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Buying the premise of iBoy requires a vast amount of suspension of disbelief- no, strike that! An insane amount. But if you ignore the fact that the novel should've ended after chapter one, because having an iPhone thrown in your face from several stories' altitude would kill you, and that iPhone parts in your brain would cause more internal bleeding than extrasensory power, you'll find an exciting and emotionally gripping, for Young Adult standards, story.
The story revolves around sixteen year old Tom Harvey who ends up with a broken skull from a falling iPhone. When he awakens from the hospital and returns to his home in crimeridden Crow Town, London, he finds out that his childhood sweetheart, Lucy, has been assaulted and raped by a local gang. However, Tom has means of revenge- the iPhone parts in his brain connects him to the digital world and he has godlike control of electronics. As he wages his one man war against the gangs, he starts to wonder if he really is using the powers for good or if he simply finds too much joy in the chaos he makes.
The novel explores the concept of moral relativism extremely well. We were of course never really going to side with the gangs so we always find Tom's actions sympathetic but as he wonders if lowlife lost boys really deserve being smited by his superpowers, we understand him. It is an interesting story about the absolute corruption of absolute power, and seeing how even fighting for a good cause can turn you into a monster is quite refreshing in the often so black-and-white superhero story.
Another thing I like is this story's very mature portrayal of sexual assault. The character of Lucy is quite boring, and she sadly devolves into your typical damsel-in-distress later, but her reaction to the assault is very emotionally gripping and subtle.
Finally this book gives a gripping portrayal of gang culture and how indifference to the problem only makes it worse...
However, as I read this book for the second time, I realised a bit more flaws, and especially one thing prevents iBoy from being a GREAT book: we don't know the characters from before Tom's accident.
Even though this book makes snarky remarks about superheroes, this is essentially a superhero origin story, and a key ingredient is that the alter ego must also be interesting before taking up his mission. Barry Allen was a police scientist investigating his mother's death before becoming the Flash, Stephen Strange was in the medical business for the money rather than helping people before an accident set him up to be an altruistic sorcerer supreme and Bruce Wayne wanted to kill Joe Chill, his parents' assassin, before realizing that was not the righteous way.
The only thing we learn about Tom Harvey is that he was an ordinary boy without special plans and that he kinda crushed on his childhood friend. Not necessarily a bad guy, but is he exciting? Instead we should've been given more time with him to see his reactions to the gang violence in his city, explore his relationship with his grandmother and Lucy. That way we could also meet Lucy before the rape and see how much things had changed, when Tom returned to the land of the living. That would give the rest of the novel a lot more emotional weight.
But honestly try and pick this one up. Me spending so much time on how it could have been perfect just means that this is a book I have strong feelings for, and despite the outlandish premise it is good fun. And with the new film adaption ready on Netflix, maybe now is as good as time as any to read it!