Cover Image: Fake

Fake

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A tightly plotted adventure mystery, Elle Fountain's Fake imagines a world recovering from a deadly scarlet fever outbreak where children are only able to go socialise and go to school once they reach fourteen. Farmgirl Jess feels out of place in her boarding school, surrounded by rich fellow pupils who order everything their hearts desire via drone technology. Surrounded by technology, Jess disappears into the world of hacking to distract herself, but when she begins to ask questions about the sudden price rises in the medicine keeping her sister alive, she unlocks a conspiracy that endangers her family and her future.
Bound to spark interesting classroom debate about our reliance upon technology, Fake is a pacy middle grade adventure with strong central character and high stakes.

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Another brilliant story from Elle Fountain. I love dystopian novels and this delivered. Identifiable characters and worryingly close to home situations.

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What a surprising and original dystopian book! I have to say that I was intrigued by the plot of this book, a world where children can’t go to real school because of antibiotics resistance. They have all their world online: school, friends, shopping… but now, Jess has the chance to go to the real world and meet real people. How will this go? She has a little sister, Chloe, that needs an expensive treatment, and it seems that the price is getting higher as days pass.
I loved this book; the story, the characters and the parallels with real life. A way to show the younger readers the power of antibiotics and vaccines, also a world where no one can have interaction with real people… Sounds a little familiar, yes, but I think that’s what made this book so special, it shows a little the world we lived during the pandemic but as something permanent. I really can’t imagine how difficult it must be not being able to have real friends, laughing with them, playing with them… so weird and sad at the same time.
Also, we can’t forget about the pharmaceutical power that has in the story; making money while people are suffering… too real!
This is an amazing book; interesting and real it will be impossible to not love it no matter what your age is.
Are you ready to discover the “Fake”?

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I love coming across a unique, speculative middle-grade and I don’t think enough of them exist. I am also a big fan of Pushkin Press, which was another reason for me to be drawn into this enigmatic, intriguing book.

Jess lives in a digital-first world where access to food and healthcare are controlled by large tech corporations and connections are all formed virtually. When she turns 14, she can finally go to a real school and mix with other teens for the first time. It’s there that she starts to question whether the digital world is as great as everyone says it is and she will soon need to dig into its darkest depths to help her family afford the life-saving medicine that her sister Chloe needs.

Getting glimpses into the world that Jess and her family inhabit was quite eerie. It isn’t our world but it is so easy to see how it could be our world and that was quite an unsettling experience. Of course, some aspects of it are positive, such as energy-saving transport and mindsets that care about the planet but the complete reliance on tech and big companies is a terrifying prospect.

Jess’ classmates have only ever been educated via technology and I can only imagine this was inspired by the online schooling that happened during the COVID lockdowns. There will be young kids who have only ever experienced digital learning and will perhaps be lost by the absence of screens. Jess has led something of a forbidden life before arriving at the school, so she has a slightly different perspective than her peers, which puts her in good stead for seeing behind all the corruption.

The characters are aware of a time before a great plague that changed their world exponentially. I couldn’t get away from the parallels between our pre and post COVID worlds and how things did change forever within the worlds of healthcare, education and leisure. Could we perhaps have stumbled into a world very much like Jess’ if things had gone far enough? Is this world an accurate reflection of our future?

Fake is a thoroughly thought-provoking depiction of how things could be for us. It’s action-packed with some lovely budding friendships, although I think I wanted some more development in them. Perhaps there will be a sequel where this and the world will be opened up a little more, which I’d definitely be interested in reading.

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Welcome to a dystopian near future so close to that you can almost taste it. The failure of antibiotics and an epidemic of scarlet fever has made this a world where drastic changes in the way children are brought up and educated have become necessary. Before the age of fourteen it is forbidden for children to mix with each other, beyond contact with their own siblings. to reduce the risk of infection. Lessons are all taken via an online learning service, and children only ever see their friends through the medium of a computer screen.

The time has now come for fourteen-year-old Jess to leave the quiet safety of her rural home with her parents, and sister Chloe who suffers from a chronic respiratory condition that requires ever more expensive medicine that they can barely afford. Jess is both excited and nervous about what lies ahead, afraid to leave her family and her close friend Finn, who they have been mixing with against the rules. Jess is the only one from her local learning cohort who is being sent away to a different school, and she will be among strangers for the first time in her life.

School is a revelation to Jess, for reasons both good and bad. Most of her classmates have never met another child face to face, and it is difficult to find things in common with these strangers - especially since their leisure hours revolve around shopping and virtual games that they all seem to have the money to indulge in freely, unlike Jess. She finds herself with an unexpected edge, having grown up in an environment where physical activity is a way of life, something her classmates who have spent all their time in a virtual world really struggle with. School also allows Jess to develop her innate musical talent, and display her programming skills - programming skills that have made her into an accomplished hacker.

Determined to put her skills to work to help her family cope with the cost of Chloe's treatment, Jess hacks into the central system that controls their lives, and accidentally stumbles across a shocking secret. What she has done sets in motion a chain of events that put her family in danger, revealling secrets about her own father, and the sinister reason why she has been sent to this school. It's time for Jess to discover who she can trust, and what's real or fake about the way they are all forced to live..

It's rare for me to be tempted by a YA novel these days, but sometimes I come across a little gem of a concept aimed at younger readers and Fake by Ele Fountain is indeed such a treasure.

Fountain has crafted a deceptively clever dystopian novel here, with a well-conceived, page-turning story-line infused with mystery and suspense, that is pitched perfectly for the YA audience and above. I'm very impressed by the way she introduces a myriad of thought-provoking themes throughout this tale, exploring issues around antibiotic resistance, chronic medical conditions, big-pharma, consumerism, and corporate greed, in such an engaging way, and really opens up the opportunity for conversation about them - all while carrying you along on the tide of a cracking story. There are very interesting threads about isolation and loss too, which resonate with the tricky pandemic times we have all had to negotiate in recent times.

I love the premise of this novel, making the virtual world the focus of the story and examining the advantages, and critically the harsh pitfalls, of relying too heavily on living our lives online - especially the way algorithms can be manipulated to control us. There is plenty of heart here too, and you get very caught up in the human side of the story, which plucks nicely at the heart-strings. There is also scope for an intriguing sequel that I really want to read, as I am not ready to let go of these characters quite yet. I very much hope Ele Fountain picks up their story again, because a follow-up could be very exciting indeed.

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This is a Middle-Grade near future sci-fi/dystopian mystery but also pretty contemporary book. It's kinda hard to describe as just genres. But it's marvelous in terms of plot and idea.
I've seen a rush on authors to write books set in a near-future world related to the pandemic and online learning/work as an active arc reader, and this was no exception. I'm kinda jealous because they obviously used that time to write a new idea book and get it published pretty soon, while I'm still with my old books and they still haven't seen their light of day, lol, hopefully soon.
Jess is a 14-year-old girl who is excited to start physical school as kids under 14 all only do online learning which is in a VR-like world. Because of this virus, big companies used the time and people's stress to earn money by giving people peace of mind by staying home and doing all kinds of purchases and virtual worlds there. Jess had a younger sister that gets sick pretty often (not specified but it's safe to say it must be some low immunity condition) so she's worried about leaving her as schools are all boarding ones and she can only meet her family physically on holidays, but through this VR world, she can do it every day though. She's kinda worried because the life her family lead is a bit different from others, and she has a secret no one knows. She's a hacker, which is VERY illegal... In the boarding school, she makes friends from different upbringings, and there are even kids who never met any other kid before. She connects with Mae who has a secret of her own too. Jess really stands up as a very clever kid in many things like programming and music composing as she really likes patterns. But one time something strange happens, as her sister can't connect to online school, and her parents don't seem to access their credits (kinda like virtual money, which I've seen being used in many futuristic books instead of cash which is realistic I suppose) and then they can't even connect to her or anyone anymore, it's like they vanished. So Jess wants to find out what happened and try to fix it, as she's worried it's her fault why it happened.
The summary I gave is way too long, as the book is only 250ish pages long, but you get the idea. Though it's best you enter it without any idea, as I did. It was a pretty entertaining, fast, and short read. The world here was pretty close to ours, but thankfully it may not really happen as we contained the virus pretty well and are back to the 'normal' world.
I liked the friendships, and ideas against power and abuse through it for personal gain and doing something small which can influence the world and make it a little better. I also really liked the whole dilemma Jess had about real-world and fake. Is the virtual world fake or is it just a different dimension from real, and how do friendships, lies, and communications differ between the virtual and physical world? I'd say for an MG book it did a pretty good job. It was very grounded in 'reality', not too ambitious, and fictional and I really adored that. Especially that it's not centered on action and fights or whatever, the MC is pretty realistic, and very like me. I always wanted to be a hacker when I was younger and taught myself basic coding but as I grew up, and school and then books took over my life it sadly been pushed aside... sigh
I recommend to tweens, MG fans, and all near-future sci-fi books that are based on the pandemic.

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Another great novel by Eli Fountain. Set in the post-pandemic future, the main character, Jess, can't wait to start school. Following a scarlet fever epidemic all children are kept at home until they are 14, ostensibly to keep them safe. They then attend a state boarding school. this isolation has ensured that the virtual world is as important as the real world. However, once she arrives school is not quite what Jess imagined, and when things start to go wrong, at home and at school, she realises that the world is not as she imagined and she starts to question her upbringing on a small holding. A great page turner and beautifully written, it allows the reader to imagine themselves in Jess' position and consider what choices they would have made ... A great addition to a school library or for use as a class read for years 6 or 7.

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This book was sent to me by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

We are in a world that does not seem so very far away from where we are now. Except - until the age of 14, children are not allowed to socialise, to go to school because their immune systems will not be able to cope with infection. They stay within their family circle and all education is online. But, when they reach 14, then they are sent away to school, returning only for school holidays.

Jess is 14 and is heading to school. She's excited, and nervous, and is hiding a secret. She is a hacker. At school she makes friends, but she also discovers something when she hacks into a pharmaceutical company to try to find out why her sister's medication is becoming more expensive. Her little foray causes trouble not just for her but also for her family and she has to embark on a journey to try to pout things right.

This is a novel with a fascinating premise - a world where there is no cash, where everything is online and the powers that be have the ability just to withdraw everything just by a touch of a button. Not a world I want.

A super read. Thank you Netgalley and Pushkin Press for allowing me to read this.

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Eli Fountain is able to weave words so wonderfully that you cannot help but be drawn into the world she has created and Fake is no exception.
The reality of society shifting online is not misplaced. We have seen the Covid pandemic alter the way we, as humans live, and so the concept of tech companies dominating life is not as fictional as we might think nor is the fear of antibiotic resistance as this is a reality that humans will have to face one day.
I love that Eli Fountain does not shy away from the issues she writes about but rather enables readers of all ages to absorb, to wonder and to ask questions.
In Fake, we meet Jess. For the first time, she is attending school, something she has dreamed of for years. However things don't work out as planned and people are not what they seem. In a world where you exist more online than in reality, there is a real possibility that you can disappear. This is a page turner and a book that will not be resting on library shelves. A triumphant 5 star read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Children's for this e-arc.

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I really enjoyed this book, it was full of mystery and intrigue and I found Jess to be a great protagonist, I really liked her. I found the writing style really easy to read and I liked the storyline which was so interesting and the charcter developement was good also.
If I had one negative it would be that after the tone of the book the whole way through the ending fell flat for me it just seems a bit hurried and slightly disappointing. Overall I enjoyed it but of the ending had worked better it would have been a 5 star read for me.

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Thank you to Netgalley, Pushkin Press and Ele Fountain for an early copy of this book.

It’s interesting to read this book just after reviewing The Herd as it is a story set in the near future, where antibiotic resistance means that children no longer mix until they are aged 14 and have fully developed immune systems. Clearly current fiction has been influenced by the pandemic!

In this dystopian reality, everyone lives in fear of contracting illnesses that can no longer be easily cured. So until they reach 14, most children learn online, with no physical contact with anyone their own age. Jess however, has a real life friend, Finn and also a little sister, Chloe, who is lives with a condition (asthma?) that is treatable with expensive drugs. Her family are also different as they avoid online shopping and try to be self-sufficient.

Jess, like other teenagers, goes to real life boarding school (a different one to Finn) to engage in face to face learning for the first time. Some children have never met anyone their own age!

Jess navigates the new world of boarding school and through her eyes we view this potential future. We watch as the way that the students at her school then use something very reminiscent of Amazon (online shopping with drones) and have an online world that distracts from offline life. Due to the cost of the drugs that Chloe needs, Jess cannot afford to mindlessly consume.

She has another secret too, Jess is a hacker and at night she breaks codes for fun. Will the other students find out about her clandestine activity?

I very much enjoyed the future gazing, although some of the ideas feel very close to reality. My only minor criticism is that the ending felt a bit abrupt. I would like to know what happens next to Jess and her friends and whether they manage to bring down ‘big business.’ I’m hoping this is a series! 😁

Our students are already big fans of Ele Fountain and I’m sure this will be very popular with them. I should add that whilst Jess is a teenager, this book is definitely suitable for younger readers/middle-grade.

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Ok.. I have to admit that Ele Fountain has become my favourite older children’s YA writer in recent years- stories that are contemporary and diverse in content, Fake takes us beyond the world of a pandemic to a future where home learning is the norm and big pharma/ technology companies control everyone’s lives and how money is spent. Jess is a hacker and is sent to a school where children can actually learn together . She has the technology to stay in contact with her family but with a younger sister who is I’ll, Jess attempts to hack into the system which controls the price of medicine. She is confronted with a system that can delete people - their online identity and money.- her family. She needs to save them and her sick sister . With a fast moving plot Ele Fountain has created another page turner that I’ll certainly recommend to teaching colleagues, learners and enthusiastic readers. Another original winner that makes you consider where is humanity heading - very much like previous books focusing on climate change, poverty and refugees.

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What an adventure!!
We follow Jess, a 14 year old girl who is about to leave her family and go to school! Ever since a virus made antibiotics useless everyone must stay at home until they have built up a good immune system. They have lessons online and there is a dependency on computers more than ever. Jess is a whizz on computers and has taught herself how to hack into systems!
Once Jess gets to school, she really enjoys her lessons and even manages to make friends, but she misses her sister and parents. One day whilst speaking to her family, jess’ sister mentions she cannot access her live learning and something feels off to Jess. The next day she cannot get in touch with them and panic sets in!
Will Jess figure out what is going on and ‘fix’ the problem?

I was a little disappointed by the ending, it felt rushed and there are a lot of loose ends, which will probably be another book.
Overall a good book, very modern and perfect for our time in life at the moment!

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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It's HERE! The much-anticipated, exciting new story from Ele Fountain. Brought to us by Pushkin Press, with another fantastic, eye-catching cover by Thy Bui.

Can you imagine actually going to school for the first time when you're 14 years old? Jess had grown up learning at home, where they grew their own veg & mum sold their honey. School classes were entirely online. Everything involved connectivity & being surrounded by technology - drone deliveries, screens in rooms & on people's wrists. Tech' everywhere!

Jess is a keen programmer & excellent coder. Her knowledge will be tested but there's so much else to think about.

How can she help her family without knowing the facts or who to trust?

Sometimes the overlap of real & virtual life can be a tricky area & people can hide behind online identities, but Jess has a secret skill that might be VERY useful.

Packing her clothes in a chunky wooden trunk that's been in the family for many years, Jess is excited about school. She will miss her family & worries about her sister, Chloe, who isn't well.

It's a huge step into the unknown, away from everyone she loves. New, real-life friends are such a novelty & now Jess can explore one of her loves, writing music, with an enthusiastic, encouraging teacher who spots her talent.

The old trunk holds a mystery but Jess has her own secret too.

You'll want to jump straight into this adventure to see if Jess has the problem-solving skills to triumph over corporate greed & help her sister before it's too late.

Will you figure out who JP is? Surrounded by high-tech, hologram animals & study 'books', life is so different out in the real world.

But sometimes old-style thinking wins the day!

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