Zero Day

Zero Day
Jan Gangsei
Disney-Hyperion (January 12, 2016)
368 pages.

Description (provided by publisher)

Eight years ago, Addie Webster was the victim of the most notorious kidnapping of the decade. Addie vanished-and her high-profile parents were forced to move on.

Mark Webster is now president of the United States, fighting to keep the oval office after a tumultuous first term. Then the unthinkable happens: the president's daughter resurfaces. Addie is brought back into her family's fold, but who is this sixteen-year-old girl with a quiet, burning intelligence now living in the White House? There are those in the president's political circle who find her timely return suspicious.

When a national security advisor approaches Darrow Fergusson, Addie's childhood best friend and the son of the president's chief of staff, he doesn't know what to think. How could the girl he's missed for all these years be a threat to national security? Still, at the risk of having his own secrets exposed, Darrow agrees to spy on Addie.

He soon realizes that his old friend is much more than the traumatized victim of a sick political fringe group. Addie has come home with a mission...but will she choose to complete it?

My Thoughts:

I am a big fan of television shows like 24 and Homeland where I suspend all belief, fasten my seat belt and hang on for the ride. I read the description of Zero Day on Net Galley and was intrigued so I requested an e-galley copy. Just before I received the copy I read a Kirkus review of this novel. Kirkus called it a "thriller that didn't thrill and suggested that you "skip it."  Because of this I almost passed on Zero Day but I'm glad I ignored the review. I found Zero Day fast-paced and thrilling enough to recommend to my 14- and 15-year-old teens who are tired of dystopian novels but still want excitement and suspenseful reads. I think this will appeal to those teens who enjoyed Ally Carter's All Fall Down and Maggie Hall's The Conspiracy of Us.

My only complaint was with the development of some of the minor characters, especially Addie's sister Elinor. I don't know if Zero Day is part of a series, but if so maybe we'll learn more about these characters in a later novel. If Addie's adventure continues in another novel, I plan on taking that ride too.