iBoy (novel)

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iBoy is a young adult novel by British writer Kevin Brooks from the year 2010 .

action

The 16-year-old student Tom Harvey grows up with his grandmother in the London high-rise “Crow Town”, which is characterized by poverty, drug trafficking and violence by rival gangs. One day he is on his way to Lucy Walker, his best friend from childhood, when suddenly an IPhone 3GS falls on his head, which someone has thrown from the 30th floor. The iPhone smashes his skull so that he loses consciousness and only comes to himself after a few days in the hospital. Tom learns from the attending physician that not all parts of the device could be removed from his brain during the operation. He soon notices that this gives him new skills - so he can mentally go online at any time, track all phone calls and SMS and intuitively evaluate large amounts of data.

During the first attempts at his new strength, Tom reads in the online edition of a newspaper that at the time of his accident, Lucy was raped by several young people in her apartment at the same time. He goes in search of the perpetrators and finds out that they belong to a gang and actually wanted to punish Lucy's brother Ben, who has refused an assignment. Tom prevents another attack on Lucy and uses other skills that his cyborg- like state gives him, such as sending out painful electrical impulses and fending off weapons using a force field. Since their use changes his appearance, initially nobody recognizes him and he keeps the secret of his "superpowers" to himself. Even to Lucy, with whom Tom is in love, he does not reveal himself, but communicates with her under the pseudonym "iBoy" in her secret blog. But even in his real form, he takes care of Lucy, so that they come closer on both levels.

Tom's vengeance campaign becomes more and more extensive over time, through data manipulation he manages that some gang members injure each other and others are arrested, so that the settlement becomes quieter. Nevertheless, he repeatedly struggles with self-doubt as to whether his actions are correct and whether he can and wants to continue to live in this divided form. But first he wants to punish Howard Ellman, who he identified as the mastermind behind many acts of violence, and provokes him to meet "iBoy". However, Ellmann finds out that Tom is behind the mysterious avenger, takes Lucy hostage and, with the help of several cronies, abducts both of them to a warehouse where there is no internet reception and Tom's abilities are disabled. He wants to kill Tom, but first tortures him with revelations about his late mother, who worked as a prostitute for Ellmann and whom he murdered when she wanted to get out because of her pregnancy. When he also threatens Lucy with a knife, Tom grows beyond himself and manages, with enormous concentration, to tap the energy of thousands of cell phones via a remote base station, thereby causing the batteries of Ellman and his cronies to explode. They are seriously injured and two of Ellman's helpers bleed to death. Tom gets into a mental crisis again, from which Lucy frees him, however, who now knows his two sides and accepts him as he is.

Text analysis

Literary genre

iBoy includes features of various genres such as fantasy, love story, detective story, social study, and thriller. The novel takes up the themes of violence and revenge, the virtual and real world, the search for identity, power and responsibility, love and sexuality. According to the publisher dtv, it is aimed at young people aged 14 and over.

Narrator and told time

Although iBoy has elements of science fiction, it is set in the present. The main character Tom acts as the first-person narrator . He tells the story in retrospect, i. H. after it has already happened without anticipating the outcome. The narrative chronology is largely linear.

construction

The novel is divided into 26 chapters. They are numbered consecutively, with the corresponding binary number serving as the chapter heading (1, 10, 11 etc.). The chapters each begin with a quotation or an explanation of technical terms that are related to the action.

reception

iBoy was nominated for the German Youth Literature Award 2012. The jury justified the selection with the fact that Brooks raised important philosophical questions, but did not give his readers any answers. He empathizes "in a unique way" with the characters he invented and explores their thoughts and feelings carefully. The jury was also impressed by the translation by Uwe-Michael Gutzschhahn .

Geraldine Brennan from The Observer describes iBoy as a "gripping, streetwise and profound science-fiction crime thriller" (translated: "captivating, smart and profound science fiction crime thriller"). With the serious questions that the main character has to ask, the book is more than just another story about an action hero who cannot reveal himself to his girlfriend. This also compensates for certain weaknesses, such as B. the frequent use of swear words.

Awards

filming

The book was filmed in 2017 by British director Adam Randall . The film with Bill Milner and Maisie Williams in the leading roles is due to be released on January 27, 2017 by the video-on-demand provider Netflix .

Expenses (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marlies Koenen, teaching model, p. 5.
  2. ↑ Kevin Brooks, iBoy on dtv-dasjungebuch.de
  3. ↑ a b iBoy, nomination 2012, jury statement
  4. ^ Review by Geraldine Brennan in The Observer
  5. ^ British Council: iBoy.Retrieved January 21, 2017
  6. ↑ Wigwam Films: Our films.Retrieved January 21, 2017