Novel Review: Random by Tom Leveen

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: YA Realistic; Suicide, Cyberbullying

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release Date: 2014

Spoilers?: Not really.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Who's the real victim here? This tense and gripping exploration of cyberbullying and teen suicide is perfect for fans of Before I Fall and Thirteen Reasons Why.

Late at night Tori receives a random phone call. It's a wrong number. But the caller seems to want to talk, so she stays on the line.

He asks for a single thing—one reason not to kill himself.

The request plunges her into confusion. Because if this random caller actually does what he plans, he'll be the second person connected to Tori to take his own life. And the first just might land her in jail. After her Facebook page became Exhibit A in a tragic national news story about cyberbullying, Tori can't help but suspect the caller is a fraud. But what if he’s not? Her words alone may hold the power of life or death.

With the clock ticking, Tori has little time to save a stranger—and maybe redeem herself—leading to a startling conclusion that changes everything…

The Cover:

I really like this cover. It portrays the subject really well, it's eye-catching. I think the model being a boy works, since the victim was, but mainly because the person who calls Tori is also a boy. I really like the tag-line, too. It's perfect for this.

Review:

I don’t know how I feel about this book. It definitely dealt with a tough, serious subject, so maybe that’s how it should be.

Tori, and her supposed friends, is being accused of cyberbullying and pushing a classmate into killing himself. And when she gets a strange call in the middle of the night, from some guy claiming to be looking for a reason not to kill himself, she’s forced to look at things a little differently.

Tori is definitely an unlikable character. She doesn’t feel she’s at fault, she’s extremely selfish and self-centered, and doesn’t really even feel very sympathetic about what happened. She just wants it to go away. I did not like her in the beginning, but I appreciate how well her voice was done. I believed her, completely, that she believed herself. Leveen really knows how to write a unique voice.

I liked the twist at the end. I think it just makes the call seem that much more important, and I like what they did to try and make her realize what had happened and who she had become. I also think, though, that her sudden change in thought was a little sudden. I think she still has a ways to go before she’s really changed, and I do think that was realized, though.

This is definitely a book worth picking up. The perspective, the subject and the way it was handled, I think it was all well done. And I look forward to reading his other books.