Customer Reviews

Teen, Inc.

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jaiden Beale became an orphan at a very early age, so early that his parents had yet to give him a name. The company that was responsible for his parents' deaths, NECorp, did a very noble, or wacky, thing. They adopted Jaiden. Well, he had yet to be called Jaiden, but NECorp hired an expensive branding firm to come up with the name. The last name turned out to be more difficult, so NECorp executives decided that Jaiden should keep his parents' last name. Perhaps Jaiden would have been better off had he been a wizard and could go to a school named Hogwart's.

Jaiden's life was more than a bit unusual. Steering committees, focus groups, and executives guided his activities. He lived in an office in NECorp's world headquarters. Jaiden tried to make the office look like a room, but it still looked like an office. Jaiden's life was relatively stable until Jaiden became a teenager, and then things became difficult.

It all started when Jaiden was called to a meeting. Jaiden thought the meeting was going to be one of the usual subjects; homework or staying in his room after hours. When the big screen came on, Jaiden freaked. There in huge letters was the title of the presentation, Jaiden Beale Dating Options 1Q. Little did the executives of NECorp realize what they started with their presentation.

Jaiden was already interested in one of his classmates. Her name was Jenny Tate. Of course, Jaiden had yet to ever talk to Jenny and the way things were looking, he might never talk to her. Then there was the biology project. By some miracle, Jaiden and Jenny were chosen to be a team. Jaiden and Jenny's lives were about to become really exciting.

Jenny's father is one of the founders of JenCare, a remediation company. He is convinced that NECorp LiteSpring plant is polluting the water table around the plant with mercury. Of course, Jaiden had already seen the reports that the LiteSpring plant was using a new process that actually reduced the mercury coming from the plant. Then again, perhaps NECorp was not telling everything they knew.

Jaiden and Jenny soon find themselves in the midst of company politics. Rather than becoming a pawn in a public relations campaign, Jaiden decides it is time to learn the facts and to stand up for himself. What Jaiden, Jenny and Jaiden's best friend Nate fail to appreciate is the lengths that some executives are willing to go to protect NECorp and their jobs.

This story was a quick and enjoyable read. Stefan's story-telling style captured me immediately, and I discovered that I could not put this book down. Stefan's story is creative, the writing is clear and crisp, and the characters are engaging. I was unable to predict the exciting and plausible ending to this story.

I was pleasantly surprised that Stefan's writing style reminded me a lot of another of my favorite authors, Robert A. Heinlein. The story is not science fiction, but I enjoyed Jaiden's observations and explanations throughout the story, which are a characteristic of Heinlein's stories, especially his so-called juvenile books.

I believe it is likely that this book will end up becoming a movie at some point. The story is far too clever to remain in a book. I recommend this book to teens and adults looking for a well-written, clever and creative story about teenagers learning to think for themselves and learning what corporate responsibility means.

Enjoy!

The author provided me with a review copy of this book.

It all started with a faulty valve.

This valve was manufactured by the SafeWarm company, whose manager quadrupled production at the expense of quality control.

Two people died as a result of the faulty valve that came from the firm that quadrupled its production at the expense of quality control.

Those two people had just been blessed with a baby boy, who stands to inherit their 40 million dollar wrongful death settlement on his 25th birthday.

The parent company of SafeWarm legally adopted the boy to give their case a little positive spin, and there begins the tale of Jaiden Beale, the boy raised by NECorp.

It's hard enough growing up with two parents looking out for you, so imagine poor Jaiden who's every life decision had to be pondered, debated and discussed by a committee. He lives in a converted office that still looks like an office, he eats at the cafeteria, and his only escape is when he's at school. Of course his going to public school was a widely debated topic, and only agreed upon after analysis showed conclusively that he was below the curve for social interaction.

The penultimate straw comes when Jaiden is summoned to a meeting to discuss his dating options, especially as the list of candidates didn't include the one girl that he was interested in. An ill-fated study date leads Jaiden to a shocking discovery, which puts him in the position of having to choose between his gut-feeling and the only family he can call his own.

An intriguing concept that chronicles the life of a boy who took his first steps on corridors of wealth and power, and who is forced to make one of the biggest decisions of his life. Fast and funny, with a killer ending, you'll probably want to read this in one sitting. Recommended for pre-teenagers and people who still think like pre-teenagers.

Rated: 4.5 stars



Amanda Richards, December 30, 2007

When Teen, Inc. arrived, I thought I would just read the first chapter before handing it over to my daughter. Instead, I read it in one sitting! It's a great read for adults, as well as for teens and tweens. Funny, honest and heartwarming - Jaiden is a new American hero and I look forward to more of his adventures. Can't wait for the movie!

Jaiden Beale has never had a normal life or a normal family. Well, he had a mom and a dad -- that is until they were caught in an explosion at their home while heating up some milk, due to a wrongfully made gas valve by Safe Warm. NECorp, who was indirectly responsible for his parents' deaths, thought it would be right to raise Jaiden themselves, and to make sure that nothing bad happens to the company's money or reputation.

So now, not only is Jaiden's family a corporation, but also his home.

All he has ever wanted was for everything to be normal. But that doesn't really happen when you don't get to make all of your own decisions. The decision making belongs to NECorp and the time that runs Jaiden's life. Everything is decided through meetings and discussions and organized to where everyone knows Jaiden's business. He can't even find the perfect girl to date without Team Jaiden making slideshows and gathering all the information they can about possible candidates and the ones he should date.

When he does find the perfect girl, Jenny, his first date (well, study date) goes terrible wrong, since some of the corporation's lawyers think it's best for Jenny to sign some pre-nups that are more like waivers.

So what does Jaiden do when he can't stand how everything is working out? He runs away. Unfortunately, he doesn't run too far. That is until he finds secrets that could ruin his family and possibly be the missing puzzle piece for his freedom and his chance at leading a normal life. Will Jaiden use these secrets to take down the only family he's ever known? Or will he come to terms and finally understand that this family of his is what he needs the most?

Satisfying, unique, and very charming, TEEN, INC. is one of the very few novels in its genre that stands out the most. Jaiden is the one character that everyone will fall in love with, and NECorp is one family you don't want to mess with. Readers will have mixed responses on whether they would want to have a life like Jaiden's. Sure, having others make decisions may seem nice, but not all the time. And having any sort of family is the greatest, even if yours may be a corporation. Stefan Petrucha stirs up a novel that makes readers want seconds, and more after that.

Reviewed by: Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen

I never thought that a corporation was a person, or could raise a child. But after reading Teen, Inc. I see that a corporation IS made up of a bunch of people. Jaiden was a very humorous main character and kept my attention through out the entire novel. I was able to see why he defended NECorp at first but later turned against it. While we're on the subject of characters, I wish we got to know Jenny and all of the characters more. We didn't know much about them, or why Jaiden went along with the plan in the end. It was hard to see why he trusted them so much. The plot was really creative and intriguing, everytime I thought I knew what was going to happen, everything changed and another problem rised. Overall I think that Teen, Inc. was very interesting, but some of the characters needed a little work.

Teen Inc. by Stefan Petrucha is a fiction page turning book. It exposes the corruptness of the world when a corporation adopts the baby whose parents they have accidentally killed by a malfunctioning piece of equipment. The reader is hooked by the unexpected twists and turns in the plot, although some of them are not at all unpredictable. Malevolence grabs the reader hooks them to the story.
Jaiden, a now fourteen year old boy, was forced to live under tutors and company teams who were supposed to "take care of him" his whole life, or until he is at the legal age to "move out of the house". The corporation finally let him go to school after much begging and pleading, and once he had a taste of freedom, he was dying for more.
The novel continues with Jaiden getting himself into trouble constantly, and getting out of it with the help of Nancy, his supervisor. Jaiden thought everything was a game until one of his favorite employees, Ben, was fired. He then becomes involved with the company, discovers how much evil it has done, and sets out to give the data to the media. This book contains a very meandering plot, although the ending is like a cliché drama movie. Big hero gets in trouble; somebody else butts in and saves the day at the last second before death. This is a "medieval knights of the kingdom" cliché with a lot of modern touch put into it.
Stefan Petrucha has an interesting writing style, despite the ending. Although this story takes place in a first-person point of view, it incorporates such language as to make it seem a third-person omniscient point of view. While the story is experienced through the main character's eyes, the reader knows the feelings of every person in the story.
Overall, the novel is a good read, but the ending of the book ruined the entire story.
-Artek Chodor
NEST+m 08C

Tales of corporate greed, callousness and insensitivity are a fundamental part of our modern literature, both fiction and non-fiction. This book presents an unusual and entertaining twist on that tale. Jaiden Beale was orphaned shortly after birth when a valve manufactured by NECorp failed, causing his parent's house to explode. As compensation, he was awarded forty million dollars and adopted by the company. He lives at corporate headquarters and the officers of the company manage his life.
However, quite naturally, he wants to be a normal child, he wants to live in a house, interact with kids his age and go to a public school. The company allows him to attend a public school, but his initial interactions are somewhat awkward. Nancy is a corporate executive who agrees to play the role of his mother when Jaiden invites his female lab partner Jenny over. In order to complete the facade, they pretend that a house used for corporate visitation is where Jaiden lives. Of course, this is a disaster.
Things continue to go poorly as Jaiden learns that NECorp is polluting the area with mercury, all the while claiming that they have reduced the levels. Jenny's father is investigating the area for pollutants, trying to prove that NECorp is a fraud. Fortunately, Jaiden makes friends with Nate, a schoolmate who knows a great deal about technology. Jaiden, Nate and Jenny work together to penetrate the corporate secrecy and expose the malfeasance of NECorp to the world.
While some of the actions of the corporate people are exaggerated, not by so much that it is implausible. It is one of the most entertaining stories about the evils of corporate thought that I have ever encountered.

Jaiden Beale is an orphan being raised by NECorp (not to be confused with Japan's NEC Corporation, I presume). He's just your ordinary 14-year-old with a yearning for parents and a normal life. Seems that a faulty valve manufactured by the company caused an accident that killed his parents when he was a baby. He was awarded $40-million in damages to be paid when he turns 25. Additionally NECorp was ordered to become his guardian. So for the past 14 years Jaiden has been living at the corporate headquarters with some of its officers serving as his overbearing guardians and helicopter parents.

This is a cute premise sure to catch the eye of Disney or somebody making movies for kid TV. Petrucha, who is a veteran author of over 100 young adult novels, has a style, how shall I say?...carefully wrought. The story is told in Jaiden's words and from his POV. Whether Petrucha has captured an authentic voice of an upper middle class American teen is something beyond my ability to judge, but my feeling is that Jaiden has lived a way sheltered life. While it is nice to note that none of the multitudinous incantations of the infamous "f" word make an appearance, I think some contemporary deviations from standard English would bring a sharper shade of realism to this otherwise charming little tale. One gets the sense that Jaiden's vocabulary was approved by a middle school committee of the PTA.

Putting that aside, how about the story and characterizations?

Jaiden himself is just about perfect. He doesn't stand out in any particular way, but he has a sense of goodness and honesty about him that is admirable. He is apparently an average sort of guy in the high school social jungle, but attractive enough to please the eye of pretty Jenny Tate, who becomes his bio lab partner and the recipient of his first kiss. There is also his bud, Nate, a socially-challenged computer geek whose hacking skills come in handy in the latter part of the novel. And there is Ben who serves him bacon, eggs and home fries for breakfast every day. (I think Petrucha needs to consult the USDA's healthy food pyramid, or actually the Harvard School of Public Health's recent corrective of said pyramid.) Anyway, in the movie Ben will be Afro-American and shrewdly paternal. There is Nancy, the straitlaced corporate exec who looks after Jaiden in a rigid, hands off style that keeps deeply buried a human heart. And there is Mr. Hammond, the kindly CEO who has fatherly feelings toward Jaiden. And finally there is the evil Ted Bungrin (uh, kind of a name joke there, possibly) who has designs on taking over NECorp.

The plot turns on the discovery that NECorp is dumping poisonous mercury into the local waters.

This is not by any stretch of the imagination an attack on corporate malfeasance. Indeed, Petrucha's attitude toward the corporate structure and its place in the modern world suggests that a corporation is just an economic tool to be used for good--or not so good--by fallible humans. But you might want to check out The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004) a book by Joel Bakan or the documentary on DVD of the same name for a different perspective.

While I think this well-constructed and easy-to-read novel is mostly pablum for parents and harmless escapist fare for preteens (I think most teenagers would find it a bit juvenile) there is a hint in the pages of something more, of a talented artist yearning to breathe free of the commercial mold and say something that might not gain the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. For example on page 181 Petrucha has Jaiden thinking about cigarette companies. Jaiden muses: "It's like building this really cool ultrarobot, full of guns and lasers, programming it to be a perfect killing machine, then being totally shocked when it shoots you and doesn't understand for the life of it why you think it's wrong."

I also noted this on pages 217-218. A bullet has shattered Nate's Taser gun. Petrucha has Jaiden observe: "There was also this weird little time lag that's hard to describe; you're watching the gun fire, hearing the sound, seeing the Taser disintegrate all in slow motion. For a flash, you're removed from it, thinking, huh, that's not so bad, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with me, but then out of nowhere, the rest of your body catches up with what you're seeing and your glands start pouring tons of adrenaline into your body and you realize you might die at any second."

This insight is the famous half-second delay in conscious awareness discovered by experimental psychologist B. Libet some years ago. What this suggests to me is that if Petrucha wanted to, he could go deeper into the psychology of not only his characters and their interactions than he has here. Indeed, I suspect there is a deep, socially conscious, not so politically correct, adult novelist inside Petrucha ready to explode with literary power, if only Petrucha would just give him a chance!

Jaiden Beale wishes he lived an ordinary life, but when you are the child of a corporation, yes as in a business, it's a little hard. See when Jaiden was just a few weeks old his parents were killed in an explosion that was caused by a faulty valve made by NECorp, who is the same company that "adopts" him.

Now in middle school, Jaiden just wants to fit in, but that's a little hard when you have a whole team of people trying to make decisions for you. When he finally finds the perfect girl to date (after many meetings where he gets shown a slideshow of possible girls that don't appeal to him at all) his plans for a study date get immediately foiled. After enough persuasion though Jaiden is able to convince his guardians to let him use the company house and have the girl over. As soon as she steps in the house though, he wishes he had never pushed so hard. In short the date was a disaster and Jaiden is furious with the corporation.

Now he has to face how to grow up in a nonconventional environment and maybe, just maybe have somewhat of a normal teenage life. And maybe there is a chance for him to make up with the perfect girl and work things out.

Well the book started out really well and I was really excited about the concept, but by the end of the third chapter it started to go down hill. The plot didn't really move much and the story became so predictable that I didn't really want to continue. I thought that Jaiden's character became very whiny and unenjoyable, and he I felt like he kept talking abut the same thing over and over again. While I didn't like the story, I thought that the author's writing style was really good. He made the book feel real and provided enough detail to answer my questions, but not too much that it was a bore. Overall I was disappointed with the book, but think it may work out better for a younger audience.

There's a terrible tragedy: a product failure kills a baby's parents, before he's old enough to have a name. In a bizarre move to limit liability and maximize good publicity, NECorp ("Any" corp?) spins off a subsidiary, incorporates it, then uses the corporation's status as a legal person to adopt the child. When the committee deadlocks trying to name the child, they subcontract the job to a consultancy that develops product branding and identity. Instead of christening, I suppose he had a trademark registration: Jaiden.

Fast-forward fourteen years. It's time Jaiden started dating. The HR department, well familiar with executive searches, proposes a number of candidates at the weekly Jaiden status meeting, with debate about the relative merits of each. As prickly as any boy his age, Jaiden just wants to melt into the deep pile of the executive carpet. Then, on his first date -- well, see for yourself. You thought you had some bad moments in the teen mating game?

All this just sets the stage for the excitement at the end of the book. Improbable adventure turns this into a great teen empowerment fantasy, with happy endings for everyone who deserves them. Stock prices for the Jaiden product soar.

It's not that far-fetched - google "webhostinglink" "adopt". And I've seen background checks on dating candidates for at least a decade. Even if some details stumble (could anyone actually live on corporate cafeteria food?), the first part of the book carries a creepy kind of believability. Not so long ago, Science magazine published a short fiction in which grad students sold shares in their future earnings rather than look for scholarships or grants. Petrucha taps into an earlier phase of that same kind of life cycle. Although the last third of the book has a lot of Mission Impossible mixed in, Petrucha does a fair job of illustrating that kind of corporate life.

-- wiredweird, reviewing a complimentary copy