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iBoy

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 1,199 ratings · 228 reviews

What can he do with his new powers -- and what are they doing to him?

Before the attack, Tom Harvey was just an average teen. But a head-on collision with high technology has turned him into an actualized App. Fragments of a shattered iPhone are embedded in his brain. And they're having an extraordinary effect on his every thought.

Because now Tom knows, sees, and can do mor...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published November 1st 2011 by Chicken House (first published July 1st 2010)

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Jan 15, 2013 Karen Yingling rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult

Tom is eking out an existence in a drug addled London housing project when an iPhone is thrown from a 30th floor of his building, hitting him on the head and embedding fragments in his brain. The same people who threw the phone are also responsible for the gang rape of his friend, Lucy. His whole being is now hooked up to the internet, and he is able to shock people just by touching them. Feeling that his powers may not last long, he attempts to find out who attacked Lucy and bring them to justi...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Alex Boyle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

During the event of scanning through many novels in the "Teen" section of the library, my eyes stopped and lay still on the black laminated spine of this book. The title read "iBoy". I considered since I had been playing on my iPod a lot over the school break iBoy may be the appropriate read. To make sure it was about iPods, iPhones or iPads,not someone with bad sentence structure stating that he was a boy, I had a quick flip at the back summary of the book. This should be where I quote the summ...more During the event of scanning through many novels in the "Teen" section of the library, my eyes stopped and lay still on the black laminated spine of this book. The title read "iBoy". I considered since I had been playing on my iPod a lot over the school break iBoy may be the appropriate read. To make sure it was about iPods, iPhones or iPads,not someone with bad sentence structure stating that he was a boy, I had a quick flip at the back summary of the book. This should be where I quote the summary but it would be too long. Basically, it's about a kid who gets an iPhone thrown at his skull and then he gets magical iPhone powers. It was one of those moments where I was like "OK..." and put it back on the shelf and started backing away. But despite the utterly stupid science behind the plot, a force pulled me back to that novel,the thought of how I had to do some more book reviews, and fast. So I read the first sentence of the first page. I was hooked. The author is a brilliant writer.

The category this novel slips under is 'A book with themes we've studied in class in term one'(Knowledge is power) this is because the main character uses his iPhone inside his head to give him the knowledge to find who 'damaged' his friend, Lucy. This category was interesting because each author can give a view of how they interpret knowledge being power.

My favourite quote from iBoy is "Knowledge is power" because anybody questioning if this novel does fit under the term 1 category can just turn to page 270.Ha.

Something new I learnt from this book is that you can die if millions of calls suddenly come to your phone, as your phone's battery will over heat then explode. This was how the main character defeated a gang in the end of the book. He used his iPhone's knowledge of that, then hacked into all the phones in the world and directed all their calls to six guys. Some died brutally as their pants exploded. I mostly leave my phone off now.

A character that interested me in this book was iBoy. As he could research anything from his brain, hack all bank accounts in the world and give people electric shocks. This made me think his powers were pretty "creative"

Overall I'll give this novel a four.It would have been a five, but the ending was very slow and boring, and left me thinking of nothing.

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Dec 20, 2011 Paula Phillips rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Imagine getting hit in the head one day by an Iphone of all things and it turning out to be the weirdest day of your life and the last day that you will ever be normal to speak of .
Tom lives in a dodgy part of London known as Crow Town with his nan Grams as his mum was killed in an accident when Tom was younger. In the flats lives his best friend Luce and her brother Ben. One day Luce asks Tom to meet her , next thing he knows is he's been hit in the head and wakes up in hospital. He discovers t...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya, science-fiction-fantasy

Tom Harvey is on his way to visit his friend, Lucy, when he is hit in the head by something thrown from her flat window, thirty floors above. When he wakes up, pieces of an iphone are lodged in his brain.

You'd think that would be enough to deal with, especially when it seems the iphone is having a very strange effect on his mind, but it also turns out that something terrible was happening to Lucy while Tom was unconscious - something that can never be made right, although Tom is determined to ma...more

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Mar 25, 2013 BethSky Rose Reviews rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I read the synopsis of this book I was hesitant in picking it up but not due to the sci-fi element, I am in fact a big fan of Science Fiction however having lived a lot of my life in London I assumed Tom would be a typical sixteen year old with an over inflated ego and superiority complex. I am glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was quite wrong.

I have to say I really enjoyed exploring the potential benfits of having a computer inside the brain. The powers were writte...more When I read the synopsis of this book I was hesitant in picking it up but not due to the sci-fi element, I am in fact a big fan of Science Fiction however having lived a lot of my life in London I assumed Tom would be a typical sixteen year old with an over inflated ego and superiority complex. I am glad to say that I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was quite wrong.

I have to say I really enjoyed exploring the potential benfits of having a computer inside the brain. The powers were written well and made me consider the true power of electricity in our lives however I was rather unconvinced with the electric shield. It felt as if it was written rather heistily to get a character out of trouble and served no other purposes.

A few pages into the book I realised that the book was going to be gritter than I had assumed, while it doesn't reach the same level of depravity as American Psycho, it contains frequent violence, drugs, gang culture and several mentions of rape.If you look past the obvious shroud of Tom's powers you realise that this story is not really about science fiction but rather an outlook into a typical if not rather terrible look into the infamous tower block of London. Having lived in London a long time I am aware of the reality that is hidden beneath the glitzy famous landmarks and tourists attraction.

This book reflects the underlying need for a hero, someone who would swoop in and get you out of a mess whether that be protection from violence or simple money problems. Brooks also explored the loss of identity any masked man would face. Tom initially enjoys his power and who would not, I can't actually count the number of times I have wanted a computer in my brain however in replacing human instinct and morals with binary codes and circuits you end up lose apart of yourself, the part that makes you human, your emotions. This book also explores the short comings of the law especially in communities where fear and poverty rule the residents.

Wit didn't really teach me anything I didn't know I really enjoyed and even finished the book in one sitting. I give it 4 out of 5 Cupcakes

p.s How awesome would it be to have an iPhone in your head. Seriously .
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Feb 07, 2013 7milad rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book iBoy, by Kevin Brooks, is a shocking and intense book about a boy named Tom Harvey whose life turns upside down, then back upright again. His best friend Lucy was sexually assaulted by a gang of kids called the Crows. One of the people of the gang threw an iPhone from a 30-story balcony and struck Tom in the head, turning him into some kind of electronic mutant. After Tom recovers, he sets off on a "quest" to kill everyone who took part in the horrific event that took place 2 weeks ago....more

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Jan 08, 2013 Lex Luther rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was probably one of the most exhilarating books I have read, every page is action or hardship. It almost impossible to try and stop reading, the whole plot of the story was absolutely amazing. The story takes place in the outer rim of London in Crow Town which is filled with gangs (Crows and FGH) who were made up of the local kids. The main character is Tommy a sixteen year old boy minding his own business and wants nothing to do with the gangs; One day as tommy is walking home and as...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Krista rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This novel surprised me. When I picked it up, I was not expecting to be enthralled, but that's how it ended. The book is about a 16-year old boy, Tom Harvey, who lives in England. He has grown up in the projects of Crow Town, and spent his life dealing with the realities of the very active gang life in the area. One day, an iPhone is thrown at Tom from the 30th floor of a building and it splits his skull. The result: 17 days in a coma and nanofragments of the iPhone are embedded in his brain. H...more

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Sep 22, 2012 J A Brunning rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kevin Brooks finds the overlap between the human and the not-human a fertile breeding ground in more than one of his novels. While Being is in many senses more disturbing an exploration of this than iBoy in philosophical terms, iBoy is an intelligent mix of technology with profound questions about what it means to be human, centring on the ethics of violence. And Brooks isn’t afraid to tackle some pretty grim stuff about what human beings are capable of doing to other people. The story (as you m...more Kevin Brooks finds the overlap between the human and the not-human a fertile breeding ground in more than one of his novels. While Being is in many senses more disturbing an exploration of this than iBoy in philosophical terms, iBoy is an intelligent mix of technology with profound questions about what it means to be human, centring on the ethics of violence. And Brooks isn’t afraid to tackle some pretty grim stuff about what human beings are capable of doing to other people. The story (as you might guess from the title) ties in to the contemporary technology of smart phones very effectively, pushing the relationship between the human and technology - not least the vast wealth of information on the internet - to new levels.

A fairly common “local boy trying to save his best friend / girl friend” theme does form a core focus of the story in iBoy, but that’s where any idea of the story having been done before ends. Something truly terrible has occurred, and Tom Harvey arrives in time for an extraordinary meeting with an iPhone, and this meeting takes Tom and the story into a sci-fi thriller territory which combines a kind of graphic novel superhero with gritty urban realism, the whole thing carried by a story which never lets moral and philosophical questions slip out of it for long.

Brookes explores the relationship between the human and technology through a true internalisation of that relationship, and yet tackles some seriously difficult social issues in iBoy. These issues range from those power struggles and elements of bullying often inherent within the hierarchy of teenage relationships, extending into gang culture and on into adult criminal gangs, and through to truly appalling violence perpetrated against mothers, grandmothers, teenage girls and boys.

This violence is, however, placed in its context of power relations, and includes misogyny and the idea that people are pawns in a game to the powerful – to be abused as punishment, including to punish someone other than the victim. The violence is brutal, and while the narrative points out how and why it occurs and that it is explicitly unacceptable, ultimately this only applies to the innocent because the graphic revenge meted out to the "deserving bad" clearly isn’t included in the morally reprehensible nature of the violence meted out to the innocent - albeit this moral questioning does form an equally important part of Tom’s journey.

Brooks’ prose is straight to the point, and utilises factual information about how technology operates with great effect in the narrative, leaving the poetry all in the content in iBoy, and particularly in Tom’s almost philosophical experience of the relationship between technology and the human through his perception of himself within that relationship. But at the heart of iBoy is a compelling story of violence and revenge, and of Tom’s need to make sense of and find his physical and moral place in his world.
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Jul 24, 2012 Marj rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: action, dark, superhero, sci-fi, ya, unique-challenges, trigger-warning

The premise of this book is unique-- While walking home from school an iPhone smashes through Tom Harvey's skull and parts of it meld with his brain. After spending weeks in a coma Tom awakens to find he has a whole host of strange abilities based around accessing information and electronic force-fields. Like many other superhero origin stories this one has roots in realistic violence and crime which in this story include drugs, rape, and murder. Whereas Tom would have had to grit his teeth and...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Alicia Scully rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, gr-10-12, gr-8-10, science-fiction, young-adult-lit

Tom is a good kid living in a bad neighborhood, and one day that catches up to him. Someone throws an iPhone of the top of a 30 story building and Tom is hit in the head, an event that causes bits of the iPhone to meld with parts of Tom's mind. Tom can suddenly do everything that an iPhone can do and so much more. With his newfound powers and his need for revenge concerning the gang rape of his lady love, Tom becomes iBoy and begins his path as a vigilante.

The pacing is steady enough, the premi...more

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May 10, 2012 Nshslibrary rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

iBoy, a modern day superhero scifi novel, provides a surprising look into the grim reality of gang life in urban London. The main character, Tom Harvey gains extraordinary powers when an iPhone, thrown at him from 30 stories up, is embedded in his brain. (Think Superman and his Kryptonian heritage or, Spiderman and his radioactive spider bite.) After emerging from a coma that lasted 17 days, Tom finds he has the ability to access cell phones, the Internet, databases and anything else that can be...more

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Apr 28, 2012 BAYA Librarian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When Tom wakes up after being in a coma for seventeen days and slowly begins to realize that he is developing extraordinary powers, powers linked to parts of an iPhone embedded in his brain. Tom learns that the iPhone was dropped from the top of his tower block and that the incident may be linked to a brutal attack on his best friend Lucy. Tom decides that he needs to seek justice for his friend and others who live in his violence ridden East London council estate. It’s just a matter of figuring...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Ken Kugler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Imagine you live in hell. Imagine that it is in London in a hellish housing project and that you are on your way to see a girl you really like. Almost there you hear someone call your name and you look up. The next thing that you know is that a Iphone is hurtling down at you and crashes into your head. You awaken 17 days later in a hospital and everything is going to be different. Bits of the Iphone have started to adapt to your neuron system and becoming part of you.
Now imagine that the girl yo...more

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Mar 30, 2012 Hiroto rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tom Harvey was wandering along the school to meet up with his friend Lucy. When suddenly he hears his name get called from the top of the tower. Before he tried to run away, he saw an IPhone shattering in his brain. Hours later, he was sent to a hospital and an operation had occurred. The doctor says that most of the iPhone bits have been taken out from his brain, but some little pieces are unable to reach. Getting warned by the doctor he was told to tell the doctor everything which was known st...more Tom Harvey was wandering along the school to meet up with his friend Lucy. When suddenly he hears his name get called from the top of the tower. Before he tried to run away, he saw an IPhone shattering in his brain. Hours later, he was sent to a hospital and an operation had occurred. The doctor says that most of the iPhone bits have been taken out from his brain, but some little pieces are unable to reach. Getting warned by the doctor he was told to tell the doctor everything which was known strange. At night Tom realized inside his head, there were colorful lights turning on and off. Tom Harvey had changed.

So this book is about a boy called Tom Harvey who got a phone stuck in his brain. Because of this, he can create electric powers from his hands like a Taser, he can hack into any website he wants, and can Google search everything inside his mind. However, what makes the story move is the part when a girl called Lucy gets raped by a gang which had been doing nasty things for a couple of years or so. This is when Tom gets angry, because Lucy was his girlfriend, and decides to get revenge on everybody who raped her. This is when he uses his “powers” to defeat the people. I will recommend this book more for boys, mainly because the story line is made more violent for the boys to read, and the part when a girl gets raped could be offending for the girl readers.

The book mainly focuses on the suspense and action, but mostly on the love between Tom and Lucy. This book could be worth reading because it tells you about a teenage boy’s romance. However, the part of the book that I really enjoyed was the way the author used different style from other authors to make this suspense theme really stand out. This is a part of the book I chose from iboy.
“ It wasn’t all right, of course. I wanted to know everything now. But when Gram sets her mind on something, there’s no point arguing with her. So I just went along with it. I rested. I slept. I ate. I read countless stupid magazines. And I tried not to think about anything. Lucy. Me. The weirdness inside my head. Electric shocks. Bees, non bees. Definitions. Newspapers. Billions of humming filaments.”
This was one of the parts which had a different style of writing than others. It continuously gives out examples of what he doesn't want to do or think about. This makes the paragraph kind of interesting, and it also makes me want to read more.

Although this book could not be the most appropriate book to read, still it is a very interesting book and I sometimes really couldn't stop reading.

“ Tom's world is as hard and as real as anything in the kitchen sink line that deals with the teen experience of gangs and urban decay. Wonderful mix of science fiction and kitchen sink drama in this latest book.”

Quote from Kevin Brooks.
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Mar 23, 2012 Francesca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was originally posted on my blog (http://readinghammock.blogspot.com)

I began reading iBoy because I was intrigued to learn about Tom Harvey, the book’s protagonist, who obtains brilliant powers when the pieces of an iPhone lodge into his brain. The concept for this book is fascinating. Tom’s newfound powers drew me into the novel but, unfortunately, the plot let me down because I never felt fully immersed in Tom’s life. In my opinion, great novels cannot rely only on a great concept—they al...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bullies, ncbla

Tom Harvey's life is completed changed when fragments from an iPhone hurled from a high rise apartment in an unsavory London neighborhood become embedded in his brain. After awaking from a coma, Tom is able to access all the information available through modern technology. Talk about being connected! The teen is more connected than anyone has the right to be. He can intercept others' cellphone accounts, and learn secrets to which only a few have access. After he learns of the gang rape of Lucy,...more

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Oct 19, 2011 CurriculumPink rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult-fiction

Ipod, ipad, itunes, isnack.. it was only a matter of time before someone wrote a book called iBoy and Kevin Brooks, an English Young Adult fiction author, has done it. Tom Harvey is a sixteen year old boy living in a seedy South London estate known as Crow Town with his Grandma. He finds himself permanently connected to all things internet after bits of an iphone are embedded in his brain. The phone was hurled at him deliberately by local gang members who then go off and rape his best friend, Lu...more Ipod, ipad, itunes, isnack.. it was only a matter of time before someone wrote a book called iBoy and Kevin Brooks, an English Young Adult fiction author, has done it. Tom Harvey is a sixteen year old boy living in a seedy South London estate known as Crow Town with his Grandma. He finds himself permanently connected to all things internet after bits of an iphone are embedded in his brain. The phone was hurled at him deliberately by local gang members who then go off and rape his best friend, Lucy. As Tom adjusts to his amazing new powers the scene is set for revenge...

Reading this book gave me that weird cringing feeling. Other than the novel premise of boy/internet fusion the story seemed familiar but it wasn’t until the last squeamish chapters when Tom blows up the baddies by exploding their mobile phones (can this really happen?) and wins the girl, that I realised I was actually reading another kind of fusion: the fusion of cliches from contemporary superhero movies with over-used plot devices from young adult fiction.

iBoy could have been purposely written for the screen. Here we have the familiar extension of modern technology into futuristic high tech (iBoy himself), the superhero moral dilemmas about abuse of power with some gratuitous violence and foul language thrown in. And we also have tried and true young adult fiction plot enhancers such as the awkward teenage boy who has a secret crush on his childhood girlfriend and the all too common orphan whose parentage is shrouded in mystery.

iBoy is full of familiar themes. The baddies are very bad, Tom has trouble controlling his desire for revenge, good triumphs over evil, love wins out in the end, and my personal favourite, the Darth Vader plot twist, when the worst baddie of them all, Howard Ellman, and Tom realise that he could be Tom’s father. Tom is quick to remedy this awkward situation by blowing Dad up, “And then I watched, with no emotion at all, as his chest exploded.” No Jedi knight forgiveness and resolution here.

Although I’ve seen it all before iBoy is recommended for older reluctant readers, especially teenage boys who will probably love it. (less)

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Oct 18, 2011 Deanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Science fiction, gangs, identity, technology.

Set in the future, Tom is hit by an iphone. The surgeons do their best to remove it but fragments are still lodged in his brain. He becomes part human and part iphone. He is able to hear phone calls, read emails and texts, hack into databases, take photographs and videos, essentially anything electronically that an iphone can do but more. He instantly comprehends information and can virtually do everything. Oh and his scar transmits electrical shocks...more

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Sep 01, 2011 Jo Bennie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tom Harvey is walking to meet Lucy, to him the prettiest girl at his school. She was the girl next door but still lives close by in her flat in their home in the sky: Compton House tower block on the impoverished Crow Town high rise estate. A stolen iPhone is thrown from the window of Lucy's flat and shatters Tom's skull, finding a weak spot in his skull and plunging him into a coma. However, rather than the impact killing him something amazing happens, the chip of the iPhone embeds itself into...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Melanie Goodman added it · review of another edition

Tom Harvey’s head is cracked open by an iPhone that was dropped from a 30th floor window. While doctors are able to remove most of the phone from his head, small fragments remain implanted in his brain. When Tom wakes up from a coma, he discovers that his brain has the capabilities of a smartphone….and then some. He can not only use his brain to browse the Internet, make calls, and record videos, he can also access other peoples’ phone records and security information and zap people with electri...more Tom Harvey’s head is cracked open by an iPhone that was dropped from a 30th floor window. While doctors are able to remove most of the phone from his head, small fragments remain implanted in his brain. When Tom wakes up from a coma, he discovers that his brain has the capabilities of a smartphone….and then some. He can not only use his brain to browse the Internet, make calls, and record videos, he can also access other peoples’ phone records and security information and zap people with electricity.

Tom’s accident was not a mere coincidence, though. While in the hospital, he finds out that his injury coincided with the attack and rape of his friend Lucy. Like any good superhero with newly acquired superpowers, he strikes back with some vigilante justice on the local gang members who hurt her. His anonymity is maintained by the iSkin that disguises him when he uses his powers. However, Tom must consider the costs and benefits of keeping his identity a secret, especially when life and love are on the line.

Between iBoy and When I Was Joe, I have developed a fear of British youth. Both books feature significant gang problems. Lesson learned: Stay away from teen boys in London if you don’t want to get knifed. Also, read both of these books if you enjoy hearing about boys beating the crap out of each other while using British slang.

Aside from that, iBoy is a book with an awesome premise that unfortunately dragged on a bit for me, but will likely be enjoyed by those who appreciate a story that follows the usual superhero archetype (including many references to other superheroes like Batman and Spiderman). That is admittedly not my niche, and not quite what I was expecting. The iPhone is used primarily as a plot device, a vehicle for Tom’s powers. While there are overarching questions about justice and morality, Brooks doesn’t delve into the philosophical implications of permanent attachment to technology in the way books like M.T. Anderson’s Feed do. In that sense, iBoy didn’t fulfill my expectations, but it is still a book I would gladly pass on to readers who enjoy science fiction, technology, and superheroes.(less)

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Apr 07, 2011 Hayden rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: People who like fantasy and sci-fi (or iPhones/Pods)

Shelves: from-the-library, best-books-i-ve-read-so-far

I picked up this book in the school library because at the time, I had just finished listening the my iPod, and the name just kind of struck me as something to do with iPods (you don't say!). Anyway, when I read the... what do you call it again... the blurb?, I thought. Ok... this sounds a bit bonkers, but since I'm into all kinds of fantasy and sci-fi stuff, I thought I'd give it a go.

Ok, this book has mixed reviews. Most of them are good. But everyone seems to point to the amount of swearing i...more

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Dec 12, 2010 Tina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

See full review here.

What happens when an iPhone cracks your skull and its electrical components become embedded into your brain?

Well, in the iBoy world, it gives you superpowers, with skin that lights up in a myriad of pulsating colours, hands that can shoot electricity and a brain that can surf the net, call phones and hack into government networks. That’s exactly what happens to Tom Harvey, and armed with his amazing newfound powers, he is faced with a decision: should he take revenge on the...more See full review here.

What happens when an iPhone cracks your skull and its electrical components become embedded into your brain?

Well, in the iBoy world, it gives you superpowers, with skin that lights up in a myriad of pulsating colours, hands that can shoot electricity and a brain that can surf the net, call phones and hack into government networks. That’s exactly what happens to Tom Harvey, and armed with his amazing newfound powers, he is faced with a decision: should he take revenge on the gang that attacked and raped his friend Lucy, or should he take no action at all?

I looked forward to reading iBoy. Having read and liked Being by Kevin Brooks, and being a big fan of science fiction and cyborg stories, I opened this book with expectations of a slightly violent, but absorbing action sci-fi novel. Sadly, this book didn't live up to my hype.

First of all, let me make this clear. Kevin Brooks’ books are not pretty books with brave heroes, a clear villain, clean language and a happy ending. There are sex scenes (less so in iBoy), drugs, weapons, street violence and death, sometimes with a hero who discovers he has been technologically advanced. In the case of Being, the protagonist was an android (robot that looks like a human), and in iBoy, the hero is a cyborg (human with robotic enhancements). There is also frequent usage of coarse language, which I found annoying and excessive. The writing in general was fast paced and very truthful at times, but choppy to convey Tom's thoughts.

However, these combined elements work together to evoke the setting: the streets of outer London. I didn't like this setting, because I thought the iBoy idea, of a boy with the powers of an iPhone, had a lot of potential to be something big. But a street setting meants that iBoy's powers and scope extended only to attacking the bullies in his neighourhood. Perhaps Kevin Brooks was going for a deeper meaning, such as an exploration of social issues or the abuse of power, but I didn't connect with that.

The technological aspects attracted me, as a sci-fi lover, but I thought it wasn't explored well. Tom is hit by an iPhone, and when he wakes up, he has incredible amounts of power, while we are never given a cool scientific reason as to why. The components are in his brain, but which part of his brain? And why does several chips from an iPhone, embedded in his brain suddenly give him so much power? Such as electricity coming out of his hands? Tom is left alone through the novel to explore his immese powers, and there are many questions I was left wondering with.

Also, the fact that an iPhone 3G is described in this book places a year label (2009) on this story. It's like a "use-by" date. In my opinion, good novels do not indicate a specific date, thus immortalising the story and characters, and limited only by the language. However, I like the use of quotations from articles and the binary chaptering system.

The characters in iBoy weren't very strong. Usually, I relate to a particular character, or have a admire one for all their flawed and postive qualities. I didn't with this book, perhaps because there were little characters and the main character began to act without thought. This was eventually explained, but by the end of the book, what little of Tom's personality had been there previously was not regained.

This book is not as strong as Being was, and I couldn't connect with the characters and darkness in this book. But its inner themes are gripping, and several moments are very intense and action-packed. The male protagonist and his powers relating to a modern device would definitely appeal to a young male audience.

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Nov 17, 2010 Iffath added it · review of another edition

Shelves: uk-ya

iBoy is an action-packed novel with a modern twist, bursting with fierce superpowers, an overwhelming sense of violence, and an incredible storyline.

Tom Harvey’s whole life has been altered with the action of one person. An iPhone thrown at his hea¬d, and he is to undergo a major brain operation. An operation that leaves his mind with an overload of information – very powerful information. And, the ability to hack into any database, intercept calls and texts, and err, electrocute people.

I really...more

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Oct 19, 2010 Lisa Walsh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, mystery, young-adult, real-life

The only reason I read this book was because I won it in a competition, and at first I believe I wouldn't really like it.

But I was wrong. I absolutely loved it.

The best thing about this book is that there are surprises from start to finish and will leave plenty of people satisfied when they close the book. And, instead of super-spiders or toxic waste or whatever - these "super-powers" that Tom Harvey obtains are from a iPhone - weirdly wonderful really.

So, Tom Harvey - a sixteen year old from L...more

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Aug 06, 2010 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had no preconceptions about this book not knowing the author or much about the plot. I knew it was a teen fiction book and given my recent Children Literature course, I was interested to see how this book fit into the tradition of children's literature.

My initial reaction was that this pulled no punches. The 'attack' mentioned in the blurb on the back cover is in fact a gang rape of a 16 year old girl by a council flat high-rise gang. The book also includes violence, thoughts of suicide and s...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Jacquy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Inhalt: Tom ist gerade auf dem Nachhauseweg, als er ein iPhone auf den Kopf bekommt. Es wurde aus dem 30. Stock aus dem Fenster geworfen und zertrümmert seinen Schädel. Dabei gelangen einige Teile des Smartphones in sein Gehirn und verbinden sich damit. Dadurch bekommt Tom unglaubliche Kräfte. Er kann nun alles, was ein iPhone auch kann, und sogar noch mehr – und das alles nur durch seinen Kopf. Während Toms „Unfalls“ wurde Lucy, das Mädchen, in das er schon seit Jahren verliebt ist, vergewaltig...more Inhalt: Tom ist gerade auf dem Nachhauseweg, als er ein iPhone auf den Kopf bekommt. Es wurde aus dem 30. Stock aus dem Fenster geworfen und zertrümmert seinen Schädel. Dabei gelangen einige Teile des Smartphones in sein Gehirn und verbinden sich damit. Dadurch bekommt Tom unglaubliche Kräfte. Er kann nun alles, was ein iPhone auch kann, und sogar noch mehr – und das alles nur durch seinen Kopf. Während Toms „Unfalls“ wurde Lucy, das Mädchen, in das er schon seit Jahren verliebt ist, vergewaltigt. Durch seine Kräfte findet Tom heraus, wer die Typen waren und rächt sich an ihnen. Um dabei nicht erkannt zu werden, nennt er sich iBoy.

Meinung:
Charaktere:
Tom bzw. iBoy fand ich als Charakter sympathisch. Er liebt Lucy schon seit die beiden Kinder waren, aber hat sich nie getraut es ihr zu sagen. Wenn es aber darum geht, sie oder seine Großmutter (seine Mutter ist gestorben, als er ein Baby war und seinen Vater kennt er nicht) zu schützen, ist er ganz und gar nicht auf den Mund gefallen und verteidigt sie.
Was seine Kräfte angeht war er zunächst natürlich geschockt, aber er hat schon bald gelernt, damit klarzukommen und umzugehen und wusste sie nützlich einzusetzen.
Man merkt, dass er an das Gute im Menschen glaubt und auch selbst nichts Böses tun will, aber weil es um Lucy geht, kann er das nicht mehr genau auseinander halten.

Lucy lernt man nicht so gut kennen. Nach ihrer Vergewaltigung ist sie verständlicherweise sehr verstört, versteckt sich in der Wohnung und redet kaum. Nach einiger Zeit erholt sie sich aber davon und wird Tom gegenüber offener. Sie scheint allgemein sehr nett, lustig und hilfsbereit zu sein, was aber natürlich durch ihr Erlebnis getrübt wird.

Geschichte:
Die Idee, die hinter dem Buch steckt, fand ich so faszinierend, dass ich es mir unbedingt kaufen musste. Ich selbst habe zwar kein iPhone, aber durch Bekannte weiß ich einiges darüber.
Jedenfalls… Superhelden Geschichten sind eigentlich nicht so mein Ding. Spider Man habe ich nur mit Mühe zu Ende geguckt und bei Batman & Co habe ich es gar nicht erst versucht, weil es mich einfach nicht interessiert. Aber dieses Buch war irgendwie… anders. Es war ein ganz normaler Junge, der durch einen Zufall Superkräfte bekommt. Er nutzt diese aber nicht, um die Welt zu retten, sondern nur, um seine Freundin zu rächen. Er verletzt die Typen, die ihr das angetan haben oder liefert sie der Polizei aus. Weil er in einem gefährlichen Viertel lebt, kommt er damit aber nicht ohne weiteres davon, denn Gangs nehmen nun mal keine große Rücksicht auf jemanden, der ihren Mitgliedern Schaden zugefügt hat.
Trotz, oder eben wegen, Toms Kräften läuft die ganze Sache aus dem Ruder…

Fazit:
Auch ohne zu recherchieren kann ich sagen, dass die Geschichte absolut neu und total genial ist. Laut diversen Internetseiten ist das Buch eher für Jungs gedacht, aber ich finde es auch für Mädchen geeignet, wenn man sich denn für sowas interessiert. Das Buch war durchgehend interessant und spannend und es ist schade, dass es so kurz ist.(less)

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Nov 12, 2011 Jennifer Rayment rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Good Stuff

* Unique and unusual idea for a storyline
* Darkly humorous at times, which helps tone down the darkness of the story
* Gram is one cool bad-ass -- my kind of Grandmother
* Fast paced
* Could lead to some fascinating class discussions about moral choices
* Love the relationship between Tom and his Grandma - real honest love and respect
* Tom's a believable and likable protagonist and you can really feel the struggles he deals with
* Very raw, bleak, honest and dark (not a bad thin...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Kayla rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh, Kevin Brooks. Only you would be able to get me to read a book with the tagline "Search. Shock. Destroy." Sometimes Brooks is really, really, good. Sometimes he misses the mark just by a hair. This book just misses that mark. Tom Harvey lives in a bad neighborhood over run by gangs who rob, rape, and generally terrorize the people in the community. When one of Tom's friends is raped, he simultaneously has an accident involving an Iphone being chucked out of a building and through his skull, m...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Jessi Larie added it

Shelves: dnf

DNF

This was really more of Middle Grade than Young Adult. While the concept was cool, the writing was flat and boring. And so were the characters. The idea of a boy getting pieces of an iPhone embedded into his brain, thus developing the power to do some awesome things, was very neat and original. But the delivery was horrific. The way things were explained was a train wreck. It was all over the place, and repetitive - I felt like I was running up a downward escalator. It was exhausting!

And the...more

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About Kevin Brooks

Kevin Brooks was born in 1959 and grew up in Exeter, Devon, England. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at Birmingham, Aston University in 1980 and Cultural Studies in London in 1983. Kevin Brooks has been in a variety of jobs including: musician, gasoline station attendant, crematorium handyman, civil service clerk, hot dog vendor at the London Zoo, post office clerk, and railway ticket office...more

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Quotes from iBoy

“She moved closer to me, put her hands to my face, and kissed me softly on the lips.
God, it felt so good.
So perfect, so right...
It felt so good, I nearly fell off the roof.” — 12 people liked it

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