Villain by Adrian Beck

Title: Villain

Author: Adrian Beck

Genre: Thriller

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Published: 1^st May 2025

Format: Paperback

Pages: 240

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: Gaming fanatic Jay receives a strange phone call on a school trip to Titanium Tower. The voice on the other end calls himself Z. And he has trapped Jay’s classmates in the elevator at the very top of the skyscraper.

Jay finds himself with no choice but to try and solve Z’s deadly riddles. Not only that, he has the worst person possible helping him: Hudson Hamm, the school’s star athlete and resident tough guy.

Soon Jay and Hudson are on a high-stakes scavenger hunt around the city. Can they team up to beat Z at his own game? If not, their classmates and family members will pay with their lives.

~*~

AI and technology are starting to encroach on our lives. In Adrian Beck’s first middle grade novel, AI is taking over the city. Whilst on a school trip at Titanium Tower in the midst of a technology conference, Jay meets Z – a strange voice who draws him into a cat-and-mouse game. Z is dangling the lives of Jay’s classmates in front of him. They’re trapped in a lift – apart from Jay and Hudson, the start athlete of the school, and the last person Jay wants to work with. Jay and Hudson are forced to solve a series of riddles in a deadly, high-stakes scavenger hunt. And for Jay, an avid gamer, this is quite possibly taking technology a little bit too far for his liking.

The idea that technology and AI can take over is a scary thing, and Adrian Beck has taken these fears and concerns, and popped them in a novel for readers aged ten and over. Whilst there are benefits, and it is clear that Jay and his best friend Leni are keen to explore what they can create to help people, Villain explores the idea that technology is always watching us. That we are not truly free because it’s a constant in our lives that we can’t ignore. It’s in everything we do and so much of our work and personal lives are online or have something to do with technology, that the dangers, the implications of what can go wrong never seem to be considered.

So, Adrian Beck has taken it to its extreme – what if AI could take over everything and manipulate lifts, computers, everything that relies on some form of technology to force people into dangerous situations? Villain is the answer, and it looks like it’s going to be the first book in a series, because something or someone has to be behind Z, surely. Who is putting things into Z to manipulate the world and to draw Jay into a dangerous game? The first book kicks off as Jay is sent to stay with a relative after his mother injures herself in the pool, and is set to stay in hospital for a long time. It’s the perfect set-up for Z to manipulate things, in what feels like a quest to destroy the world and humanity. Jay and Hudson are the only ones who can see what’s happening, from the creepy robot doll to the constant manipulation of information and screens throughout the city.

Villain is an incisive examination of the ways AI and technology could take over and make things go wrong. No technology is infallible, and even when it does help us, there should always be a consideration of what can go wrong, how it can go wrong and whether there needs to be backups or fail safes. But in this case, the story suggests that there are benefits to not spending so much time on technology or using it for everything. Because it is getting so advanced that it is scary and does suggest that one day, everything could be replaced by AI or technology, and where does that leave humans? It reminds us that we need to use technology with care at times, that advances are good but shouldn’t replace everything we do. It shouldn’t replace creativity, that’s for sure! This book celebrates creativity, and having different interests whilst being fast paced as Jay and Hudson spend a day trying to stop Z.

As the first book in a new series, it sets things up well, dangles lots of ideas and clues, and with an ending that suggests it could go anywhere next. Each time Jay and Hudson worked something out, things briefly calmed down, creating ebbs and flows that catapulted the story towards its finale. Everything is used cleverly and very well to show the dangers of relying on technology and how easily it can be manipulated by people who want to misuse it. It’s a great book that can make readers think about why they rely on technology so much, whilst showing the implications a reliance on AI could have. A great book from Adrian Beck with thrills and scares along the way to create tension and keep readers hooked.