Twinmaker by Sean Williams

Clair is pretty sure the offer in the ‘Improvement' meme is just another viral spam, though Libby is determined to give it a try.

But what starts as Libby's dream turns into Clair's nightmare when her friend vanishes.

In her search for answers, Clair seeks out Jesse - a boy whose alternative lifestyle might help to uncover the truth.

What they don't anticipate is intervention from the mysterious contact known only as Q, and being caught up in a conspiracy that will change everything.

This is a future world where everywhere is a step away; d-mats cover the world, allowing people to travel from their front door to the far reaches of the globe within seconds. The only problem is that they are controlled by computer programs and in typical dystopian fashion, we learn that computers can be hacked. The new fad Improvement see's people like Libby try to change the way they look by hacking the system and re-writing themselves.

Clair gets caught up with an underground battle over control of the d-mats, between the possibly-lying government and the radical WHOLE. Just trying to learn the truth and save her friend, Clair finds herself on the run, her only help: a voice in her personal computer, who just so happens to be able to hack everything, and Jesse, one of the radical's son who seems to know more about the truth than Clair even though he doesn't use d-mats or eye pieces. 

I didn't always understand Clair. Firstly, Libby doesn't actually disappear, she just misses school and hides in her room for a while, but still Clair departs on this mission to figure out what's wrong with her and see if there's any truth to Improvement. Secondly, because we didn't see much of them together, I honestly didn't understand why Clair was going to all these lengths to save Libby, I didn't like her that much. And while I could never really keep up with all the conspiracy theories, let alone guess what was going to happen so half the information went over my head, I did enjoy the ride.

Published 7th November 2013 by Electric Monkey.