Joelle Charbonneau

“No one gets something for nothing. We all should know better.” Teenagers at Wisconsin’s Nottawa High School are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need . . . regardless of the consequences. Soon the site turns sinister, with simple pranks escalating to malicious crimes. The body count rises. In this chilling YA thriller, the author of the best-selling Testing trilogy examines not only the dark side of social media, but the dark side of human nature.

NEED

In this suspenseful thriller, teenagers in a small town are drawn deeper into a social networking site that promises to grant their every need . . . regardless of the consequences. . .

Need

Melissa Palmer

Book #115 Read in 2015
Need by Joelle Charbonneau

I enjoyed The Testing by this author and jumped at the chance to get this book to review. It did not disappoint. This book had twists and turns throughout the entire book. Need is a new media site where the local high students receive invitations to join it and then they are asked "what do you need?" If it is a true need, their wish will be fulfilled. If it is a want, not a need, as most requests are, the students are giving a task to do to have the need met. A first seemingly harmless, the tasks soon take on a sinister, and often deadly, turn. How many people will be harmed before someone stops this site? This book was a gripping read and both high school boys and girls, as well as adults, would enjoy it. I received a copy of this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for a honest review.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Hannah Yang

Before I even begin the summary.. I just did a count and there are 
  10 different POVs in this book.
 What was Joelle Charbonneau thinking when she wrote this?! Was she playing how-many-POVs-can-I-cram-into-335-pages or something?

Need is about a ton of (really dumb) teenagers who become involved with a fancy pants new social networking site called NEED. Basically, you type in your "need", you complete a task, and you get it. Our main character (sorta), Kaylee Dunham, knows her need. She needs a kidney donor for her little brother, DJ. However, creepy stuff starts happening (wow, that was unexpected) and she begins to suspect that its connected to NEED (big surprise) and then BOOM!! shit goes down.

Okay, okay. Language, Hannah, tsk tsk tsk.

I really wanted to like this book because there was so much promise in the plot. I was hoping for a suspenseful novel jam-packed with action that would make me question human nature. Perhaps my expectations were a liiiittle high. And I actually think the storyline did go pretty smoothly, until the last part.

There's always a but. And Need's "but" is the characters. I could not connect with any of them, which was a surprise to me considering we were introduced to so many. Since there are a ton of characters to discuss, let me just say that I could not stop facepalming at Kaylee. Although she was acting out of desperation, I couldn't bring myself to have sympathy for her. Rather, I was annoyed by her. And Nate seemed completely unreal and was more of a cardboard cutout than a character. 

Also, I don't think teenagers would actually act this way. Trust me, I've been disappointed by teenagers many times, but I don't think anyone would fall for something like NEED. Or at least, I don't think they would let it get that far. Another problem with the characters was that a lot of the voices in this book aren't that distinguishable from each other, with the exception of Sydney and Ethan. But they both sounded psycho, so it didn't help much.

So, as far as characters go, Need was a huge disappointment. Furthermore, the plot, as intriguing as it was at the start, quickly went downhill. 

Some parts were well done, like the framing of Kaylee buying the cookies -- one part where I might actually appreciate the extreme amount of POVs. However, the ending when Kaylee realizes who's behind everything and whatnot.. it just didn't make sense to me, didn't explain much, and just wasn't realistic enough to work. I still can't figure out why everything happened. And it felt like the book was semi-stagnant, then all this action happened in what, a few chapters at the end? It just didn't sit right. I will give credit to Joelle Charbonneau for the very end. I liked that twist. (Sorry for the awkward phrasing in this whole paragraph, I don't want to give anything away.)

Anyways, I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to review Need but I don't think my words will do it justice. I think it was interesting and definitely a great concept for a book, but the execution could have been a lot better. I'm sure some will enjoy it, but I personally was a bit disappointed. Give it a read if you have time, but I wouldn't go out of my way to read / re-read it.

Joëlle Charbonneau

Jurassic Jones

4,5/5 
Un très bon roman ! 
J'ai beaucoup aimé le thème abordé par l'autrice, le thème des dérives d'internet et de ses limites chez l'adolescent est très intéressants. 
Les comportements sont vraiment réalistes, je trouve cela même angoissant de voir jusqu'où certains serai capable d'aller pour un "besoin". 
Un roman qui joue beaucoup sur la culpabilité de l'être humain. J'ai aimé la manière d'aborder les choses et la fin qui est vraiment crédible.

b.andherbooks

A super timely and interesting premise, Charbonneau creates a social media site that promises to give you what you NEED, as long as you fulfill a request as small as providing some email addresses, delivering a package, or forging a receipt. Unfortunately, the premise is more interesting than the actual characters who while many (over eleven POVs) were not explored in depth. I think this would translate better to screen, and it has been optioned for a film. Actual teens will enjoy this book.

Lynn Braden

NEED is an amazingly well written book. I can't really call it a favorite, but it was so well done, I want to read other books by Joelle Charbonneau like her Testing series. 
"NO ONE gets something for nothing. We should all know better." These statements from the front of the book really set the theme. 
NEED is the story of a social network website that targets students at a high school in which the protagonist, Kaylee is a student. The purpose of the website it to grant the "needs" of students who join. As we quickly learn, the website doesn't give things without a cost. 
Kaylee is introduced to the website by her best friend, Nate, whose brother, Jack, has been active already on the site. We meet several students who begin to use the site, but before long, they are being asked to do things in payment for their "need" that don't always seem right. The story gets really intense when a student dies from a severe allergic reaction when she eats a cookie laced with peanuts that was delivered in a gift box to her door. 
Many issues are addressed in this story including greed, selfishness, and heroism. The story ends leaving open the possibility for a sequel. 
The book should be classified as a young adult, psychological thriller that borders on horror - a very scary, well written, thought provoking story that is a fast paced page turner and well worth the read.

NEED

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