Books In Her Head

Hey guys I’m so excited to be participating in my first ever Irish Banana Book Tour. I had the pleasure of Zero Day by Jan Gangsei and reviewing. Keep reading for more info and goodies!

Review:
Title: Zero Day
Author: Jan Gangsei
Publishing: January 12th 2016 by Disney-Hyperion
Source: Disney-Hyperion (And Irish Banana Tours)
Format: Bound Galley
Genre: YA; Mystery; Thriller

Eight years ago, Addie Webster was the victim of the most notorious kidnapping case of the decade. Addie vanished—and her high-profile parents were forced to move on.

Mark Webster is now president of the United States, fighting to keep the oval office after a tumultuous first term. Then, the unthinkable happens: the president’s daughter resurfaces. Addie is brought back into her family’s fold, but who is this sixteen-year-old girl with a quiet, burning intelligence now living in the White House? There are those in the president’s political circle who find her timely return suspicious.

When the NSA approaches Darrow Fergusson, Addie’s childhood best friend and the son of the president’s chief of staff, he doesn’t know what to think. How could this slip of a girl be a threat to national security? But at the risk of having his own secrets exposed by the powerful government agency, Darrow agrees to spy on Addie.

It soon becomes apparent that Addie is much more than the traumatized victim of a sick political fringe group. Addie has come with a mission. Will she choose to complete it? And what will happen if she does?

Thoughts:

I actually hand’t heard of Zero Day until I got an email about the tour, but I’m SO excited to get to share it with all of you. Mystery/thrillers are my favorite genre, and I think that YA genre is really lacking. Okay, here we go!!!

We begin our story with a short prologue that functions to describe life before Addie disappears. The most inmportant information gained from this is an idea of what each of the characters were like before disaster struck. After this we dive right into Addie’s return. As we move along, it quickly becomes apparent to the reader and certain character that Addie has not fully disclosed her past. The mystery develops Addie reacclimatizes to her new/old life. A parallel plot continues to develop as well, featuring terrorist attacks by an organization known as Ceberus. Darrow and others struggle with successions about Addie and their clouded judgement because of their relationships.

Although the story is told in 3rd person, the narrator switches focus on different characters. At times as we read we are not sure as there reader who the character is/their importance in the story. Although the blurb portrays Darrow as the progonist, I would argue that Addie is the true main character. However, that being said, Addie’s past comes to life in snippets, where as Darrow is more transparent. As for the other characters, I was impressed with the development and redemption of Addie’s family. I also appreciated that secondary and barely there cast were not mentioned if not for some importance to the book. My favorite character, by far, as the Secret Service Agent Alvarez. She has a cool personality, and honestly, is just on super great.

Everything about Zero Day made you want to keep reading. The plot was unnerving with its complicated levels and slow spillage of secrets. The characters all started off pretty problematic but each developed in their own way. In the beginning I thought that Darrow was the most annoying, weak, teenage boy EVER. And although some of those characteristics carried throughout he did grow up as a person. I’m also going to briefly mention our little side romance right now, but honestly there’s really not much to say. Normally I would complain that it distracted from the action, but there was so little of and it was tastefully done to balance out all of the guns and explosions.

The first half of the book cannot be described as *slow* because I was so enthralled with the background and introduction to the mister that I remained interested, but its action level is nothing compared to the second half of the book. That’s where I almost feel like our climax hit; we jumped into a fast moving pace and didn’t really slow down from there! The ending of Zero Day is pretty open ended. Typically I’m not a fan of this type of ending, however this was the first non fantasy/sci-fy book that I’ve read in a long time that has made me crave a sequel. Is there going to be one? I don’t know, but if there is Zero Day has been the ultimate set up.

Final Thoughts:

If Zero Day is the precursor for the future of YA mystery and thriller then I am on board. This novel was exciting, enticing, and once you get going you never catch your breathe. I ended up reading this entire thing on a plane flight but #noregrets because I was thoroughly impressed. Gangsei’s novel was multi layered, complicated, and thoughtful. We also had some awesome character development thrown in there too! So, should you read Zero Day? YES. Die-hard thriller fans will appreciate the change of pace, and I would also recommend this for anyone tentative about the genre. Zero Day is impressive, and I can’t wait to see what we get from Gangsei’ next.

So now you want to go buy Zero Day?
Amazon | B&N | Indiebound | iBooks | The Book Depository

Or want to win it? Here’s a giveaway:
3 Finished Copies of ZERO DAY (US Only)

Want to know more about this glorious debut author?
Jan Gangsei grew up in small-town Vermont, reading Nancy Drew mysteries, putting on backyard shows with her best friend and dreaming about exploring the world. After college, she landed a job as a newspaper reporter covering politics and the police beat, and was astonished to discover she could actually get paid to write and tell stories. Since then, she’s lived in Key West, New York City, DC and Barbados. She’s now settled with her family in northern Virginia, where she writes full time with a cup of hazelnut coffee in one hand and a Jack Russell terrier named Watson curled under her legs. Her debut young adult novel, ZERO DAY, publishes with Disney-Hyperion in January, 2016. Also (!!) Fun Fact: Soon after Jan Gangsei learned to walk she was stuck on a pair of skis (Vermont law), which she promptly removed and watched as they slid down the mountain solo — likely explaining her future love of physics (and staying safely in the lodge).
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Check out the past posts on the tour: