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The Age of Amy #4
Behind the Fun Zone
Are you a JIMMIEHEAD, or are you still using one of those old-fashioned smartphones?
A Jimmie is a tiny microchip, that when painlessly implanted into your brain, magically transforms your eyes and ears into the ultimate hands-free device. No more fumbling with fragile phones, loose earbuds, or clumsy controllers. Watch movies without looking at a screen. Shoot video through your eyes. Text with your brain waves. It tracks your location, monitors your health, and even comforts you when you’re lonely. Plus, it drives your car!
Every teenager wants a Jimmie, except 16-year-old Amy, who detests technology in any form. She is particularly disgusted by how easily people are manipulated into wanting one.
Like smartphones, Jimmies spy on your cyber activities, but being hard-wired to your brain, the device can also access your personality. It intercepts your innermost thoughts and eavesdrops on your deepest feelings. What users fail to consider is that the wireless device doesn't only transmit, but receives—allowing it to control everything its host sees, hears, and feels. Regardless, the hi-tech gizmo becomes a worldwide sensation.
But when thousands of teenage Jimmieheads mysteriously vanish, foul play is suspected by the billion-dollar corporation that manufactures the device. Immune to Jimmie's influence, Amy embarks on a quest to find the missing teens. Her search ultimately reveals a connection between the bizarre disappearances and the Fun Zone—a spooky, old amusement park that's been dark for 50 years.
A Jimmie is a tiny microchip, that when painlessly implanted into your brain, magically transforms your eyes and ears into the ultimate hands-free device. No more fumbling with fragile phones, loose earbuds, or clumsy controllers. Watch movies without looking at a screen. Shoot video through your eyes. Text with your brain waves. It tracks your location, monitors your health, and even comforts you when you’re lonely. Plus, it drives your car!
Every teenager wants a Jimmie, except 16-year-old Amy, who detests technology in any form. She is particularly disgusted by how easily people are manipulated into wanting one.
Like smartphones, Jimmies spy on your cyber activities, but being hard-wired to your brain, the device can also access your personality. It intercepts your innermost thoughts and eavesdrops on your deepest feelings. What users fail to consider is that the wireless device doesn't only transmit, but receives—allowing it to control everything its host sees, hears, and feels. Regardless, the hi-tech gizmo becomes a worldwide sensation.
But when thousands of teenage Jimmieheads mysteriously vanish, foul play is suspected by the billion-dollar corporation that manufactures the device. Immune to Jimmie's influence, Amy embarks on a quest to find the missing teens. Her search ultimately reveals a connection between the bizarre disappearances and the Fun Zone—a spooky, old amusement park that's been dark for 50 years.
- GenresYoung Adult
216 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2015
About the author
Bruce Edwards
8 books14 followersBruce Edwards writes relevant fiction for young adults. Through fantasy and imagination, his compelling stories promote an optimistic worldview. States the author: "Kids today see a troubled world and simply ask, 'Is this the best you can do?' My books encourage young folks to explore alternatives to the status quo." But Bruce's unconventional approach to storytelling doesn't come at the expense of a fun read. His stories are never short on fun, fantasy, and imagination.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 28, 2015
Book Review originally published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/book-tou...
After reading and review the two previous books in this series, The Age of Amy: The Thumper Amendment and The Age of Amy: Channel ’63, I was looking forward to reading The Age of Amy: Behind the Fun Zone, especially when I read the premise.
Jimmies are tiny microchips implanted in people’s brains that transform their eyes and ears into a hands-free device, allowing them to text with a brain wave, watch movies without needing a screen, and so on. What an interesting concept for a story. I’m always amazed by Bruce Edwards’ creativity and originality. Anyway, everyone seems to want a Jimmie, except for Amy. She’s always been a little different, and she doesn’t like technology at all, so a chip in her brain? No thanks. But when thousands of teenagers disappear, all of them having had one of those brain chips – the Jimmies – implanted, Amy goes on a quest to find them. This quest leads her to an abandoned amusement park, and to a mystery she can’t wait to solve.
I loved Amy. She’s a great character – interesting, resourceful, intelligent, witty, and the more I get to know her and the more I read about her adventures, the more I like her. The secondary characters were engaging too, but it’s the plot that really made me love this book. The Jimmies are awesome. I’ve never read a book with this kind of plot before. And then the abandoned amusement park. One of my dreams is to explore an abandoned amusement park one day, and when reading about Amy’s adventures there, I felt like I was right there with her.
This series continues to explore great plots, while also making sure the characters, especially Amy, evolves in every book. An excellent read that I would recommend to all YA fans, especially if you like a mystery to solve.
After reading and review the two previous books in this series, The Age of Amy: The Thumper Amendment and The Age of Amy: Channel ’63, I was looking forward to reading The Age of Amy: Behind the Fun Zone, especially when I read the premise.
Jimmies are tiny microchips implanted in people’s brains that transform their eyes and ears into a hands-free device, allowing them to text with a brain wave, watch movies without needing a screen, and so on. What an interesting concept for a story. I’m always amazed by Bruce Edwards’ creativity and originality. Anyway, everyone seems to want a Jimmie, except for Amy. She’s always been a little different, and she doesn’t like technology at all, so a chip in her brain? No thanks. But when thousands of teenagers disappear, all of them having had one of those brain chips – the Jimmies – implanted, Amy goes on a quest to find them. This quest leads her to an abandoned amusement park, and to a mystery she can’t wait to solve.
I loved Amy. She’s a great character – interesting, resourceful, intelligent, witty, and the more I get to know her and the more I read about her adventures, the more I like her. The secondary characters were engaging too, but it’s the plot that really made me love this book. The Jimmies are awesome. I’ve never read a book with this kind of plot before. And then the abandoned amusement park. One of my dreams is to explore an abandoned amusement park one day, and when reading about Amy’s adventures there, I felt like I was right there with her.
This series continues to explore great plots, while also making sure the characters, especially Amy, evolves in every book. An excellent read that I would recommend to all YA fans, especially if you like a mystery to solve.
November 9, 2015
I haven't read the other books in this series, but that wasn't a problem. This book is a stand-alone in every way.
After reading the blurb, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and I'm glad to say that the story is more intriguing than I thought it might be. In many ways, it takes our modern day world and intensifies it. Instead of running around with cell phones, the internet and all it's possibilities is streamlined into a tiny chip, which is placed in the head. Communications, GPS, videos, and everything else one can think of is directly linked with the brain. Even computerized cars read where a person wants to go and drives them there automatically.
Amy, a sixteen-year-old girl, is one of the few people who doesn't trust any of this.
Her character is a girl with a good sense of self-esteem and a nice amount of stubbornness. She's smart, sticks to what she wants, and true to her friends. It was easy to root for her, and her reactions didn't only make sense but were often well thought out--perhaps too well thought out in the beginning. Usually, she's a great teen, who's easy to sympathize with. But other times, she acts too old for her age and comes across a bit preachy. Her reactions to the technological advancements were okay but sometimes went a bit too far. Her statements were wise, and one or two of them would have supported her cleverness. But she constantly thinks farther which didn't make her feel like a teen but rather that she was an opportunity to bring over an opinion and message. Although these moments in the first chapters made it hard to connect with her as a character, as the story progressed, it was easy to fall back in stride and root for her.
The plot is fast paced--I read this in one sitting and didn't have the urge to put it down. The author does a great job of setting up the world, making it familiar enough to dive in. The technology described is easy to understand as well as the results it has on the world around it. It was a very unique and interesting surmise too. It doesn't take much of a step to see the technology and world the author describes, which makes the result really hit home.
In general, the story flows very well. There were a couple of moments where the scene jumped as if something was missing, and I didn't really understand several of the 'bad guy's' actions in the end, but I still was intrigued and caught up in the story until the last page. I never knew what was going to happen next and found myself hoping that Amy and Zac would make it through. (They were stuck in some pretty tough situations).
This is an interesting book that modern day kids will have no trouble relating to. There's twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, moments where it's not certain the heroes are going to make it through alive and other times, where it's easy to cheer them on. In other words, it's definitely worth a read.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
After reading the blurb, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and I'm glad to say that the story is more intriguing than I thought it might be. In many ways, it takes our modern day world and intensifies it. Instead of running around with cell phones, the internet and all it's possibilities is streamlined into a tiny chip, which is placed in the head. Communications, GPS, videos, and everything else one can think of is directly linked with the brain. Even computerized cars read where a person wants to go and drives them there automatically.
Amy, a sixteen-year-old girl, is one of the few people who doesn't trust any of this.
Her character is a girl with a good sense of self-esteem and a nice amount of stubbornness. She's smart, sticks to what she wants, and true to her friends. It was easy to root for her, and her reactions didn't only make sense but were often well thought out--perhaps too well thought out in the beginning. Usually, she's a great teen, who's easy to sympathize with. But other times, she acts too old for her age and comes across a bit preachy. Her reactions to the technological advancements were okay but sometimes went a bit too far. Her statements were wise, and one or two of them would have supported her cleverness. But she constantly thinks farther which didn't make her feel like a teen but rather that she was an opportunity to bring over an opinion and message. Although these moments in the first chapters made it hard to connect with her as a character, as the story progressed, it was easy to fall back in stride and root for her.
The plot is fast paced--I read this in one sitting and didn't have the urge to put it down. The author does a great job of setting up the world, making it familiar enough to dive in. The technology described is easy to understand as well as the results it has on the world around it. It was a very unique and interesting surmise too. It doesn't take much of a step to see the technology and world the author describes, which makes the result really hit home.
In general, the story flows very well. There were a couple of moments where the scene jumped as if something was missing, and I didn't really understand several of the 'bad guy's' actions in the end, but I still was intrigued and caught up in the story until the last page. I never knew what was going to happen next and found myself hoping that Amy and Zac would make it through. (They were stuck in some pretty tough situations).
This is an interesting book that modern day kids will have no trouble relating to. There's twists and turns to keep the reader guessing, moments where it's not certain the heroes are going to make it through alive and other times, where it's easy to cheer them on. In other words, it's definitely worth a read.
I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 9, 2017
I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.
This book is quite an interesting and fun read. Straight away we are welcomed into Amy’s world, a society where almost everyone has a Jimmie implanted which practically does everything your smart phone does and more. Pay for your store purchases without reaching for your wallet, read your newspaper on your way to work while your Jimmie enabled car drives for you, no need to attend school anymore with your Jimmie app installed that downloads the information for you while you sleep, and plenty more amazing things! We discover that Amy is one of the very few who has chosen not to be cool and get a Jimmie and this causes a myriad of problems with her friends who all have Jimmies. Then things start to go wrong and Amy’s younger cousin mysteriously disappears. Amy tries to get help from the authorities but they log in to the missing girl’s Jimmie and it shows everything is fine. But Amy knows her cousin is not fine, and then finds out other kids are suddenly disappearing as well, and their parents are none the wiser because all of their Jimmie’s are showing all is well. With the help of a young nerdy boy from her now closed down school, Amy follows the clues and tries to find her missing cousin.
I enjoyed this book and thought the concept behind it was brilliant. I chuckled at the author mentioning himself towards the end of the book as part of the story. There were plenty of twists and turns in the story and the ending was a surprise and left me thinking. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was that at times the interactions between the characters wasn’t realistic, but overall, I did enjoy this book and would be happy to read more in this series. I would recommend this book to fantasy lovers and the younger teenagers would really appreciate this book.
This book is quite an interesting and fun read. Straight away we are welcomed into Amy’s world, a society where almost everyone has a Jimmie implanted which practically does everything your smart phone does and more. Pay for your store purchases without reaching for your wallet, read your newspaper on your way to work while your Jimmie enabled car drives for you, no need to attend school anymore with your Jimmie app installed that downloads the information for you while you sleep, and plenty more amazing things! We discover that Amy is one of the very few who has chosen not to be cool and get a Jimmie and this causes a myriad of problems with her friends who all have Jimmies. Then things start to go wrong and Amy’s younger cousin mysteriously disappears. Amy tries to get help from the authorities but they log in to the missing girl’s Jimmie and it shows everything is fine. But Amy knows her cousin is not fine, and then finds out other kids are suddenly disappearing as well, and their parents are none the wiser because all of their Jimmie’s are showing all is well. With the help of a young nerdy boy from her now closed down school, Amy follows the clues and tries to find her missing cousin.
I enjoyed this book and thought the concept behind it was brilliant. I chuckled at the author mentioning himself towards the end of the book as part of the story. There were plenty of twists and turns in the story and the ending was a surprise and left me thinking. The only thing I didn’t like about the book was that at times the interactions between the characters wasn’t realistic, but overall, I did enjoy this book and would be happy to read more in this series. I would recommend this book to fantasy lovers and the younger teenagers would really appreciate this book.
June 29, 2015
This book has the cutest concept. Young people get a Jimmiechip in their brain by taking a pill and you do nto any gadgets now. But Amy hates them and will not get one. So when a bunch of people disappear she goes out and finds them and all the Jimmie devices get destroyed. What a imaginative book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews