Book Review: Insignia by S.J. Kincaid

More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom’s drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible. 

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone’s been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he’s offered the incredible—a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom’s instincts for combat will be put to the test, and if he passes, he’ll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War Three. Finally, he’ll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom’s always wanted—friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters—but what will it cost him?

When I finished this book my first reaction was “awww this book is cute”. The last time I read a book about a young boy it was Harry Potter. And while this one has some similarities, boy from a broken home gets a new chance at life and makes friends for the first time ect. This book does not involve Magic. But it is magic. The writing is wonderful. I laughed out loud multiple times and thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. 

Tom, the protagonist, is 14 and really good at video games. He gets recruited by the military to be part of a super-secret training program that basically puts a computer in the kid’s brains. This makes them smart, like they can learn a new language in 10 minutes smart. The end goal is to become an elite soldier that represents the Indo-Americans in the war in space, and to get a cool call sign (think Top Gun). 

The plot itself was witty and smart. In fact some of the technical terms went over my head. But they were not that important to the story so it was ok. I really like that we got the backstory as to why the world fell to pieces during the kid’s history lesson. That was a clever way to explain the collapse of society. I also thought I was neat the story was set some years after the collapse and not during it. That way you don’t have to deal with the drama of the fall out. 

As I mentioned the book has some really funny parts in it. It represented the ages of the characters really well. I mean, you expect a bunch of 14-year-old’s to get into shenanigans. And they do, but because they are super smart now they are more sophisticated than whoopee cushion jokes. The book is well balanced though, there is laughter but the characters also deal with hard situations. The author did a phenomenal job at making sure the characters stayed true to their age in dealing with all situations. This is a great read. It was captivating, funny, smart, and an all-around good book. 

4.5 Bards

This review was submitted to A Midsummer Night’s Read by Missy