Swipe by Evan Angler

Imagine you live in a world where everyone is unified. One government. One religion. All peace and no war. Sounds like the ideal way to live, but there’s one catch: to live in this world you have to be Marked. Without the Mark you can’t buy anything. Without it you are a menace to society. In a word, you are Markless, and the Markless are lower than dirt. The Markless are nothing. The Markless are dust.

Twelve year-old Logan Langly has just started a new school year. His thirteenth birthday is fast approaching, the birthday when he, like everyone else his age, is expected to Pledge and receive his Mark. There’s only one problem: kids are going missing and Logan suspects he may be next. No one believes Logan, that is until the new girl from the big city, Erin Arbitor, shows up. Together, Logan and Erin set out to crack the case that Erin’s dad, a government agent, moved to Logan’s small town just to solve. Who are Peck and the Dust and what could they possibly want with Logan? I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say that this book will Swipe you off to a place you won’t be able to leave until the very last page.

 Why I liked it…

Swipe was imaginative, funny, and clean. I loved how the author even put himself in the story in his “about the author” snippet. The characters were realistic and easy to get to know from the beginning. I felt like I knew Erin and Logan after my first few encounters with them. I also enjoyed learning the new language of the future American Union that Evan created. Words like DOME, rollerstick, and magnecuffs, are part of my vocabulary now as I continue the series. I enjoyed this even more than Left Behind, which is saying a lot. A round of applause to Tommy Nelson for picking this one up. Bravo!

There were times when I was unsure what point of view I was supposed to be looking through. It seemed to switch back and forth between Erin and Logan a lot, which made it a little choppy at first. After a while I got used to it, but I prefer it when whole chapters are seen through one character’s eyes, or at least when there is a break so the reader is aware that a view point change is about to occur. With that said, I still loved this book so obviously it didn’t bother me too much to be that great of an issue.

I would recommend Swipe to anyone over the age of ten who loves a good mystery filled with great characters and an imaginative plot. This would be a great book to read aloud as a family, or even to do as a book report for school. I give it five out of five stars because I loved it so much that I am already halfway through Sneak, the next book in the series.

I read Swipe purely for pleasure. I bought the Kindle Edition from Amazon.com.