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Are you a debut author whose book is being published in 2019? It’s not too late to sign-up! If you want to participate in New Kids On The Block this year, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! You can send a tweet or DM on Twitter to @Pop_Reader or email me at Jen@PopGoesTheReader.com. I would love to collaborate with you!
About Lillian Clark
Lillian Clark, a graduate of the University of Wyoming, grew up riding horses, climbing trees, hiking, and going on grand imaginary adventures in the small-town West. She’s worked as a lifeguard, a camp counselor, and a Zamboni driver, but found her eternal love working as a bookseller at an independent bookstore in historic downtown Laramie, WY. Now living with her husband, son, and two giant dogs in the Teton Valley of Idaho, she spends her snowy winters and sunny summers reading almost anything and writing books for teens.
A few times now, I’ve been asked how I want readers to feel when they finish reading my book, and I love this question! Especially because the short answer is, “good.”
The long answer starts with the fact that while Immoral Code is about a heist, beyond that — before, through, and after that — it’s about a group of five friends dealing with issues big and small:
Bellamy, an aspiring astrophysicist and astronaut, confronts the feelings of abandonment that go deeper than her disappointment and uncertainty when her trek to MIT, so surefooted and steady in the past, falters.
Nari, a white hat hacker and the crime’s instigator, comes up against the consequences of her arrogance and faces her own fallibility.
Keagan, Nari’s boyfriend, struggles with feeling aimless and average beside friends who are so driven and extraordinary.
Reese, a brilliant artist, deals with the emotional fallout of her parents’ divorce.
And Santiago, a championship diver with Olympic dreams, wonders, when support at home falters, if believing in himself will be enough.
Each one grapples not just with the moral quagmire of doing something objectively wrong for what they feel are the right reasons but with their own flaws and fears and hopes, all woven inextricably through that bog. And my favorite part, the part that, to me, is the most important and leads to that “good” feeling at the end, is that they face all of it together.
Because these five friends are utterly devoted to each other. They support and champion and love each other. They’ll do almost anything — felonies included, ha — for each other. Because they want to lift each other up, make each other feel good, feel welcome and wanted and possible. And I hope that if you pick up Immoral Code, you’ll leave the five of them feeling that way too.
Title Immoral Code
Author Lillian Clark
Pages 320 Pages
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
Genre
Publication Date February 19th 2019 by Knopf Books For Young Readers
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon.com ● Chapters ● The Book Depository
Ocean’s 8 meets The Breakfast Club in this fast-paced, multi-perspective story about five teens determined to hack into one billionaire absentee father’s company to steal tuition money.
For Nari, aka Narioka Diane, aka hacker digital alter ego “d0l0s,” it’s college and then a career at “one of the big ones,” like Google or Apple. Keagan, her sweet, sensitive boyfriend, is happy to follow her wherever she may lead. Reese is an ace/aro visual artist with plans to travel the world. Santiago is off to Stanford on a diving scholarship, with very real Olympic hopes. And Bellamy? Physics genius Bellamy is admitted to MIT – but the funding she’d been counting on is denied when it turns out her estranged father – one Robert Foster – is loaded.
Nari isn’t about to let her friend’s dreams be squashed by a deadbeat billionaire, so she hatches a plan to steal just enough from Foster to allow Bellamy to achieve her goals. Fast-paced and banter-filled, Lillian Clark’s debut is a hilarious and thought-provoking Robin Hood story for the 21st century.
