Blog Tours, Book Reviews, Chapter Samples, Current Giveaway, Reviews by Diayll

Giveaway, Excerpt & Review | The Dark Intercept (The Dark Intercept #1) by Julia Keller

Giveaway, Excerpt & Review | The Dark Intercept (The Dark Intercept #1) by Julia Keller

Welcome to Mother/Gamer/Writer for The Dark Intercept Blog Tour. For today’s tour stop, please enjoy my review of this mind-bending science fiction novel, an excerpt from the book, and enter for your chance to win a prize pack!

 

 

 

about the book banner gold and black

I received this book for free from the mentioned source in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.



Giveaway, Excerpt & Review | The Dark Intercept (The Dark Intercept #1) by Julia KellerThe Dark Intercept by Julia Keller
Series: The Dark Intercept #1
Published by: Tor Teen on October 31st 2017
Genres: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
Source: ARC From Publisher, Blog Tour

View on: Goodreads
Grab it: Amazon

Review Score:
About the Book:

The State controls your emotions. What would you pay to feel free?

In a radiant world of endless summer, the Intercept keeps the peace. Violet Crowley, the sixteen-year-old daughter of New Earth’s Founding Father, has spent her life in comfort and safety. Her days are easy thanks to the Intercept, a crime-prevention device that monitors and provokes emotion. But when her long-time crush, Danny Mayhew, gets into a dangerous altercation on Old Earth, Violet launches a secret investigation to find out what he's hiding. An investigation that will lead her to question everything she's ever known about Danny, her father, and the power of the Intercept.

 

 

 

Review gold new 2-min

First off, I’d like to say that I almost lost hope with The Dark Intercept. The beginning of the novel was a rather daunting task, and I felt myself slipping and wanting to read something else. However, once I hit the midpoint and started getting into the action, and finally started getting some of my questions answered I became intrigued. So much so that I could not put it down.

 

The Dark Intercept has a compelling premise: emotions that can be used as weapons. How could this even happen you ask? Well, take a dying earth, add some really smart people who want to help the population be its best self, and combine that with technology that does exactly what it’s supposed to do: track your emotions tied to your best and worst memories and use them against you. In theory, it seems completely plausible. If a person feared reliving a crippling emotion at any time, then they would, in turn, live better. However, with all technology comes a heavy price and in The Dark Intercept, we learn just what that price is and how it can change the life/personality of even the strongest individual.

 

I am not going to say this is a book that makes you love its characters because it doesn’t. I would describe it more as a book that makes you think about life, consequences, right and wrong, and doing what’s necessary to survive. In all honesty, I believe that is what kept me interested. Seeing how the characters came to be the people they were and the memories that drove them to act a certain way, kept me enthralled. There is a lot of gray in The Dark Intercept. The lines between good and evil and right and wrong are so blurred it makes you question your own way of thinking. No one wants to be controlled, and ultimately that’s what the book is about — who has the right to control another person. And these are the books I enjoy the most, ones that want you to question your own sanity and morals. Sometimes, as seen in the novel, compassion and mercy are more admirable qualities than just being right and seeking justice.

 

While I won’t say The Dark Intercept will appeal to everyone, I will admit for those that don’t mind slow starts and quickly wrapped up endings, will enjoy its overall concept and theme. It will make you think, it will make you question your own thoughts and feelings, and it will definitely make you wonder could something as simple as a happy or sad emotion be turned against you.

 

Check it out and let me know what you think!

 

My Rating

New Rate 3.5 Controllers-min
 


EXCERPT

THE DARK INTERCEPT by Julia Keller
Tor Teen, 2017

 

No sizzle, no crackle, no whoosh, no boom. No thunder. No lightning.

Not even a click or a ding. For a second there was no outward sign that anything at all had happened.

But it had. Irrevocably.

Deep within the sprawling catacombs beneath their workstation, tucked snugly inside a computer system unfathomably vast, the Intercept was roused to invisible fury.

Tin Man was about to enter hell. But for Violet and Rez, it was just another day at work. Their job was essentially finished. There was nothing more for them to do. Except watch.

“Got any big plans for the weekend?” Rez said.

Violet shrugged. She had plenty of plans, but none to share with Reznik. He was always hinting around about wanting to hang out with her and Shura Lu, her best friend. Not gonna happen, Violet thought. Not meanly, just firmly. She wished he’d get a clue. Why was it that the guys you didn’t really care about were crazy about you, while a guy you did care about—in fact, a guy that you thought about a lot—kept you guessing about whether or not he even noticed that you were . . .

No. No. She elbowed the thought out of her mind. She wasn’t going to give the Intercept anything to work with. Nothing beyond her annoyance, at least. Nothing beyond her irritation that Danny had put himself in jeopardy. Again. What was going on with him?

Reznik didn’t seem to mind that Violet had ignored his question. He was used to it; she ignored him on a regular basis. It couldn’t dent his good mood. Their shift was almost over, and once it was, he could get back to doing what he loved to do, which was to use his computer savvy to explore the depths of the Intercept.

“Showtime,” he said.

In the crook of Tin Man’s left elbow they spotted a brief flash of blue. That meant the Intercept chip had just been activated. Their screens immediately shifted to the scene that was frantically flooding Tin Man’s brain, surging and grinding inside him.

Reznik leaned back in his chair and piled his big feet up on the desk they shared. He pretended to be eating popcorn from a bowl on his lap. He grinned and fluttered his fingers, as if he was digging in.

He tossed an imaginary kernel up in the air and caught it in his mouth, chewing with exaggerated vigor.

A small square in the lower right-hand corner of their screens continued to follow what was happening in the alley. The video was supplied by the drones making their grim, endless circles in the drab sky over Old Earth.

Reznik tossed another fake kernel up in the air. Snap, chew.

Violet rolled her eyes.

“Cut it out, Rez,” she snapped. “Don’t be a jerk.”

He snickered. Hopeless, Violet thought. Expecting Rez to act mature—that’s a lost cause. Totally.

They watched their screens. The Intercept had selected one of Tin Man’s memories from a decade ago and fed it back into his brain.

It was tearing him to pieces.

Copyright © 2017 by Julia Keller

 

 

 

Giveaway Banner the dark intercept

Giveaway Open International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

3 Winners will receive The Dark Intercept Swag (Tote Bag, Notebook, and Copy) by Julia Keller.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

About Julia Keller

Julia Keller author of the dark intercept

Julia Keller, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and former cultural critic at the Chicago Tribune, is the author of many books for adults and young readers, including A Killing in the Hills, the first book in the Bell Elkins series and winner of the Barry Award for Best First Novel (2013); Back Home; and The Dark Intercept. Keller has a Ph.D. in English literature from Ohio State and was awarded Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowship. She was born in West Virginia and lives in Ohio.