Very LeFreak
by Rachel Cohn

    VERY LEFREAK by Rachel Cohn
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  1/12/10
    Publisher:  Knopf
    Reviewed by:  Breanna F.
    Rating:  5 Stars


    Very LeFreak (real name: Veronica) is a freshman on scholarship at Columbia University who is addicted to
    technology. She's constantly on her laptop doing anything and everything she can think of. She's attached to
    every single type of music that she has on her iPod, and she's practically conjoined to her iPhone. She's always
    sending out meme's during class or making random playlists, and of course talking to her online crush, El Virus.
    They've been talking for quite a while and love to play out crazy fantasies with each other, but they have never
    seen each others faces. Very also cannot seem to stop moving. She's constantly throwing parties and getting
    completely trashed. She doesn't seem to have an off button.

    Eventually her roommate, Jennifer (to Very it's Lavinia); her sort of ex-friend, Bryan; her RA, Debbie; and the
    Dean stage an intervention, letting Very know that all of her technology usage is getting way out of hand: i.e.
    she's addicted. Bryan has confiscated her laptop, and her iPod and iPhone are in the hands of Lavinia and
    Debbie. Very thinks this is ludicrous: how the heck can she live without her technology?

    She gets over the whole "being told you're an addict to technology" thing pretty quickly, actually. But when one
    of her friends who wasn't really big on the intervention in the first place gets her use of a laptop, some
    information gets out to her which leads to Very practically killing Bryan.

    She wakes up in the psych ward with Lavinia and her Aunt Esther over her. She is told that she will be going to
    a sort of rehab place called ESCAPE, which stands for Emergency Services for Computer-Addicted Persons
    Everywhere, in Vermont. Very is livid at first, but once there for a week she actually starts to open up to her
    therapist and all of her emotions start coming out. But then a sort of weird twist of fate occurs and her progress
    could start spiraling downwards.

    First off, there was a lot of very mature material in this book so I wouldn't recommend it to younger readers.
    Some of what went on I thought was a little unnecessary to be putting in a book for teens, but I suppose some
    people like that. Despite the unnecessary material, this was an interesting read. I've never thought that someone
    could get that out of control with technology. But once Very starts pouring out everything that has happened to
    her throughout her life, it makes sense why she'd want to escape into the virtual world. The girl definitely had a
    tough life. But of course, getting way too involved with her technology ended up making her life all the more
    difficult.

    VERY LEFREAK was overall a great book. The element of surprise plays a fairly big part. Many parts I never
    saw coming, which made the book really great, and the ending wasn't really lackluster, either. If you've read
    Rachel Cohn in the past, you'll be sure to like this book, and even if you haven't it is sure to be enjoyable.