Review: Seven Percent of Ro Devereaux

Ro Devereaux dreams of being a software engineer. For her senior project, she creates an app based on the children’s game of MASH, which “predicts” your future. In the connected world in which we live, Ro’s app gets out in the wild. What happens when users download the app in droves and tech incubators get involved? 

There is much to enjoy in this novel. The romance is sweet (I don’t want to give anything away). I love that Ro is a complex character who makes mistakes and experiences profound loss. One of the best things about the story is a consistent message that life is full of unexpected, and sometimes devastating, events and we work through them as best we can with what we have at the time.

The novel also explores the impact of social media on the lives of teens and young adults. What happens when you have a dream, but an online “test” tells you your life will go in a different direction? In Ro’s world, the MASH app is accurate 93% of the time. But what about that other 7%? It turns out that 7%, our free will, our dreams, and our aspirations, might be the most important of all.

This story is great for anyone who likes stories with a slow-burn romance or issues of modern society. I will definitely get a copy for my classroom library.

Thanks to NetGalley, HarperCollins Children’s Books: HarperTeen, and Ellen O’Clover for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are my own. Additional disclosure, last week I won a signed copy of the book from Ellen O’Clover.