Genre: YA (12 to 18), AI thriller | Length: 304 pages | Published: August 2024
About Anticipation
You are being played.
Your every move is being watched by businesses hoping to manipulate your behaviour. Every picture, every post, every like, every follow, every purchase, every search.
When 17-year-old Riya Sudame inherits her father’s secret AI algorithm, she and a handful of carefully selected Keyholders hold the power to predict people’s future using their online data. But with great power comes great responsibility, and they must safeguard it from falling into the wrong hands.
Enter Jim Booker, a powerful social media tycoon, who will stop at nothing to steal the technology for himself. Soon Riya faces a critical choice. Fighting ruthless tech giants seems like an impossible task—wouldn’t it be easier to relinquish her father’s creation in exchange for a normal teenage life?
But if she does, she will have to live with the knowledge that she is the reason that, like everyone, you are being played.
Neil Taylor marks his debut in this dark, twisty AI YA thriller
Anticipation Book Review
Thank you to The Write Reads and Neem Tree Press for providing me with a copy of this book! I voluntarily leave this review!
When Riya’s dad passes away, she has the chance to become a keyholder in his company. To do so means gaining access to his next generation AI, but it comes at a high risk. What exactly is the risk, and what can the AI do no one will tell her. Yet, when given the chance to hold onto the last connection to her father, or walk away, she chooses to become a keyholder. And the minute she does, she becomes a target. Riya must go on the run from Jim Booker, a social media owner who will stop at nothing to gain the AI her father created.
When Riya is forced on the run, the pace picks up and never lets go. From one event to the next, she must make careful moves using the AI to predict the safest paths. But even the AI isn’t right all the time. While ART can predict different scenarios, if vital information is missing something is bound to go awry. And Jim Booker is determined to gain access to the AI to line his pockets, regardless if it will hurt his social media users in the process, or if he has to take lives to get it.
Anticipation is startling in how well the writing aligns with current concerns over the dangers of social media and the effects of data mining on its users. While the lengths to which companies will go to make more money are escalated in this novel, it is no less unsettling than what occurs in real life. As Riya uncovers more of the horrors Jim Booker’s company has committed, the stakes increase ever higher. The amount of close calls and tough decisions she and the team have to make will keep readers fully engrossed and unable to put the book down.
This novel also has a wonderful dynamic between Riya and Ivan. Being able to see two characters work so closely together and have a platonic friendship built on trust was refreshing. Readers will witness their struggle in coming to terms with their life on the run, and all they have to leave behind. Their strengths and weaknesses balance well with the rest of the team, and they prove just because they are younger, does not mean they are any less capable.
Anticipation is an exciting and fast-paced read that is suitable for both adults and young adults. Readers who enjoy thrillers with ties to real-life possibilities will love this novel.
All or part of this book review may be used in marketing, I only ask that you reference Behind the Pages if you choose to do so.
About the Author
Neil Taylor is a software industry professional whose career has spanned Europe, Japan, and the USA. Now based in Durham, England, Neil works remotely for a leading cloud-based software and services company. With more than two decades of software experience, Neil possesses a deep understanding of how company motivations influence customers and users. Fascinated by the convergence of big data and behavioural science in the tech industry, Neil's debut YA book, "Anticipation," delves into the perilous implications of unchecked social media and AI development.
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