Competition – The Unseen Library

Going Zero Cover 2

Publisher: Harper/Macmillan (Ebook – 11 April 2023)

Series: Standalone

Length: 298 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Acclaimed screenwriter and author Anthony McCarten presents a compelling and intense techno-thriller that shows readers the terrifying future of surveillance technology in the intriguing read, Going Zero.

It is a time of great expansion in the world’s spy technology as every country works to increase their internal and external surveillance capability. To keep up with their rivals, the CIA have been convinced to partner with billionaire Silicon Valley tycoon Cy Baxter to create the ultimate surveillance program. Known as FUSION, the new system will allow the government, through Baxter’s company, to find anyone in the country, no matter how hard they hide.

But before FUSION can officially go online and Baxter’s company can be awarded its massive, multi-billion-dollar contract, Baxter needs to prove that the system can deliver everything he promises. To that end, the ultimate test is proposed, pitting 10 random Americans against the new technology. At an appointed hour, all 10 participants will need to “Go Zero”, going completely off the grid and leaving their lives, families, and homes behind to hide as best they can. If they can elude the company’s technology and capture teams for 30 days, then they receive $3 million in prize money.

As the participants each choose their own unique ways of vanishing off the face of the Earth, one stands out amongst the security experts, tech geniuses and law enforcement professions that have been recruited. Boston librarian Kaitlyn Day was chosen to be an easy target, an everyday woman who could test the most basic bounds of the program. However, she swiftly shows that she is far more skilled and versed in counter surveillance tactics than anyone expects. As the test continues, Kaitlyn manages to counteract every trick FUSION has up its sleeve, and soon Baxter grows desperate trying to find her. But as the test nears its end, it becomes clear that there is far more to Kaitlyn than meets the eye, especially as she has a very personal reason for playing this elaborate game.

This was an awesome and impressive novel from McCarten, who presents the reader with a fun scenario guaranteed to grab their attention. Going Zero is an awesome book that I really got drawn into thanks to its compelling narrative and fast-paced style. I actually managed to read this entire book in a day, as I got quite hooked on the story and just kept going, trying to see how everything ended and I really was not disappointed with how it turned out.

Going Zero’s story itself is great, as it plays out like a giant, technological game of cat and mouse throughout the United States. It reminded me a lot of the reality show, Hunted, on steroids, with the facilitators, the CIA and Cy Baxter’s team, having access to every single surveillance feed and scrap of digital information they need to catch the players. The first half of the book is primarily focused on this hunt, with most of the attention on both Kaitlyn Day and Baxter’s team as they hunt for her. The author makes great use of short, sharp chapters to move the story along at a very quick pace, which also limits the reader’s desire to stop reading, as the end of the next chapter is always in sight. McCarten sets the entire scenario up extremely well, and you are soon dragged into the intriguing middle of this over-the-top fugitive situation. It is incredibly fun seeing Kaitlyn’s initial exploits, as well as the overarching reach of Baxter, whose insane control room put me in mind of the game masters in The Hunger Games film. These two intriguing primary perspectives are often interspersed with quick interludes that show the other nine participants slowly getting hunted down by Baxter’s capture teams. Each of their methods of hiding is unique to them and seeing them getting effortlessly capture serves as a rather compelling counterpoint to Kaitlyn’s own endeavours to avoid detection. I really got caught up in this hunt scenario, which dominates the first half of the novel, mainly because it was so damn fun, intriguing, and a little terrifying to see the FUSION system in action. While I would have been happy enough to read a lot more of this, McCarten introduces a rather good twist about halfway through that throws everything on its head.

Now, while the inclusion of a twist wasn’t too surprising, especially as the plot had been hinting like crazy that something was suspicious about the protagonist, the full extent of it is pretty damn epic, especially as it makes you rethink everything that occurred in the first half of the book. McCarten had done a really good job of inserting subtle hints and clues into the preceding story, and the way they were dragged together was really clever. This major twist changes the entire story around and moves it from a mostly harmless story about advanced hide and seek to an intense and personal thriller with some major national security ramifications. The second half of the book goes into overdrive, especially as, after the twist, you are particularly attached to the protagonist and her potential victory, while the antagonist becomes easier to root against. There is conspiracy, espionage and deeply personal attacks against the various characters, as everyone is suddenly trying to survive the changes that the protagonist brought on. I deeply enjoyed where the story went at this point, and the resulting exciting scenes, which also included some more twists, continue to drag you in and ensure that that stick along for the ride. The author provides a great, if highly cynical, ending for this entire narrative, and you come away feel satisfied, especially as it leaves the reader wanting more. An overall impressive and addictive story that I had such a great time getting through.

Perhaps one of the most distinctive features of Going Zero was McCarten’s frank and often terrifying look at the state of surveillance technology in the world today. The hunt for the 10 participants requires FUSION team to employ a ton of intriguing methods to find their prey, with the hunters mapping out their targets’ habits, history, and personal connections to find where they will likely go and who they will try to interact with. Some crazy technology and methods are featured throughout the book and McCarten combines some clear research with some more imaginative approaches to reveal how the hunters were able to find the contestants. While some of the elements were obviously enhanced for narrative purposes, the story does feature quite a few more realistic methods that honestly had me thinking about how much information I have on the grid (they’d catch me in less than 10 minutes). This intriguing focus on how humans have become used to sharing their information and leaving themselves upon to tracking and exploitation becomes a key part of the plot as certain characters start to misuse this information for their own good. McCarten also introduces a great counterpoint to this through Kaitlyn’s perspective, as her insights into the surveillance world provide some interesting contrast, especially when she starts turning the tables on the hunters and their technology. The loss of privacy and anonymity ended up being a pretty big theme for this novel, and I think readers will come out with their eyes opened about just how easy it may be for governments or companies to track where you are or what you are doing (or thinking) in the future.

I really liked the fun blend of characters that McCarten featured throughout Going Zero, especially as thanks to the focus on privacy loss and personal investigation, you soon learn a lot about them. The fun, if brief, snapshots into the nine other participants in the beta test added some great colour to the story, especially as McCarten had to quickly and comprehensively showcase who they were and how they think in order to show how FUSION caught them. Cy Baxter, the brains behind FUSION, was a great figure within the story as well, as he ticked all the boxes of an egotistical billionaire and tech genius. While he was initially shown to be an ambitious and eccentric figure who was attempting to introduce the system for the right reasons, the moment he gets some opposition you begin to see the real Cy Baxter under the surface, and it is not pretty. Thanks to his ego and his own belief in his intelligence, Baxter keeps going further and further down the dark path to achieve his goals, and by the end of the book he proves to quite an effective and highly unlikable antagonist (with some great similarities to a certain real-life tech billionaire twit).

However, most of the best character work is reserved for main protagonist Kaitlyn Day, who had quite a fascinating arc throughout the book. I loved the way that McCarten initially built her up as a typical librarian and a potential amateur without any real chance of succeeding. However, it soon becomes clear that there is far more to Kaitlyn, especially as some of her earliest moves prove to be so infuriating to Baxter and the FUSION team. McCarten drops some excellent hints throughout her storyline about her past which provide some potential clues about what is about to happen with her character, especially when combined with the research the antagonists do on her. I really cannot emphasise how well McCarten set up the twist around Kaitlyn, and the full details of her life and motivations only further increase how much you start rooting for her. There is some noticeable but relatable character change that occurs after the twist is revealed, and it was interesting to see how serious she was and how she managed to manipulate the system. These characters, and more, helped to turn Going Zero into quite the excellent read, and I loved some of the intriguing figures that emerged.

Going Zero was an exceptional and captivating read that had me hooked from the very start. Anthony McCarten’s unique scenario led to an exciting and highly fun story that proved near impossible to put down. I powered through Going Zero in no time at all and this was one of the more entertaining books of 2023 for me so far. An excellent and highly enjoyable read that has potential as a film, Going Zero comes highly recommended and is definitely worth checking out.

Going Zero Cover

Amazon

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio (Audiobook – 24 May 2022)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 8 hours and 9 minutes

My Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Amazon Book Depository

Get ready to run and scurry for cover in the intriguing new horror thriller from Kiersten White, Hide. Kiersten White is a captivating author who is known for her young adult and tie-in fiction novels. I best know her for her work on the extended universe of franchises like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she recently wrote a series of novels about a new Slayer, which started with the 2019 release Slayer. White is also making some waves this year with the new Star Wars young adult novel, Padawan, which follows a young Obi-Wan Kenobi and which is pretty high up on my to-read list. However, her 2022 release that intrigued me the most was the thriller release, Hide. Hide had a great concept to it and I couldn’t resist checking it out in the last week to see what it was all about.

Mack is good at hiding. She’s spent her whole life doing it after it worked so well to save her life as a child while her family died around her. However, after years of avoiding people, Mack is running out of options and money. So when a strange challenge arises, Mack has no choice but to accept, even if it brings back terrible nightmares from her past.

A mysterious corporation is sponsoring a new and unique reality competition with a prize of $50,000 to the winner. The challenge is simple: survive a week hiding in a creepy abandoned amusement park and don’t get found. The last person left hidden is crowned the winner and gets enough money to change everything.

Competing against a group of similarly desperate and determined young people, each of whom is hoping that this game will turn their life around, Mack thinks the odds are in her favour to win. However, there is something far more sinister going on than any of the contestants know. As the people around her start disappearing, one by one, Mack and the rest of the competitors begin to realise that something else is in the park with them, something that is hungry and unrelenting. Come out, come out, wherever you are.

This was an intriguing and fun book from White that I managed to get through in a few days. I loved the excellent premise behind Hide and I think that the author produced a pretty good story that appeals to both horror and thriller fans. While the book has a slightly slow start to it, once the competition starts I found myself getting pretty into it as I was very keen to see what happened. White ratchets up the tension day by day as the competition continues, and I think that the increased level of threat and uncertainty that occurred helped to keep my attention and make me want to figure out what is going on. There are some interesting revelations about halfway through the book that I thought were pretty clever, especially the reveal about what exactly is chasing them and why. Once that happens, it’s a pretty high-octane fight for survival that results in some fantastic and compelling moments. While there were still a few questions left over by the end of the book, I think White ended Hide pretty well and everything came together in interesting way. I do wish that there the competition was a bigger part of the plot, as that could have been pretty cool, but I guess you can’t have everything.

White utilised an interesting storyline telling method to get Hide’s narrative across, which worked for the most part but had a few issues. While the story is primarily focused around Mack, the book does quickly jump between the other characters in the book, giving some brief insights into their thoughts and history. While this worked to keep you in the loop about every contestant, it was a bit random at times and I felt that it impacted the pacing of the story, especially when it jumped between multiple perspectives in a very short amount of time. I also felt that the use of jumps resulted in some missing details in places, such as when some characters are removed from the contest without you realising it. I did think that White did a good job inserting the background lore behind the events of the book into the story through a series of journal entries, and that part of the book was quite fascinating, although I wouldn’t have minded a bit of a deeper dive. There is also quite a bit of social commentary chucked into the mix as well, especially when it comes to exploring the motives of the unsurprising villains, plus you must appreciate the strong LGBT+ elements thrown in as well. The story itself had a mostly fine flow to it, and you do feel the fear and terror of the contestants once they realise what is going on. All of this worked pretty well in the end, and I think that the story came across in a pretty accessible and compelling way.

White focuses the story on an interest group of protagonists, each of whom has their own reason to be there. Due to the way that the narrative jumps around to examine different characters, you get a decent look into the heads of each of the competitors, as well as some other characters, and you soon get some insights into why each of them is there. It soon becomes apparent that each contestant is pretty desperate and broken in their own way, which I felt added to the drama and intensity of the story. However, due to the quick-fire change in perspective, the reader isn’t given a lot of time to bond with most of the characters, and their eventual fates aren’t too shocking or moving as a result. The main exception to this is Mack, who you do spend quite a lot of time with. Mack has a very tragic backstory (it reminded me of last year’s book, The Final Girls Support Group by Grady Hendrix), which becomes a major part of her motivations and trauma in Hide. Watching her attempt to overcome her dark past and her reservations for being there is pretty intense, and there was some interesting character work there, as well as a potential for new friendships and romance. A couple of other characters who survive towards the end of the book (I won’t mention who) are also developed to a decent degree, and I felt that some of the story arcs around them were pretty intense as well. It was a little obvious which of them was going to survive and who was going to die, even with a few twists thrown in, although I did appreciate a few surprise changes in motivations that worked really well. An overall interesting group of characters, I do wish that we could have gotten to know a few of them a little better though.

I ended up listening to Hide on audiobook, which worked as an excellent format to enjoy this interesting horror read. Hide has a pretty short runtime of just over eight hours, so if you get caught in the story you can get through it rather quickly. I felt that this format did help to emphasise the tension and the rising panic of the protagonists, especially as narrator Emma Galvin does a good job telling the story. Galvin had an excellent voice that was pretty fitting to this setting and story genre, and she ended up doing a good job personifying the main characters. I rather enjoyed the tone and intensity that Galvin brought to this audiobook, and I felt that this was a fantastic format to check out Hide on.

Overall, I had a lot of fun with Hide and Kiersten White came up with a great story that I really enjoyed. While I do think that there were a few missed opportunities and pacing issues in places, this mostly came together pretty well and I think fans of exciting novels with horror elements to it will have a great time with Hide. An interesting book that is worth checking out.

Amazon Book Depository