Thank you PRH Audio for gifting me this audiobook!

Publisher: Dutton & PRH Audio    |    Pub Date: August 12, 2025    |    Pages: 365

Listening time: 11 hrs and 28 min    |    Narrator:  Valerie Rose Lohman & Nicole Cash

Review in 3 words: Computers, Downloads, Scripts

REVIEW:

I was instantly hooked on this audiobook. I love the early 2000’s vibe and the reminder of life at the dawn of home computers was like. The truth that the early ages of the internet was a virtual Wild Wild West comes to life. I remember having a home computer and the early days of having the internet. I remember making my own websites using script.

Avery is a computer nerd and learning to write programming scripts while also downloading illegal music (which wasn’t illegal at the time). Then one night, something happens leading to her sister’s death and her insistence that she never be alone again. Did it have to do with the computer?

Piper innocently gets involved but finds herself at the center of a mystery. I loved her curiosity and compassion with Avery and her mother. The journey to discovering what is really happening is interesting and intense! But my favorite part is the ending - something I didn’t expect.

These narrators did a great job bringing this story to life, but I also adored the memories brought up by the sound effects added to the audiobook of dial-up connections. Such sweet memories…

SUMMARY: 

Piper Lowery, a public library clerk in charge of liaising with the local middle school, can tell right away there’s something strange about the new girl in eighth grade. Avery Wallace won’t touch any kind of technology, not even the computers at the library, and her mother comes to school with her every day, refusing to leave her side—not even when Avery uses the restroom.

And then there are the rumors, the whispers Piper hears from kids in the hallway and parents around town: Avery’s mother is a witch. Her sister and father were killed by something supernatural. A strange virus killed them.

Seeing how isolated and lonely Avery is, Piper befriends her but quickly realizes it might just be the worst decision she’s ever made. Because there’s something dark inside Avery Wallace, and it’s spreading . . .

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