Don't Turn Around (Don't Turn Around, 1)

In Michelle Gagnon’s debut YA thriller, Don’t Turn Around, computer hacker Noa Torson is as smart, tough, and complex as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s Lisbeth Salander.
 
The first in a trilogy, Don’t Turn Around’s intricate plot and heart-pounding action will leave readers desperate for book two.
 
Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her hacking skills to stay anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in a warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.

Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa’s talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation threatens his life in no uncertain terms. But what Noa and Peter don’t realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who’d stop at nothing to silence her for good.
 

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Published Aug 28, 2012

320 pages

Average rating: 8

3 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Cresta McGowan
Dec 25, 2025
10/10 stars
I really liked this book. It was marketed as a YA version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and it did not disappoint. Michelle Gagnon has weaved a complicated and intriguing world where problems that are real in actual society are addressed in the fictional text. Noa has never been one to trust adults, and it's understandable. After losing her parents young, she's floated through the system of foster care until finally stepping out on her own. Her super power is her ability to manipulate computers in an impressive way. The online community is very small though, and through happenstance and circumstance, she and Peter (the founder of /ALLIANCE/ - a hacktivism organization that I want to be so real!) tumble into each other's world both trying to escape horrors of their past.

Gagnon's novel is the first YA book I've given five starts to in a long time - it is gripping, riveting, page turning. I will definitely come back to finish the series. If Stieg Larson was still with the literary world, I believe he'd be proud to have his adult series resurface in this YA thriller. A must read.

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