kegan doesn't know where he fits in it yet. All of his friends have their own drive, but he's not even sure if he wants to go to college. I like how that narrative was played out, and it was a good reminder that not everyone has to have life figured out from the jump.
Finally, there's Reese and Santiago. Reese is acearo, even though she's treated like the school slut based on her died hair and out-there clothes. She's learning what her identity means to her while also coping with having discovered her mother's affair. Her family relationship is most explored, and, while it doesn't get too deep, it definitely adds to her character arch.
Santiago is a state champion diver with a full scholarship to Stanford. It sounds like his life is perfect and his parents should be so proud. Instead, they're barely speaking to him because he wants to try his diving talents at the Olympics. While his parents believe why fail at being extraordinary when you can be extraordinary at being ordinary, Santiago is ready to reach for the stars, but he has to prove to himself that his parent's doubt is unfounded first.

Plot: 4 While it is a heist story, the plot to take the money takes a backseat to the stories of friendship. I loved getting to see how they interacted as a group and then how they worked with each other as individuals. Even though they might have gotten off a little easy when their plans hit snags, it's a fun story with some laugh out loud moments.

Writing: 4 I thought that Clark did a nice job balancing an ambitious five POV story. Each of their prospectives were unique, and they helped you get more familiar with each character. I loved how individually motivated they all are and how these motives manage to intersect.

Whew. Reading this book really did transport me back to high school, how fast my mind prattled, how ideas just flowed out of me, how friends seemed to think just as fast and furious, creative and curious. It was a bit tiring as a 44-year-old to suddenly emerge out of my 17-year-old self. I remember all that energy.

Friends Nari, Keagan, Reese, Santiago, and Bellamy are high school friends. They have an all-for-one and one-for-all kind of bond.

Bellamy is admitted to MIT and because it is need-blind, she doesn't have to worry about paying tuition. That's a good thing because Bellamy and her mother have struggled to make ends meet ever since her sperm donor dad refused to acknowledge his part. And then kaboom. MIT submits paperwork to her father for her financial aid.. Well, her "Dad" is loaded and I mean, SO loaded. And so MIT determines she doesn't need financial aid. And although she has never reached out to him, Bellamy finds his number and calls. Her father simply hangs up. And just like that, Bellamy's future disappears.

Nari, an accomplished hacker, dreams up a scheme to get just a tiny fraction of Foster's money diverted to an account Bellamy can access for tuition. But it takes all of them and all of their skills to make it happen. They all know this could land all of them in prison, but they believe in Nari's skills. It's an amazing level of trust.

Is that trust misplaced? Will they be putting each other at risk? Will they end up bargaining for the future that they saw from the beginning pages? Will someone emerge to talk them out of it?

I found the book fun overall, although a few moments I wanted to metaphorically cover my eyes.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced e-copy in exchange for an honest review!

Okay, so this is basically a teen Ocean’s Eleven with a extra helping of moral dilemma...

Pros: the characters’ friendships (and their individual developments) are really great and well built, there’s an actual ace character who is more than 2D (!!!!!!), and it was a really fun ride. There’s also an actual discussion of the moral dilemmas surrounding the situation, which I don’t see as often as I would like in YA lit.

Cons: there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief, which I find particularly hard to do, and the ending was far too neatly packaged. Also I felt the characters could have been fleshed out a little better.

Overall, I enjoyed the read and I’ll be buying it for my library!

It’s like Ocean’s 11 meets The Breakfast Club. A group of teens that are all different and shouldn’t fit together, but do. And they come up with a plot to help their friend in need...risking everything.

There’s a lot of book BEFORE the actual event takes place. You get to know the characters, the group, their dynamic, each one’s place inside the group. And of course, the relationships with each other. You also get points of view from everyone, which I loved. This made it far easier to not only get their thoughts on everything going on, but to also ensure that each one was fleshed our enough to feel like a separate person. An individual. That was brilliantly done.

And, it’s not as if they just decide to do the thing and they jump right in with no planning. It’s the opposite. Lots of detail, chatting, and even disagreeing. So much, in fact, that you almost feel as if you’re a part of it all and deserve your own say.

Waiting for the big day is intense...the build up is overwhelming. But rightfully so! This is a big deal. And illegal. You know what’s at stake. That just adds to the overall intensity as the plan goes down. I was so glad that there were snags, because no matter how much you plan, you always have to prepare for something going wrong. Call an audible. Which happened. And that made the stakes higher. And with the alternating points of view, you found yourself wondering where each involved person was...and had they been caught.

The ending is where the book is weak, unfortunately. I do like that they didn’t simply get away with their crime. However, it seemed a bit...unrealistic? that Bellamy’s father would have a change of heart after this. Want to know her. And be willing to pay. I don’t know. Maybe the explanations at the end were enough, but we’d only seen one view on the man. I think we needed just a little more interaction WITH him to believe how it ultimately turned around.

Overall, a great, fun read. I loved the spunky characters.

Are you ready for characters that are flesh and blood, honest to goodness teens on a mission to prove that nothing is impossible if you care enough? How far would you go to help a friend who has been let down about one of the most important things in their lives? Do you have the confidence of youth to outsmart a successful corporate mogul? Could you hack your way into the financial funds of a wealthy and seemingly uncaring absentee father to provide his child with a well-deserved college education?

IMMORAL CODE by Lillian Clark is an adventure of a lifetime for a small group of friends determined to help one of their own fulfill a well-deserved dream. Get ready to melt into the world of teens, see the problem through their eyes and plunge right in, right or wrong, because the ends justify the means in their book. Be part of the planning, the execution and the results of a cleverly brilliant, yet highly illegal game of computer Robin Hood.

Witty banter, teen reasoning and the struggle against the dilemma they are putting themselves in, doing the wrong thing for the right reason, consequences be damned, because how could they get caught?

Quick reading, that races along, fabulous characters with more heart than brains sometimes, and there are some pretty big brains involved in this little caper. Absolutely loved this one!

Immoral Code is one of those books that charms you. Not because it is always shiny, but because there's something so endearing in its pages. In these characters, their secrets, and the ways these friends dance around each other. You fall in love with each of them in turn. And then when they enter together, the whole world bursts into color. If you love books with friendship, with teens who hold their friends accountable, and the last moments of high school, then you have to check out Immoral Code.
Characters

Not to mention that Reese is both asexual and aromantic, which was just so validating to see on the page. In general, Reese is just a character that defies conventions with colorful hair, a sense of style, and being too loud for those around her. Except her best friends. In a sentence, Reese doesn't believe in regrets. And I love her for it. While Reese is seen as the 'wildest' character, it's not without fear or acknowledgement.

What I loved about all of Clark's characters is that not only do they come alive because of the multiple perspective nature of the novel, they have such vivid personalities. Their words, their likes and dislikes, the ways they fit in between each other, springs off the page.