I have to admit I preferred the second half of the book to the first. As soon as I started reading I was like what does half of this stuff mean and if you don’t want or understand tech then this book just isn’t for you. Also the majority of characters were very self righteous/ self centered

The file uploaded to NetGalley is badly formatted and makes it impossible to read. What I could read was dull and borderline offensive.

I absolutely adored David Yoon's YA romance/contemporary books and loved the story/writing in those books, but something about this one was not enjoyable for me, but I do think that is because of me and not because of the actual book.
I am not the biggest fan of sci-fi books, but thought I would give this one a go as I enjoyed David Yoon's previous books and the synopsis sounded like something which I would enjoy.
However, I found myself really bored reading this and in order for me to enjoy sci-fi books I need a bit more action within the book or something which I could connect to in the story, and this story did not do that for me. I found the characters boring and did not care much for them.
I really wanted to like this story, and although I did not enjoy it in the end, it will not discourage me from picking up David Yoon's future YA romance/contemporary books.

There are a lot of technological thrillers and sci-fi novels based in a dystopian world, but this was certainly one of the most plausible, relatable ones I've experienced. Max loses his job working at social media giant Wren (think Facebook) when he questions their use of the personal data they collect from users. This sends Max on a rather crazy adventure to save the world with the help of his best friends and, amazingly, a reclusive technological genius.

The idea of user data being collected and used nefariously by a huge tech company is quite worrying, which is probably what makes this book all the more disturbing. But alongside this, there are moments that feel like they're straight from an action movie, and the humour is great. It's a real page-turner, and it builds so dramatically toward the end. There are elements of romance, but not enough to effect the plot too much, and the characters were all really likeable. It's a dystopian novel that feels so real, and so the characters' quest to take down Wren and ultimately save the world is all the more potent.

I highly recommend this book to any lovers of technological sci-fi or thrillers. It's exciting and action-packed, with a good amount of emotion throughout. 4 stars!

Not sure how i felt about this, I enjoyed it but don't feel I fully let myself fall into the book. Will be adding it to my audiobook collection for commuting thought

I loved David Yoon's Frankly in Love- it's one of my favourites of all time! But this one ultimately let me down. I didn't like the characters or the plot. The writing was great, but I couldn't connect with anyone. This book had a lot of potential! The premise sounds great, but didn't live up to my expectations.

This book scarily reveals what we all secretly know about our use of social media and how those companies extract our data. The fun quizzes we play are seemingly not so innocent according to Version Zero.

Housed in the Wren company is Helix, a place reserved for secret research and projects, aptly named after the helix nebula nicknamed “The eye of God”. For Wren their number one rule is don’t be evil so when Max starts asking the wrong questions about what they are using the collected data for he finds himself fired and takes it upon himself to put a stop to them before it’s too late.

With his friends and assistance from a reclusive tech mogul this is very much a good guys vs bad guys read which is a trope I normally love. However I had some niggles here and a lot of them were down to the language used towards race descriptions. There was no need for them to be used and it detracted rather than highlighted important issues.

This isn’t a new idea as it bears resemblance to The Circle by Dave Eggers, but this is a more inclusive and I personally feel a more realistic version of the dangers of internet addiction and social media use. You will certainly think about going on Facebook and at least changing your settings after reading it.

The pace was changeable and did slow in places but it wasn’t too tech heavy so that this dinosaur could at least understand it.

The characters were the best part of the book and I think this would really appeal to Black Mirror and Nerve fans.

What began as a powerful, reality-checking story, soon lost momentum and I fell out of love with this plot as a result. Don’t get me wrong, Yoon’s narrative is definitely thought-provoking and encouraged me to question my use of the internet and social media. However, the delivery was not as punchy as I was hoping for and I thought it only really picked up in the final chapters.

Yoon explores how modern society is enslaved by the internet. In this narrative, there are criticisms about how addiction to social media and sharing information about ourselves. This, in turn, is then used by the big corporations to harvest data and use it to feed the addiction online. It’s a vicious cycle and it definitely had me questioning my attitude and behaviours towards what I share online. With Max and his friends, they decide that enough is enough. Desiring to crash the big corporations and stop this corruptive data-harvesting, Max and his friends meet with Pilot – a tech, millionaire mogul whose life remains a mystery after removing himself completely from the public eye.

This novel therefore follows how Max leads this destruction of how much the internet companies learn about their users. There are several “stunts” that are sent into the ether in an attempt to persuade users to delete several social media accounts. It works only temporarily before accounts are reactivated, believing that ‘Version Zero’ and their cyber attack is meaningless. Unsurprisingly, Max and his friends feel they need to do something bigger and better to ensure everyone takes notice.

You don’t need to be totally tech savvy to follow the premise of this book. I liked reading some of the social media references and the debate of how society existed before the internet, social media, smart phones etc. Indeed, I thought the closing chapter was particularly powerful as Yoon provides a glimpse into a sort of utopian society.

There were exciting, unpredictable moments to this book. On the other hand, there were also times when I thought the dialogue slowed the pace and made it a rather dull read. Furthermore, I was not sure why there were racial comments also being made in this book. For me, I think it made this a more politicised novel which is not just about how much we should protect our online privacy, but also the skin colour of people in positions of power. Personally, I think the racial references muddied the general message of the novel and I am unsure of its relevance to Yoon’s narrative.

An interesting read, it is certainly one to consider because of how provocative the narrative becomes. There’s not as much action as I wanted throughout the narrative but I really enjoyed the suggestions that come through the story. With psychological implications of using social media to consider, I think this added extra depth to the plot. However, overall, there was not enough excitement to Max’s project, despite the desire to change the world for the better.

With thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Version Zero is a lightning-fast and scorchingly observant novel of the moment and a thrilling, humorous adult debut from the brilliant mind of New York Times bestselling Young Adult author David Yoon. Reboot the present. Save the future. Max Portillo, a Salvadoran-American programmer and data whiz at the Facebook-like social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he starts asking questions about what his company is doing with the data they collect, he finds himself fired…and then blackballed across all of Silicon Valley. With time on his hands and inside knowledge about the biggest tech companies, Max and his longtime friend—and sometimes crush—Akiko, decide to get even by…essentially, rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them. But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended—and disastrous—consequences. And those consequences will ripple across the world, affecting every level of society in ways no one could have imagined no matter how well intentioned the reasoning behind the action.

This is a compulsively readable near-future thriller and plays superbly on the fears and implications of social media and the dark side of the internet. Moving at quickfire pace, it features the extremely popular bad guys versus good guys trope with them racing against time and each other in a high-stakes, adrenaline-pumping, action-packed thrill ride, and luckily it's executed adeptly enough that there's never a dull moment, plenty of unpredictable surprises and intense twisty-turns to keep you feverishly turning the pages. This is an up to the minute thriller exploring the social issues of our time and the satirical humour when addressing the high-tech business world and internet culture is a delight with some sharp observations throughout. The Faustian deal with the devil social media users are now known to have made with the companies whose main objective is to harvest data, the most sought-after and therefore profitable commodity in the world is a stark reminder of our vulnerability. A wild, high-octane ride with some thought-provoking social commentary and a palpably tense narrative. A thoroughly entertaining capitalistic technothriller. Highly recommended.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review e-copy and having me along on the blog tour!


When I read the synopsis for Version Zero I was immediately intrigued and as I hadn't read any of Yoon's books before but knew he was quite popular I decided it was a good place to start. I'd say this book is YA but there are mentions of death, suicide, murder, online bullying, abuse and it does have a couple of quite violent moments.


I envisaged a read with an evil corporation and some non-stop cool action.


That isn't what I got.


I have to say, I am disappointed. I very nearly did not finish this book but I did crawl on (mostly skim reading) purely to find out how it ended and if it was worth it. The narrative follows Max and his friends (one is the girl that got away …) as they meet a tech superstar who disappeared from the limelight mysteriously and together they embark on bringing down Wren (basically facebook) as the CEO is planning on doing bad things with everyone's data and capitalising on it…


I like Yoon's writing style, he has a very dry humour that comes through his writing and he is clever, both of which I appreciate. I think perhaps I was not the target audience for Version Zero which is a shame. I didn't follow the tech talk too much although I got the gist of it and I didn't warm to any of the characters, in fact I actively disliked most of them by the end because they made choices which I just couldn't link to their personalities. Speaking of the end, it was a lot more violent than I was expecting so that threw me a bit too.


For a 400 page novel, I think the narrative needed to be punchier. It was quite slow and overall I think it tried a bit too hard to make a point about the Internet and not really living.


Version Zero is out this week! I'm going to put it aside now and find some more of Yoon's work to try instead!

What do you get when you inject Black Mirror with humour?

Answer: Verison Zero

Version Zero begins when Max, our main protagonist, discovers some shady going ons at his social media company, Wren. FYI Wren is in Version Zero what Facebook is in real life. Because he is a good person, he begins to question things and we all know what happens when you begin to question the man at the top.

You get fired.

With his two friends and a disenchanted tech guru, the team devise a plan that will shock the world by stripping the internet to its basic form in order to get it back to its goodness. However, things slowly start to unravel and disastrous consequences are very close by.

I loved the premise of this book. Someone trying to take down the digital world because it’s going too far? Yes, please. Sign me up. All the time.


If you’re interested in:
Consequences of the internet as it is today
The internet gone wrong
Black Mirror with humour
A main character who comes from an immigrant background (hard working parents who have high hopes for their child)

You’ll enjoy this one.

There was a lot I enjoyed about "Version Zero" (most notably David Yoon's writing style), but the plot and characters (too many to connect with any of them the way I wanted to) felt a little bit flat to me in places. It's a great story, but I think it just wasn't for me. My loss.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

I really wish I could give this a higher rating, there was so much about it that I really loved - but unfortunately there were a few things that just didn't sit right with me. The whole concept of bringing down the Internet, and more importantly the big businesses who take advantage of users, is something that we need to think more about. We all accept all cookies, without really appreciating how much value the information we give up has.
I didn't understand Pilot's usage of Mister and Miz, it felt like there was a reason but it was never explained. It was one of the many things that made me uncomfortable with him, which made the story less credible to me.
Also it felt very much like a teen novel even though it's supposedly for adults.
Overall I would recommend it, but with a disclaimer.

Version Zero did not initially sell itself to me and I must admit I found the first 10 percent to be so bad that if I hadn’t been reading the book for NetGalley I would have put it down and never picked it back up again. That said, I’m happy that I stuck with it as past the first 10 percent is a decent novel with a good deal to say on the dangers of how we use and are being used by the internet in modern day society.

I think my main problem with the beginning of the book was that it involves a lot of characters as we meet Max and his co-workers and bosses at Wren – a version of Facebook. David Yoon seems to be very bad at describing people and so we get descriptions solely consisting of their race and job title, for example ‘Whiteman this’ or ‘Brown that’. We are told multiple times, for example that Maurice is an African American security guard but nothing else about him. This felt like a very lazy way of introducing characters and made me feel a bit uneasy. There is also a point where a Latino character calls a white character the N word which I really think should be edited out prior to publication as it was completely unnecessary. The lazy descriptions become a lot less problematic later in the book where there’s only 5 characters and they have been properly described and filled out as characters.

When I first started making notes as I read the book, I noted that it felt that that Yoon was an older author who was attempting (and failing) to sound cool. As someone in their 30s this felt really cringey even for me so I hate to think what a Gen Z would make of it! There’s references to ‘Cool-boss Justin’ and sentences such as ‘he super much believed in that old tech cliché’ which was just painful to read. Again, this began to balance out and was a lot better in the later stages of the book so perhaps the author needs to go back and make the two halves gel stylistically better together.

There were also a few things that did not make sense and I feel that a good edit would have sorted these out. ‘There was a low flissilating sound’ is said at one point – flissilating is not a word! There’s also a few times where a character confusingly throws a fireball at the sea with his palms which I didn’t understand.

I realise I haven’t perhaps sold the book very well but hiding within the bad writing is a good story. Max, Akiko and Shane are really well described, and I felt like we really got to know them and their progression as characters as we went through the story. I liked the jumps to discussion boards and news shows and this helped to keep the story fresh and well-paced. A lot of the book relies heavily on very thinly veiled parallels to technology we have at the moment, however although some exposition is needed for fictional events, the book also explains concepts such as ‘hashtags’ and ‘emojis’ which felt very jarring and quite patronising.

The book has a well-paced plot that really ramped up towards the end with a gory and action-packed climax. I could see where events where going though and it did get a little predictable with the ‘shock’ reveal not having as hard an impact as it could have had. There’s some really good points made by the author about how companies are using our data and how far they need to go before we snap and delete our accounts.

Overall, Version Zero needs a much better edit to strengthen its beginning, but if you can keep going past the lazy writing, there’s a good story with an important point to be made. Thank you to NetGalley & HQ stories for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for a (very) honest review.

I really struggled to get into this book. It is very different from David Yoon's previous books which I throughly enjoyed. David's previous books were part of the YA genre and had contemporary storylines. This on the other hand is in the adult fiction genre and has a sci-fi storyline. I knew this going into the book but still struggled to enjoy the story.

I'm sure if you are a huge fan of sci-fi then this book will be well worth a read. Sadly, it wasn't for me and I couldn't get into the storyline. I will still be recommending it to sci-fi fans though!

This is the first time I've come across anything by David Yoon. First up i absolutely LOVED this author's writing style: it's tight, slang-tastic, fast and really rather brilliantly written. His descriptions and observations are quite unlike anything I've read before. We're introduced to Max who works for a (achingly familiar) social media tech company giant. When he gets asked to oversee a project that will take their users data and use it in ways that basically blew up his moral compass - he objects. Within 24 hours he's been booted out of the company. His friend and super smart co-worker (and object of unrequited love) is Akiko. Along side her boyfriend pool cleaner Shane they hook up with a mysterious billionaire in an attempt to overthrow the select band of tech individuals behind the major five companies in Silicon Valley. They bring them together for a retreat on a private island and that's when things take off. This is a worthy successor to The Circle, a super modern day thriller which gets us thinking about the power and impact of social media giants on our lives. I loved it

I found it really hard to get past the racial slurs used in this book, regardless of context...for white male to use the "n" word is acceptable in this day and age and it's so early in the book that ruins the experience of reading it!

After questioning his employers, data technician Max finds himself fired and blackballed across the industry. Taking his insider knowledge, he gathers his friends in a daring plan to rip the curtains off the stage and make a stand. When they receive a mysterious invitation from a reclusive tech legend and access to his technology, their plans go further than they could ever expect. But what is the cost and is it worth the risk for Max?

I’ll apologise for this review in advance because like my reading experience, it was a jumbled up mess. There were so many moments that were quite thrilling, but in the end, Version Zero was not the one for me.

Where do I begin? I guess the setting and plot. Version Zero takes place in reality similar to our, same significant events. There are five major media companies; names are familiar enough that it doesn’t take much to know who represents which major corporation. I have to admit I didn’t understand what was going on in the beginning. Yoon introduces a pecking order that doesn’t seem to have any relevance to the book, a tidbit to make it seem more science fiction when the story could have quickly done without such information. The story didn’t work for me. Despite what appears to be an eventful plot from the synopsis, the story was messy and underwhelming. Reboot the present. Save the future. Version Zero tried very hard to be a book about human life online, and how we’ve given up privacy in the age of digital information. I was invested in the anger Max felt about these top percenter who hide from accountability on their platform, the hate that is a constant cycle that moves from site to site, taking innocent lives. I feel like it wasn’t as nuanced as it could have been and fell victim to the simple “internet bad, the time before good,” debate.

I could have forgiven this book for its flaws if the characters were remotely interesting. I wasn’t sure if the characters themselves knew what they were doing. Max, our protagonist, is our down and out, data technician who is fired when he mentions how uncomfortable he is with Wren (think Facebook) and their plans to gain more of their user’s information. There was a part of Max that I liked, the man who wanted to do good by his family, make something of himself. Every time he spoke, I could not feel any passion for the other stuff he says. The best way I could describe his voice is empty. He recruits his best friends, Akiko, and her boyfriend, Shane, in his plans to reboot the internet. It goes well, gaining the attention of Pilot Markham, a key figure in internet history, who disappeared off the face of the earth and wants to help in their fight. He’s joined alongside teen Brayden and together forms their group. I wish I knew what the hell was happening in this strange dynamic. Max harboured a crush on Akiko, partakes in emotional cheating and Shane is just there to be pure muscle and be weird. Pilot Markham was fascinating; to say the least, he’s responsible for most of the book’s thriller parts. I don’t understand how Max was willing to accept him into his plan, considering what you learn about his background. It just screamed red flags, and you would have thought Max would have picked up on it. Brayden, this poor child, why was he even there? Nothing meshed well, and everyone just contradicted each other in the worst way.

Overall, I wish I could saying something more positive that you could take away from this review. I tried to give it a chance. Max and his friends might have changed the world, but this project failed to spark any real interest in me.

On the surface level, Version Zero is a high-octane, quick-moving thriller that takes ruthless twists, shocking and entertaining at the same time. But on a deeper level, it's also an unflinching look at how rotten the Internet has become, controlled by greedy capitalists, gaining wealth off the backs of marginalized people. It explores how racism and sexism play a huge part in the tech industry and serves to widen the wealth gap between the rich and the poor. I was very convinced by the knowledge that Yoon has about the industry as he writes with such a confidence and a wealth of information. I can't wait for this to be turned into a TV series or a movie!

This book was wildly different from Yoon’s first book. It was highly enjoyable. The characters are vivid even if the concept is unbelievable. What if everything was too good to be true?