Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Samantha Granger Experiment : Fused

The Samantha Granger Experiment : Fused
by Kari Lee Townsend

Sam's parents had warned her that she was far too dependent on technology and gadgets.  She couldn't go anywhere without the latest tech and she got easily lost without her handy phone GPS.  But they never could have expected things to go down the way they did.

One night, while lost in the woods, Sam turns on her GPS, turns a corner, and finds the discovery of the century.  A blue, glowing meteor is lying in a crater in the forest and Sam gets the sudden urge to touch it.

Big mistake.

After receiving the literal shock of a lifetime, she gets a figurative one.  Her phone is gone, but she can suddenly do everything it could.  Her hand is now a dial pad.  Her eye is a camera.  Her brain can tap the Internet.  And her world has just turned upside-down.

She's only 13 years old.  She's finishing middle school.  She's got a major crush on an awesome guy.  And now her phone's tech is taking over her life.  

Now she must become Hard Wired (or maybe some other hero name that won't get confused with "Harry Weird") and try to track down why 911 calls are not getting through to anyone but her and why there have been so many recent break-ins.

Can she save the town and still get the boy?

Final thoughts:  This is a cute premise, but it's an absolute mess overall.  The story jumps all over the place and some things that really should be explained just never are.  Sometimes Sam is completely in control of her new powers, while other times she's as lost as the reader.  And somehow, everything seems to magically work out at the end, though it does finish off with an obvious "to be continued" type ending.  Upper elementary and middle school girls will probably enjoy it, but it's just not executed well enough to recommend.

Rating: 2/5

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