‘OMG even as an emoji he looked fit.’
Welcome to Lindsey Hoodwink’s teenage life. Reliant on her phone to a disturbing degree, this typical teen is about to experience a nightmare that might just help her escape the gravitational pull of her phone…
What’s it about?
When Lindsey’s parents refuse to allow her to attend a party that all her classmates will be attending, she ignores both her parents offer of a meal out and real life best friend Sammy’s offer of an evening chilling out together, and hunkers down with what she perceives to be her ‘only friend in the world’ – her phone – for a solitary evening of game playing and time frittering.
But then Lindsey accepts an invitation that blurs the boundaries between technology and real life. Trapped in a disjointed, frenetic world, can Lindsey escape her own addiction?
What’s it like?
‘The Invite’ has an interesting premise which develops in a surprising way. Riches creates a convincingly self absorbed teenager, who initially sees her phone as, ‘the gift of endless opportunity’, but learns that complete absorption in technology can be harmful.
Unfortunately, I found the writing style disjointed, full of clichés, punctuation errors and awkward sentences like this one: ‘I wasn’t sure, but it sure damn felt real!’ Simple errors detracted from my absorption in the story and left me feeling irritated.
Final thoughts
I was looking forward to reading this story with its focus on the dangers of smartphones to teenagers, as the smartphone free movement for tweens and teens is a topic that is highly relevant to me at this point in my children’s lives.
Although the story is inventive, the message important and the main character’s actions convincing, I found that, unfortunately, the stylistic choices and errors detracted from my enjoyment throughout.