Fake

In a world where your digital identity is everything, and without it, you don’t really exist, what would happen if your profile was ‘deleted’?

Jess has grown up isolated from most other people, doing everything online – learning, work, shopping and socialising; just like everyone else has since the scarlet fever epidemic twenty years ago and resulting antibiotic resistance.

Now she’s fourteen, Jess is excited to be heading to a real-life boarding school, but she’s worried about leaving behind her unwell sister, especially as the medicine Chloe needs gets more expensive every day. As Jess settles into school, she decides to use her hacking skills to research Chloe’s medicine. Not only is hacking a cybercrime of the highest order, but Jess is unprepared for what she discovers and for the shocking consequences that follow. In a world that’s built around algorithms and virtual living, the tech companies have all the power and are determined to keep it that way…

This pacey dystopia cleverly examines the idea of a world where digital identity is everything. Jess and her peers learn some hard lessons about friendship, trust and standing up for what they know to be right.