NEED

When I saw an available arc by the amazing author Joelle Charbonneau, an author local to my area who wrote the amazing The Testing trilogy, I was bouncing up and down with joy. You see, I've had the pleasure to meet Joelle in person, and since I can clearly remember how amazing The Testing series was, I was super excited to get my hands on NEED. So it shouldn't come as any surprise that I read this book the same day I received it, neglecting all my other duties with no regrets. It was spectacular, and I savored every second I got to read NEED once it got going.

The basis for NEED is for you to ask yourself, what to you really NEED. Not want, but need. If you're a teenager in high school, there's probably a lot of things you think you need. Kaylee is the main star of the show, she's known as the crazy one because her brother is dying and needs a transplant to save his life, which has caused Kaylee to pull some dumb stunts in the name of love. Kaylee has a best friend who has a pretty big role in the novel, and is pretty much her one and only friend. There are a lot of other people, and a lot of different POV's going on, which can make this novel hard to follow in the beginning. I'm not a huge fan of lots of POV's and prefer one strong voice, but the novel was so intense and moving that once I figured out who was who and where they all were, I really didn't mind.

The basis is the novel is a mysterious website that pops up for this one high school, asking you to tell them what you need and in return you do something, prove it and they give it to you. Need a new cell phone? Invite six friends. But as the needs become greater, people pay a bigger price to access those needs. Pretty soon the entire high school is wrapped up in this cyber game that's about to destroy them all. Everything comes at a price, right? Apparently teenagers at this Wisconsin high school don't notice that until it's too late because they think they need the things they're asking for. Except they don't, they want it. There's one exception though, Kaylee does NEED the transplant for her brother. So she's really confused when the website takes forever to tell her to do anything. She isn't aware that it's because she actually asked for something she needs, not something she wants.

For a while, no one can see that the tragedies happening in this town are connected to NEED, especially since it's secretive and only the teenagers of the town know about it. The police can't get anywhere, and the teenagers are oblivious. With things starting to fall apart as people are getting hurt and nearly killed, Kaylee sees the truth and start searching for answers. She can see how the website is ruining lives and she knows it has to stop. With the help of others with her pleas, she gets on the track of discovering the truth behind NEED. But is it going to be too late to save herself, her brother, her best friend and others in her tiny city? Only time will tell who's behind NEED and if she can go from zero to hero in Nottawa.