Kaylee Dunham's brother is sick, and needs a new kidney if he has any hope of living a normal life. So when NEED pops up at Kaylee's high school and becomes a raging social media hit, she's interested. The premise is simple: ask for something that you need, and it will be delivered - for a price. Kaylee figures that she'll ask, and if nothing happens, then so be it. The site asks for nothing in return from her, but as other students' wishes begin to manifest, and the town becomes chaotic, she begins to suspect a connection. Then people start to die, and the authorities don't seem interested in Kaylee's theories. The deaths must be stopped, and Kaylee seems to be the only one up for the task. But messing with the NEED network is a bad idea - and now Kaylee is next on the list to die.
I thought that the concept of this book was very interesting and creative. I haven't read any others like it, and I really enjoyed it. It's definitely relevant to today's society, with all the popular social media and internet schemes. I could see why the NEED network may suck students into it, although I can't really believe that people would go so far and do so much as they did in this story. There were a few parts that started to irritate me, such as when Kaylee tried to report NEED to the police without any real evidence and they didn't believe her (duh), but they were towards the beginning of the book and Kaylee eventually smartened up. Then it was very intense and fast-paced, and I finished it quite quickly.
The story was told from the perspective of multiple characters, which was sometimes hard to keep track of. I frequently forgot who was who and who did what, but it turned out not to matter too much as they started to die and the list dwindled. Kaylee, her mother, and her best friend Nate were all well-written, rounded-out and plausible characters, but I found that all the smaller characters who occasionally gave their perspective were more one-dimensional. I don't know if that was just because Joelle Charbonneau didn't have enough writing space to flesh them out, but they all just seemed like walking stereotypes to me. It especially contrasted because Kaylee and Nate were very believable characters, with motivations that shifted behind metaphoric masks put on to cover them. Even though at times Kaylee bothered me, I did appreciate the realistic sentiments behind her actions.
Although I did enjoy the creativity involved in the plot and I was immersed in the story throughout, I didn't really enjoy the ending. I didn't think it was plausible at all, in terms of society today. It made sense in relation to actions in the book, and characters' storylines and motivations, but if it were real life, there's no way the ending would have been possible. I don't mean that in the sense of fantasy versus realism, because there was no magic in this novel, but in the sense of people's psychology. The thing I enjoy most in books is a realistic character, because that's the main thing that draws me into a story. If I don't believe a character's motivations, or their actions have no foundation, it immediately pushes me out of the story. That's why I enjoyed Kaylee and Nate especially - their actions were founded - but also why the ending annoyed me so much. It just wasn't plausible.
Despite my complaints, I really did enjoy this book, and would recommend it. It teaches an important lesson without being preachy or overt, something that many people could use. I would rate this story four stars. It's not a series, but I did like it to the point where I may look for other books written by Charbonneau in the future. Anyone who enjoys dangerous social media, murder mysteries, and family drama should read this novel.
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