The story centers around five teenagers who have grown up together from kindergarten and now attend the same high school. Their connectedness is aided by their iZods. These little tools, which allow them to text, surf the net, make calls and listen to music and so on, have become essential to their way of life.
When one of the five, Rick Lawrence, is suddenly disconnected, his iZod dead, he discovers that his whole life seems to disappear. Many seemingly separate things are happening, another of the group is being cyberbullied, the mother of another is being pressured at her work (a large company that manufactures iZods) and some sinister academics seem to be acquiring a lot of power. ( )

In the same vein as Carmichael's "Adds R Us", the author looks at the dangers of a world that relies so much on technology to connect people to one another. The Five are a group of teenagers who have grown up together from kindergarten and now attend the same high school. Their connectedness is helped by their iZods which allow them to text, surf the net, make calls and listen to music. (Sound familiar?) even to the point of sending notes in class.

But then Rick, the most fragile of the group because he lost his parents in a car accident is suddenly a Disconnect - nothing works for him - no iZod, no school network, passwords; nothing - it is like he has ceased to exist and in fact the only time he can now talk to his friends is face-to-face. He tries to get re-connected but the company that makes and runs the iZod blame the government and vice-versa, and slowly Rick begins to fall back into depression.

Meanwhile, Petra, another member of the Five, has been cyber-bullied by someone sending messages across the internet that she is a slut and various other defamatory things. The Tal , Rick's best friend, suddenly becomes a disconnect too but it seems that his girlfriend Allyx is more upset that him because she can't contact him anymore and she is decidedly cool with him at school because he just shrugs and says he's working on it.

But this is only the beginning, as the company that make iZods has hired a Pseudo doctor to conduct experiments of teenagers to see how being connected effects them and what it is like when you are not. When Rick refuses to join the program, he suddenly finds himself part of a huge hoax where he has supposedly threatened to kill everyone in the school (broadcast via the iZods of course) and when the other members of the Five save him from having his brains blown out by a trigger happy police sniper, he is whisked off to the new clinic as a mental patient.

What is going on? Who is the mastermind behind the sudden rash of Disconnects and why ? And can Tal, Petra and the others rescue Rick before he is so mentally damaged that he cannot recover?

Excellent premise; very thought-provoking and, as the mother of a teenage girl who I see emailing her best friend with one hand while texting her boyfriend with the other and listening to music and surfing the net at the same time , I wonder how teenagers of today WOULD cope if suddenly they lost connection to their peers. I have asked my daughter to read the book as a favour to me and discuss it with her friends - what would it be like if you were suddenly cut off from everyone? How would you cope? It will be interesting to see how they answer!