Duplicity

A computer-hacking teen. The girl who wants to save him. And a rogue mirror reflection that might be the death of them both.

In private, seventeen-year-old Brandon hacks bank accounts for thousands of dollars just for the hell of it. In public, he looks like any other tattooed bad boy with a fast car and devil-may-care attitude. He should know: hes worked hard to maintain that façade. With inattentive parents who move cities every couple of years, hes learned not to get tangled up in things like friends and relationships. So hell just keep on living like a machine, all gears and wires.

Then two things come along to shatter his carefully-built image: Emma, the kind, preppy girl who insists on looking beneath the surface and the small matter of a mirror reflection that starts moving by itself. Not only does Brandons reflection have a mind of its own, but it seems to be grooming him for something washing the dye from his hair, yanking out his piercings, swapping his black shirts for pastels. Changes he cant explain to his classmates, who think hes having an identity crisis, and certainly not to nosy Emma, who thinks this is his backward apology for telling her to get lost. Then Brandons reflection tells him: it thinks it can live his life better, and its preparing to trade places.

And when it pulls Brandon through the looking-glass, not only will he need all his ill-gotten hacking skills to escape, but hes going to have to face some hard truths about who hes become. Otherwise hes going to be stuck in a digital hell until hes old and gray, and Emma and his parents won't even know he's gone.