Keystone is a young adult science fiction dystopian book with a very unique concept that is very apt for our days. In this not so distant future social media is above everything and in a way controls everything.
It is full of plot twists and secrets until the very end and that made it even more enjoyable for me. Did I mention there is also a heist?
It's about a future dystopian world where everyone is graded on the Social Stock exchange market and if you don't rank high enough or you are Unrankable life is too difficult for you. This is the life of the Influencers and our protagonist Ella is one of them, at least at the beginning...
On the other hand we have the Disconnects who live without all this technology and social media madness. There is also Keystone, a school that teaches you how to be a thief for everything analog and original so that history cannot be changed by those in power.
There are a lot of beautiful characters in the story and I enjoyed the connection between our two main characters, Ella and Garrett. I liked how their secrets unraveled as the story progresses.
The book ends in a cliff-hanger so I am assuming that it's going to be a series and I am very excited about it. At this moment the only thing I can find online is just a title , Disconnect, and a publication date for October 2020.

If you like dystopian books which feature heists you will love this book.

“Goonies Never Say Die!”

I really liked this book. It was original, fun and extremely interesting. It was a young adult dystopian fantasy set in the not too distant future and with the way technology and social media has been booming some of the concepts don’t seem too far off. The main character is Ella is the daughter of a former actor and actress who are now huge social media influencers. Her favorite movie (and mine)is the Goonies.

We have social media influencers today but they are nothing compared to these people. They have a social stock exchange and everyone has investors, so the more popular you are, the higher your value. And influencers at the highest levels will do just about anything to stay there. This is why Ella’s parents had her and also is their families biggest secret.

Ella is actually adopted, but her mother used her pregnancy to gain more popularity and so nobody can find out. However everyone has secrets and once Ella makes her debut on the social exchange at sixteen, she finds that out. She becomes an influencer like her parents and they expect her to keep high numbers like they do. In order to do that she has to keep her lifestream online much of the time or investors will not be happy. She also as to hang out with other popular influencers.

Ella finds that not only does everyone have secrets, but the top girls know hers and they are not her friends. She also is forced to do things she doesn’t like in order to keep her social standing. Early on she falls for an Australian surfer named Adam, she is betrayed by someone she thought was her friend and she finds that her parents never really loved her.

Ella ends up finding a group of disconnects who help her escape her old life and start over at Keystone to be trained as a thief. They see where the world is going and how corporations are changing the digital record of history to their own advantage. So this group has disconnected so they can’t be tracked and they steal important items from history before they are changed. Like books, art, movies and other things.

Ella finds a home at Keystone where she is accepted and where she makes actual friends. She meets Garrett who is the son of the two people who run Keystone and who is also at the the best in the classes and is set to become a full fledged initiate after he runs a heist of his own. Ella feels a strange connection to Garrett whenever she is near him. Though he has a girlfriend Chloe.

The entire premise of this book is pretty ingenious as well as the whole thieving aspect. They are learning to become thieves almost like Harry Potter learned to become a wizard at Hogwarts. The world building is spectacular. The world at Keystone is in the Redwood forest and the entrances are all hidden. The characters are all fully developed, but also many are mysterious because it is a world where you can’t really trust others. All in all, I loved it and couldn’t put the book down until I finished.

Thanks to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Keystone by Katie Delahanty!
The story opens with action as the main character becomes the only survivor of a yacht accident. Her identity is changed and she becomes Elisha Dewitt. She’s becoming a Disconnect, part of a group that chooses to disconnect themselves from the internet and go off the grid, as much as they can for their own safety. The Disconnected live at Keystone, the safest place in the world. The story is told through the alternating past and present of the main character, Elisha. We learn how her parents and friends mistreated her, used her and took her for granted. We also discover that people weren’t who they seemed. As a Disconnect, she trains and practices skills, techniques and thievery because, as a Disconnect, stealing artifacts and preserving them in Keystone is expected and required. I enjoyed the different characters and their unique personalities along with the different groups’ dynamics. Action and unknown factors kept the story unpredictable, 5 stars!

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟.
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This book was an absolute gorgeous whirlwind and I loved getting swept up in its cautionary tale with a unique twist about where our world is headed in regards so social media and being an influential presence on social media. I couldn't put it down and I also fiercely wished I could go to Keystone!🎉

In theory, this is my kind of book. It’s a dystopian world, Young Adult with a little romance. I really struggled with this book. It’s written in the present (future) and the past.

Ella Karmen is the daughter of an influential couple but she has a secret. Trusting the wrong people in a world where being perfect is vital. Imagine needing follows on social media but taken to the extreme. Being with the in-crowd has never been so deadly when they know your life isn’t quite what people thought.

Ella is interested in a boy her new friend doesn’t want her to date. When her parents find out she’s sent away to save face, in the hope they can cover it up.

The place she ends up is Keystone. Her goals have changed. Her friends and enemies have changed. Now instead of being an influence, she needs to preserve the truth by taking back what is important.

This story wasn’t for me. Trust is a weakness. Finding your own way is essential but no man is an island.

It was until about 50% way through the book I began to see clarity on the story. Unfortunately, this just wasn’t for me.

Sorry.

*I received an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Despite being initially confused, I loved this page-turning dystopian novel by Katie Delahanty. Unlike many writers who bring the story gradually to their readers, Delahanty tossed us and her main character, Ella, into the deep end, quite literally for Ella.

Ella is the dystopian version of an influencer. Rather than just being online at intervals, almost all of her life is spent online. It’s a life she hates, especially when she sees what it does to her friend. When the opportunity arises for Ella to change her life by joining a secret organization, she takes it.

In many ways the world that Delahanty has created in Keystone mirrors the internet of today, where mob rule can bring down an individual. Famous one day, infamous the next.

Everything worked in this novel: characterization, pacing, plotting. I’ve read very few books recently that I absolutely did not want to put down and this is one of them–the first for the new year.

There is a lot of action on the page as Ella reinvents her life. She learns new skills and realizes abilities she didn’t know she possessed.

If you’re a fan of YA dystopian fiction, this is a must read.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own

Keystone by Katie Delahanty is a Young Adult Dystopian, and it involves a world of everyone wanting to have the highest rankings as an ‘Influencer.’ Unfortunately, if you don’t keep up with your rankings or if you do something to have your rankings tank, then you may end up being Unrankable.
The main protagonist , Ella Karman, has been safely hidden from that world until her parents release her into it.
Realizing she trust anyone when it comes to rankings, not even her closest friend, Deena.
Deena ends up betraying Ella, and she has no one to turn to in the book until someone approaches her about a secret school. She’s invited to join the secret school called Keystone, which teaches thieves otherwise known as ‘Disconnects’ (Definition: ones that don’t want to be part of Rankings and want to preserve history) to steal everything analog and original history item.
This way, they can protect these items in a Vault, instead of having them changed like the Influencers keep doing out in their world.
Ella is going to learn how to become one of those thieves, and she’s forced to partner up with the annoying but sexy Garrett Alexandar. Garrett was a mysterious character in the book, and I enjoyed the dialogue between Ella and Garrett.
Garrett ‘s secretive agenda for wanting Ella as a partner adds to the storyline.
I enjoyed the concept of a school teaching about stealing original history items to preserve them in a world of a digital age where everything is about who has the highest-ranking and fake people.

A telltale reminder of what is happening within today’s world. Where ranking has become being high priority and who has the most likes and friends on the Internet.
There is so much I enjoyed about this story and how Katie Delahanty kept me turning the pages, but I don’t want to give anything away. If you enjoy Young Adult Dystopian books, then I recommend this book. It’s different, which is always a plus for me.
The one thing that bothered me was the ending since it felt a little rushed.
I needed some answers, and I’m crossing my fingers; there are more books after this one.

If you enjoy dystopian, somewhat-mystery stories, this YA book is for you! 

We follow the main character after a tragic, yet sinister, accident leaves her life on the run. She's now in hiding with a secret society training her to find and persevere information from their world for the future to hold on to. 

But the mystery is, who betrayed her in the first place and why? 

This is definitely a plot that intrigued me from the first chapter. The story is very easy to get into, and the world-building created an spy-like atmosphere full of secrets and conspiracies. I gave this YA Dystopian 4 out of 5 stars!

Thanks net galley for this ebook. I went into this not knowing what to expect and boy it didn't disappoint. We have Ella whose whole life is cultivated to make her into the picture perfect baby and by extension making those around her picture perfect. Her value in the world is all about her influence and this persona of who she is, and how the whole package of herself looks on the outside. I think in today's age of social media this hit hard. It really seems like something that could happen and had me dying to keep reading.

After a yacht explosion Ella fakes her own death becoming Elisha with the help of the disconnects. The disconnects are the group that fight against the truth and everything her life stood for before.

I loved the back and forth timelines from Ella/Elishas perspective. I think it really showed her growth and just how different she is but also the pieces of her that stayed the same. She quite litterly seems to be a totally different person and the author did an amazing job highlighting that.

There are so many missions and bombshells that this book had me craving for anything I could squeeze in during down time to read it. Elisha exposes the underbelly to their entire hierarchy and way of living and just how much these fictitious faces we put on mean. I genuinely hope this is a series because I want more!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book!

It was a little different than what I thought it was going to be. I wasn't expecting it to be a futuristic novel, but it was done in a such a way that it wasn't too far out of my comfort zone. The story was very good and involving, and the way it ended has me hoping this is a series. I felt like there are a lot of ways this story could continue, and I love that.

The novel focuses on Ella/Elisha after she nearly dies in an accident and decides to leave the spotlight for good. She joins a group called the "Disconnects" and goes about learning how to steal things from history that are slowly being erased from the public consciousness. It focuses on her learning to trust on her instincts and intuition, which is heightened.

Along the way, she learns that a lot of what she thought was true wasn't, and that not everything is as it seems. It's a book of growth, discovery, and self trust.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Ella Karman's life is a peculiar one and a lie. Her existence was engineered, from a donor embryo, a surrogate farm to create a perfect daughter for the perfect Hollywood couple and to built an empire (how to have a perfect body after a baby) on the same lie.
Ella's world is all based on appeareance, numbers, how to be an Influencer, faking it, befriending certain people, discarding others, living a constant lie. When her yacht explodes, killing all her friends, Ella, with the help of the Disconnects, decided to fake her own death and to starts a new life. Helped by Allard, she starts to train at the Keystone, a place where the Disconnects fight against the obliteration of the truths.
The reader swings from past to present and through Ella's (now Elisha, her new identity) chapters in her diary, getting to know her life as Influencer, her fake friends, her constant pretending, her parents, her love and to read about her new life at the Keystone, how she has to learn how to become a thief, how to break free from handcuffs, how and who to trust anyone, how to code and so on. While she tries to understand her place in the world, learning to trust her insticts and to rely on friends, Ella/Elisha is involved into an important Heist, that may be able to determine people's future free will.

Keystone is a very interesting and peculiar book. The reader is shoved in the midde of the action, with the yacht's explosion and the main character being forced to run for her life (after faking her death). Bit by bit the technological world where Ella lived is unveiled. We get to know the importance of being connected, the value of faked life, the distinction between "castes", like the Disconnects and the Unrankables. While understanding her previous world, it's very fascinating learning about Keystone, the whole structures, their secrets and goals, Ella/Elisha's new friends and love interests. I found this book a quick and captivating read, I loved reading about how Ella/Elisha changed her life, trusting herself more and more, becoming more confident and refusing to be manipulated again. I like reading about her relationship with Adam and Garrett, because they belong to different phases of her life. Reading how she interacts with Deena and her other Influencers friends and how she interacts with Rayelle, Sophia and Steward it's interesting because the reader can see how she's grown and became more mature.
I really enjoyed reading the heist, the clues, the masks and so on and I hope there will be a sequel because the Keystone's world is very engaging.

This book's intriguing concept drew me in, and the cover is just lovely! This could be a well-developed YA dystopia, but I just could not get accustomed to the writing style. Perhaps this is geared towards a younger YA audience than myself, but the words seemed endlessly repetitive.

Thank you so much to Entangled Teen for providing me with a copy of Keystone, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.



Ella's parents are high ranking influencers, in a society where your ratings are everything.  When Ella debuts for a high price on the social stock exchange, just before she joins an elite school, she realises her fellow influencers can and will do anything to keep their top rankings.  After being betrayed by a friend, Ella is forced to join a secret society for thieves, where she'll need to hide her identity and prove her worth all over again.

I'm thinking that 2020 is going to be the year of books about social media type ranking affecting people's lives.  I've already come across a couple of books with this theme just in the last few weeks (and the concept is very reminiscent of a Black Mirror episode).  I'm not going to lie, I love this theme, it's a scary, futuristic situation that's not too hard to suspend belief for.  Keystone had the promise of a great story - rankings, high school type drama, heists, intrigue and secret societies.  And for the most part, the plot did draw me in.  There were plenty of twists to keep me interested and some pretty cool technological ideals.  But the romances were off putting.  The inclusion of not one but two insta love tropes, with the main character falling for every guy with a pretty face the moment she laid eyes on him, kind of made me wish there was no romance in the book at all.  The constant reference to how pretty and perfect every character was also just felt dull. Lastly, there were just a few too many times that the heist situations strayed a bit too far from believable, with throw away explanations that didn't quite make sense.  

I really did enjoy the concept of Keystone and I could see it being a great book, but I think it required a little more thought into the technology and a bit less of the "I hate you but I really love you, simply because you're hot, even though I just met you." trope, it's just not my thing.  But I'd still encourage anyone who enjoys Black Mirror style stories and the enemies to lovers trope to give this one a try, the heist missions are especially fun and to be honest I'd like a second book!

A futuristic dystopian YA, Keystone by Katie Delahanty sounded intriguing and the description as well as the cover led me to pick it up. In the future as described by Delahanty, people's worth is determined by a Social Stock Exchange. and our narrator has just debuted with the highest ever stock value. Over the course of the book we learn why she decides to leave that world behind and instead join Keystone, a secret organisation of thieves and spies. As part of her initiation into Keystone she must partner up and perform a heist and this forms the major part of the book.
I liked the premise of the book but never really connected to any of the characters, and I felt the inevitable love triangle was a little too predictable. I wish there had been a little more development of the Social Stock Exchange idea but the secret spy school was a fun idea too. Overall this was a fun and entertaining book. I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Keystone by Katie Delahanty is original and unique, looking at a future dystopian world in which everyone is graded on the Social Stock exchange. Think Instagram on major steroids and then times that by 1000. It’s the current currency and if you don’t rank or are unrankable, life can be pretty difficult. As Ella says:

“My parents taught me Index ranking is everything. If you don’t rank, you don’t matter.”

Ella is the main character and narrator – gifted with extreme intuitive sense; she is the daughter of two major influencers but they have a secret. When Ella becomes indebted to a group of high-ranking mean girls, they use her parents secret to manipulate her into an act that has serious consequences.
Ella, now Elisha, is taken under the wing a woman who is part of Keystone; a school that teaches the art of thieving everything ‘analog and original’ for the main purpose of obstructing those in power from changing history.

"Our Mission is to steal analog history – to preserve the truth – before corporations and the government can alter the past to benefit their personal futures."

Ella must now prove her worth by actions not rankings. There are, of course, mean girls at Keystone but Ella also makes friends there, real friends and they are interesting characters to read about. Most of the students at Keystone have grown up there, learning how to steal from a very young age and have a distinct advantage over Ella. They also don’t know that prior to coming to Keystone she was a highly ranked social elite. More secrets and a lot of competition ensue!

I liked the pace of this book; it starts out with a lot of action and takes a now and then approach. I found it worked well in this story. It slowly unveils the story behind Ella and what drives her. There’s a cliff-hanger ending so it’s my guess that there’s another book coming and I’m happy about that!

I recommend this for any fan of YA dystopian with a dash of romance and intrigue!

A big thank you to NetGalley, Entangled Publishing – Entangled: Teen, and Katie Delahanty for providing Keystone in exchange for my honest review.

KEYSTONE is an interesting YA dystopian. In the future, the world is now one collective country and is primarily ruled by consumerism. There are multiple classes, and the seemingly top of the top is the Influencer class, where their worth is decided by the companies who invest in them. Ella was born to two Influencer parents, who mainly wanted the monetary bump having a baby would give them. They have expected her to now earn her own.

Ella, however, wants out. She does not fit into this world, and she does not like the person she would have to be in order to fit in. Luckily, she is intuitive, and her skills are sought by Disconnects, people who live without technology. She is now attending the seemingly-mythical Keystone, an academy of thievery, where she will learn how to break into just about anything and steal whatever she needs/wants. As part of this education, there is an internal contest before a large heist that will determine their post-schooling careers in thievery.

The story here is intriguing, and at its heart, not unusual. It's lonely at the top, and the lives of those we see on social media or TV is not as glamorous as it seems. The world is unique, but I did not feel like we got enough explanations of what was going on. We get crumbs here and there, enough to have a vague picture of this future, but I would have liked to go deeper. This seems unique and complex, and it would be interesting to flesh it all out.

There's also some kind-of-romances that have some instalove feel, and they worked enough to advance the story, but I did not get super into the couples/love triangle. There's also some pretend-neuroscience that draws from myth in a way that sounds sciencey, but as a neuroscientist, I found this a little weird, but I bet most people won't bat an eye.

Regardless, I did really enjoy this read. There's a lot going on, and I liked Ella enough that I wanted to follow her story. There's quite a bit of fun and competition going on, and I would definitely like to continue reading about this world in the future. While others have mentioned a cliffhanger, there is one, but I did not find it too huge. I definitely want to know what will happen next though!

Overall, I would recommend for people looking for a futuristic/dystopian YA read. This is an intriguing book that I want to learn more about! Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

This novel was different than I expected it to be and it was an enjoyable read. I liked how the author gave flashbacks throughout the novel about Ella Karman's life before she joined Keystone. Most people want to be accepted by others and will do hurtful things to fit in. Ella has trust issues due to the betrayals by her Influencer friends, yet she tried to be their friends but their only concern was their rankings. Ella's life becomes entwined with Adam, an Influencer she has a crush on, but even Adam has his secrets. Garrett Alexander, who parents lead Keystone, who annoys Ella, has his own secrets and is attractive to Ella. Ella has good instincts, which makes her desirable as a thief and able to "trust" people. We see Ella develop emotionally, since she was hurt very deeply, and learns to "trust no one", but she wants to be better than what she was as an Influencer. Ella will form relationships with others at Keystone and become more than she was. Still, Garrett confuses her and she does not know what his motives are. An enjoyable read and looking forward to there being another novel.

~ARC provided by NetGalley~

So this book was good, I liked the plot but the writing and navigating the story was a little weird. It was hard to make sense of what was going on when you first start. However, once you get past the initial aspect of "what's going on". It was kind of original and fun - a different mash up of book types, I really liked the heist/secret spy society. Definitely didn't like the cliffhanger ending but it leaves you wanting to know what's next.

I had such high hopes for this book. But it is absolutely atrocious! It reads more like a futuristic Gossip Girl rather than a story about rebellion of the vapid society who relies too much on technology. Honestly, the protagonist is very unlikable and every moment where the author tries to redeem her, I just dislike her even more. The characters don't have any depth, the story is written in flowery language that makes it exhausting trying to get to the root of the story and the romantic aspect is just plain boring. I was not impressed at all. BUT. The story has potential. It feels too convoluted but it does have something that drew me near. Try at your own risk.

I sat down to start reading this book, and never got back up. It was very addicting, and had an engaging plot and likable characters. I will say that I was a little confused for the first two chapters, but I thought it was nice that it plunged you right into the action. I also liked Rayelle, Sophia, and Stewart as the cast of supporting characters. I couldn’t definitively determine if Stewart was gay or not, but if he was, then I think it was a great way to be inclusive of the LGBTQIA community. Moving past them to Nash and Garrett, my feelings get a little murky. I’m not really sure the author wanted the reader to categorize them as good or bad, and she did a good job of leaving it up to the reader. The whirlwind of events was more than enough to distract me from the building tension between them and the main character, Elisha. With the way the book ends, I can easily see there being a sequel to resolve some of that tension. The question now is how I’ll be able to wait that long for it to come out! Overall, I was thrilled with how much fun this book was to read, and would definitely recommend it.