This review contains spoilers.
Though fast paced and
filled with twists and turns, Michelle Gagnon’s Don’t Turn Around
fails to meet the high standards it sets for itself. On Amazon, fans of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are told they will “devour the story of Noa.”
Sadly, the characters fall flat, as does the plot, and a lack of plausibility
takes us out of reading experience.
The novel has a promising
beginning, with the main character Noa waking up on a cold metal bed with an IV
attached to her arm and no knowledge of how she got there. Though it’s hard to believe someone
with no fighting experience could escape this heavily guarded facility with no
help, she does so through luck and her will to never give up.
Meanwhile, the other lead
character, Peter, goes snooping through some of his father’s work files and
discovers Project Persephone. Soon after searching the Internet for the
project, three men break down his door and threaten him, taking his laptop. Distraught
over his encounter, Peter emails one of his online hacker friends, Rain, from
/ALLIANCE/, a hacktivism organization that Peter created to help others and
uncover government corruption. Rain turns out to be Noa, and the two soon
discover that both of their experiences are connected.
Noa has been in and out of
foster care since the death of her parents, and Peter has dealt with his
parents’ lack of interest and pain from the death of his older brother. They’ve
both turned to technology for support. Though both backstories compel the
reader to sympathize with the characters, they often interrupt the flow of the
story and their inclusion in scenes feels forced, like a gimmick to make the
reader feel bad for the characters. It’s beaten into the reader’s head that
Peter’s parents neglect him, but at the same time we don’t really know if Peter
just views his parents in a negative light or if they really treat him badly.
They seem cold, especially in one particularly unrealistic fight when Peter’s
father tells him to leave his house and his lawyer mother stays silent. Most of
the adults in the story were either villainized or weak. Younger readers may
not always want parents to play a large role in the narrative, but in Don’t Turn Around, the parents just fall flat, hurting the reading
experience.
We are repeatedly told
that Noa has had horrible foster experiences, with the families only wanting
her for money or abusing her. Noa remembers a crab catcher who only wanted the
government money given for taking care of her, a mother who broke her wrist
because she didn’t wash the dishes right, and a father who tried to burn her
with a cigarette. I’m not a foster child, so I don’t know what many experience,
but the extremes of Noa’s experience felt unnecessary and unrealistic. Gagnon
tried to make the reader sympathize with her characters, but alienated them
instead.
Another problem came with
the plot. The “surprise” of why Noa was experimented on was only a surprise
because the information that a disease called PEMA has been killing off
teenagers is only shown a third of the way through the novel. Something this
big being kept unmentioned felt off.
The relationship between
Peter and Amanda was confusing at first, but the portrayal of the failings of
love after someone goes off to college rescued the relationship. Unfortunately,
not for long. The idea is ruined when, at the end of the book (not even a week
after Amanda admits she doesn’t feel the same anymore), Peter is over it. He
doesn’t love her like he once did. Another insincere, unrealistic storyline.
This is most likely done so Peter and Noa will fall in love by book three of
the trilogy.
There were pluses to Don’t Turn Around. Set in Boston, the story takes us from the Apple
Store on Boylston Street to Cambridge and various other spots in the city. Anyone from the city can imagine being
there with Noa and Peter as they struggle to survive against AMRF, the shady
corporation that may be behind Noa’s abduction. There’s a flashback to the
moment of Noa’s parents’ death that Gagnon handles in a memorable, heartfelt
way. It stuck out as one of the best parts in the book. The cover is amazing. It
pulls you in, and makes you want to see what the next two book covers will look
like.
And though many parts ring
untrue (like the Cambridge apartment Noa rents for a week for $500), the reader
learns about the threat of living on the street. We are opened up to the idea
that we should pay attention to those less fortunate, because if we don’t we
may overlook the pain hidden underneath the faces we try to imagine don’t
exist.
By TJ Ohler
