Charbonneau, Joelle. NEED.

Charbonneau, Joelle.  NEED.  Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt Brace      2015  338p  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-544-41669-7      ms/hs  Mystery/Detective  E-BN

NEED is a race from start to finish, told from varying points of view by students who are trying to get what they need but always coming back to Kaylee.  Kaylee has been hounding people to get tested to see if they are a match to donate a kidney to her brother, since she and her mother are not and her father has disappeared.  She has even snuck a look at people’s medical records, which resulted in her being sent to see the school therapist.  When her best and only friend Nate invites her to join the website NEED, she decides that she needs a kidney for D.J., while her classmates are asking for phones and concert tickets.  When Kaylee catches someone digging a grave for her brother in their front yard and a fellow student ends up dead, Kaylee starts putting clues together and thinks NEED is to blame.  She has to convince people that she is not trying to get attention and is not crying wolf, but she finds there are fewer people she can really trust than ever before.  This is a scary look at what social networking can become, and the fast pace will have even reluctant readers with their noses glued to their books.  

Summary: What do you NEED? What is the difference between a want and a need?  Kaylee’s best friend Nate invites her to be a part of a social networking site that will allow users to ask for what they need in exchange for performing a task.  Kaylee only needs one thing, a kidney for her brother. Things get out of control with the NEED website and people start dying. Kaylee has been a fanatic about finding her brother a kidney, so much that people think she needs serious help.  Will people believe her when she tries to convince them of what NEED is doing?
     

Social Networking--Fiction, Mystery--Fiction                --Erin Daley