I've been rather behind in updating about this story, One Child. If you missed my earlier posts about this book, you can view the first one HERE.
One Child is a thriller set in Afghanistan and NYC. The story itself is an interesting concept, and one that would probably interest me on it's own. But even better, it's released in real time and the characters are interactive. No really. One of the characters, Russell, is a reporter staying on a military base in Afghanistan. And when he writes and records a story (he's a video journalist) we get to watch it! Seriously! There's three of them so far, and I believe at least one more. It's pretty legit.
Other characters have facebook and twitter accounts. You can friend them and interact with them, and they supposedly respond to you. (I haven't actually contacted any of them yet, but if any of you have, let me know what happened!) You can also look up the business websites for many of the companies mentioned in the story. It's like, super cool!
I'm a little bit behind where the story is currently, because there were a few days when I was out of town with no internet access, and a few other days when I did very little on the computer at all. I thought about waiting until I was all caught up, but didn't want to wait. I just had to mention it again, because it's really awesome! Some of these characters, like Halima (the 'one child'...) and her father. They live in a really rough part of Afghanistan (although, isn't it all rough?!) and they are really just trying to survive. Halima's father seems like a great man, desperately trying to do right by his three children, and support them as best he can.
Reading about the lives of these characters with the added experience of social networking is very interesting, and definitely makes the story come alive in ways I didn't imagine. I doubt I would have checked out their social networking sites and blogs etc. if I hadn't been reading as the chapters were released (although, if I knew they were there, I might have checked once or twice, probably at the end) but I think it's really added an extra level to the reading. I also really like that the social networking aspect is believable. Only the people who would probably have a facebook have one (which means the crazy CEO of Carson's company doesn't, although Carson, a recent MIT Grad does.) It makes sense. Logical. I like that.
Really, what I'm trying to say, is that if you haven't heard about this book before, shame... You should have. If you've heard about it, and done nothing? Bigger shame. Fix that now. You can opt in for a free 9 day trial before you buy full access to every day (as well as the really cool video reports!) I definitely recommend looking into this book. Click HERE to check it out!! But hurry, there's only a few days left before the last chapter is released! (Although, then you could buy the actual book, or the ebook all at once...)
If you are reading it, what do you think so far?!
UPDATE:
I just got all the way caught up with the One Child releases, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to wait it out any more. This is getting intense. I'm worried that whatever is going to happen next is not going to be pretty. I'm going to see what happens tomorrow, and if it's more of the same, and I feel tomorrow the way I do today, I'm going to be pulling out my ARC (which is lovely, and signed! (Thanks Jeff!)) and cheating. If you are following the daily releases, don't hate me! And don't worry. I won't spoil anything for you.