Kari Townsend

When Samantha Granger touches a meteor while talking on her cell phone, her life is changed forever: her body now has all the capabilities of her phone (GPS, phone, text, camera). She secretly calls herself a “Digital Diva” as she rushes to answer emergency calls. But will her identity be discovered when sparks fly (literally!) between her and Trevor, her dreamy crush? Samantha has to get a handle on her abilities and quick, because when Sam gets kidnapped and the entire town is in danger, she is the only one who can save them.

This book has the flavour of a cartoon, or a comic, without any pictures – it’s really good on dialogue and the way people interact with each other, there’s a clear, sequential story and things move on at a cracking pace. And it’s all quite readable – I wanted to finish it, to find out the end of the story (not just particularly to see what happened to Sam, who was frankly A Bit Annoying). Great original idea for a story too. And taken at the level of a comic book, it’s a fun read too, just don’t expect any great wordy descriptions or character development. And enough with the mentions of bodily functions, thanks. The characters, particularly the adults, are sketched out in fairly basic terms so that they are Typical Busy Working Mom, Much Loved No-Nonsense Gram etc. I wonder if it was written with the thought of being turned into a film or a cartoon? It would work too, as some of the descriptions of Sam as she is downloading GPS directions and taking recordings with her eyeball sound like they could be really funny visually.

I think that this is a funny and original read if you don’t expect anything too much, it’s a bit of fun.

Rating
Plot: 7/10
There was enough action for me to enjoy the book.
Writing Quality: 7/10
The writing quality was pretty good.
Originality: 9/10
Very original idea in that it had never been done before
Characters: 4/10
The characters were not that developed.
Descriptions: 5/10
There wasn’t a huge amount of descriptions, but enough for me to imagine it.

32/50 = 64%… (lisätietoja)

Samantha Granger is having a hard time. She's been moved from home, her parents are separated, and her favorite person, Gram, her dad's mom is thousands of miles away. She has made friends at school and has a crush on the cute guy on the football team who just happens to have the locker next to her. But just as he's starting to show interest, she becomes a "freak." She was walking home from her friends house and gets lost in the woods. She sees something fall in the woods. She discovers a meteorite and touches it while holding her cell phone and voila she's thrown back 20 feet and loses her phone.

She walks home, not lost anymore but able to get straight home without any help. And other weird things happen to her and suddenly her whole life changes. She is fused with her cell phone. And she doesn't realize it until the next morning when her phone, which she'd left on vibrate, begins to vibrate on her hand. She realizes what happened, and does the only thing she can do, uses her mother's 80's fingerless gloves to cover her hand.

A myriad of things happen to her as she discovers the many things her Electro Craze phone can actually do. Most phones can't predict exactly where the soccer ball is going to go while Sam plays goalie. And most phones can't tell the major cities of South Africa and their population. And then the popular girl starts spreading rumors that Sam's father was fired from the company both he and her mother worked for the company that designed the Electro Craze, for doing something illegal. And because of the meteorite, the town is crawling with scientist and men in dark sunglasses. Something Sam doesn't need. And all of a sudden, Grams is at the door, come to Sam's rescue, sort of and her father is in town.

Now, Sam needs to find out how to become unfused, stay away from the scientists, and somehow keep her hormones from overloading every time Trevor tries to kiss her, because her circuits overload and her body is taken over by the Electro Craze. It marches her away to take over a 911 call. But that isn't her worst problem. And things only get worse as the story goes on.

The story is a combination of middle school problems, technological superhero problems, boy problems and all the usual middle school craziness. There is the typical bitch who rules the school, but Sam has good friends. The football jock, who isn't dense or wrapped around anyone's finger. Sam and her best friend Mel play soccer, no shrinking violets. Samantha doesn't hide her head and say woe is me. She's a strong girl and goes after solving her problem head long. I like her character. The book is told from her POV and she's funny and with the phone capabilities downloaded into her, really smart! It's a step up as far as age group from Karma Bites, but it's clean and fast and really fun to read. It's a great debut book. I read it in a few hours and was laughing at several parts. Especially her superhero costume and her superhero names which she constantly changes because people keep messing it up.

I definitely recommend this for young readers 9 and up. Reluctant readers will definitely enjoy this. It's got a hint of romance, totally clean, and suspense and mystery with middle school craziness thrown in. It's the story of Samantha the Superhero trying to live a normal life as an 8th grader. We'll be seeing her again in the next installment of The Samantha Granger Experiment: Fused.

Heather in Sandwich… (lisätietoja)

I love the concept behind The Samantha Granger Experiment. The mixing of superhero and modern gadgetry felt very fresh and now. I didn't absolutely love Fused, the first book in the series, though.

Samantha becomes "fused" with her cell phone after touching a a huge otherworldly crystal and becomes capable of doing anything her cell phone could do. This felt like a standard superhero origin story and I would have liked to know a little bit more in the way of how and why the crystal effected Samantha like it did. Once her powers become active, she seems to have no control over them. I could understand a learning curve with the new powers, one which would explain why she didn't just know the answer to every question asked of her, but was also unable to stop herself from blurting them out. I couldn't quite understand why she was receiving failed 911 calls and her body would just drag her to the place of the call. This was explained, sort of, but it just seemed like an extreme way to force Samantha to become a superhero as opposed to just a girl with powers. None of these are huge issues and all of which could very easily be explained in the next book in the series.

Samantha is an 8th grader and I found her very hard to relate to. I enjoy young adult and middle grade fiction, but this book felt very young to me. Fused is definitely a book written very clearly for the age group of its intended audience. I think my 10 year old daughter would love this book and I would happily recommend it for her to read. I probably wouldn't do the same for my adult friends who like juvenile fiction though.

Fused starts The Samantha Granger Experiment off with an excellent premise and a lot of potential for growth. It didn't become an instant favorite of mine, but I could definitely see it as a huge hit for the cell phone obsessed preteen crowd.… (lisätietoja)

Plot:

Sam is just like any other teenage girl, except for that her parents have moved around a lot since they are scientists. Now she is at a new school, she has got a great bff, and a crush on this really cute boy. But then she touches something that fell from the sky and she gets fused with her cell phone, she is a waling GPS, and she can hear the super hero in her calling.

My thoughts:

The book was cute, fun and short. I think it works well for girls and boys. For girls there is Trevor, the boy Sam has a crush on, and her trying to deal with that (while having this weird crazy powers), and for the guys there is the fact that she decides to become a superhero. The book is MG but works for YA too.

Samantha was a nice girl, she is not the most popular girl, she is not the smartest, she is just your average teenager, that is before she gets crazy powers. Powers that later are explained, the whole phone and meteor thing.

Something is always going on, Sam in school being suddenly really smart in geography class, trying to deal with Trevor, or when the evil queen bee Ali is feeling threatened by her (there is always that mean girl). Trying to save people in need or when the situation gets out of control since she is feeling someone stalking her.

Recommendation and final thoughts:

Like I said, great for boys and girls, MG and YA. This is a book I could recommend to someone younger since it was a nice book and it did get a bit exciting too. I enjoyed it too, it was short, and I always did enjoy a superhero story.

Reason for reading:

I am always in for something new.

Cover thoughts:

Good colors… (lisätietoja)