Janus Rose is in some ways the typical sixteen-year-old; she’s smart as a whip with computers, but not so much in applying herself in school or making sound decisions based on potentially, far-reaching repercussions for her actions. The daughter of a single mother who has multiple sclerosis, Janus helps out around Assured Destruction, a small business that handles the disposal of old and unwanted computers. When she makes use of a number of old computer hard drives that should have been destroyed, Janus finds herself in the middle of trouble so serious that not even she could have anticipated, and digging herself out has the potential to make things even worse.
With ASSURED DESTRUCTION, author Michael F. Stewart offers a valuable lesson while telling an entertaining story. With the modern world being so intricately connected via computer and the internet, and a generation of children raised on social networking sites on which to document their every thought and image, the repercussions of a life constantly lived online are brought home to roost. Stewart’s characters are neither all bad nor all good, but rather a mix of both, making them well fleshed out and wonderful to read about. Main character Janus is, in many ways, the YA equivalent of an everyman, and that makes her easy to relate to. She could be anyone’s daughter, or son, or brother, or sister. At first glance, the predicament in which Janus finds herself could seem over the top, but with cyber-bullying in the headlines, and the constant threat of computer viruses and identity theft, the situation is all too plausible. The story clearly lays out the choices Janus faces, and shows that what has been used for ill-gotten gain can easily be used for good.
ASSURED DESTRUCTION is a must-read and moves quickly enough to capture even the shortest attention spans.
Reviewed by K.J. Pierce for IndieReader