“What is the silence of six, and what are you going to do about it?”
These are the last words uttered by 17-year-old Max Stein’s best friend, Evan: Just moments after hacking into the live-streaming Presidential debate at their high school, he kills himself.
Haunted by the image of Evan’s death, Max’s entire world turns upside down as he suddenly finds himself the target of a corporate-government witch-hunt. Fearing for his life and fighting to prove his own innocence, Max goes on the run with no one to trust and too many unanswered questions.–from the back cover of The Silence of Six
Max must dust off his own hacking skills and maneuver the dangerous labyrinth of underground hacktivist networks, ever-shifting alliances, and virtual identities–all while hoping to find the truth behind the “Silence of Six” before it’s too late.
Unsurprisingly, The Silence of Six spent a couple years idling in my TBR pile before I got around to it. But when I did, I pretty quickly started kicking myself for putting it on the back burner for so long. Because honestly? It’s a really, really good book.
Review
To begin with, it is an amazingly well-done plot; the action starts quickly and intensely, and it doesn’t let up from that point onwards. There wasn’t a single point where the storyline dragged or got bogged down, and the plot’s complexity made this book more than just another fast-paced thriller. Furthermore, the full-speed-ahead style didn’t detract at all from character development; Meyers was incredibly successful at bringing in background information without slowing things down to do so.
The same is true for the tech-speak and the explanations about different computer-, coding-, and hacking-related concepts. I’ve read plenty of books with poorly executed explanations about things that aren’t common knowledge that make the plot stumble. That isn’t the case with The Silence of Six, though. If anything, the explanations Meyers gave had the opposite effect; they piqued by interest and sent me down a rabbit hole of googling more information.
Finally, to put the icing on the cake, The Silence of Six is genuinely thought-provoking. Yes, it’s a thriller and the story is bursting with excitement, but it also poses some pretty serious questions about privacy, technology, and society in general.
TL,DR Recommendation
As a whole, The Silence of Six was an excellent read that had me on the edge of my seat. And if you’re in the mood for an action-packed thriller that’s far above the bar, then look no further–you’ve found it!
Find and get a copy through Goodreads here!
