Gordon Korman. Unplugged. Balzer + Bray, 2021.

The latest Young Adult (YA) contribution from Gordon Korman has not failed to entertain us. Korman has a knack for inventing wacky but close enough to reality characters and situations. Unplugged does it again.

In this novel we focus on Jett Baranov, son of Silicon Valley billionaire Vlad Baranov (echoes of Sergei Bryn?). He was tagged by a journalist as Silicon Valley’s Number One Spoiled Brat. As one comment notes, “We’re talking about California!” He ranks above all the Hollywood kids and other offspring of tech giants and politicians.

Jett is sent to a New-Age health and mindfulness camp in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas called the Oasis. With him comes Matt, an executive for Mr. Baranov’s Fuego Inc. whose job is to handle or babysit Jett.

Here Jett meets up with a number of other middle-school aged campers. All are there because their parents are there. Grace is gung-ho. She buys into the program and admires the camp’s leaders, director Magnus and his assistant Ivory. The program consists of non-competitive outdoor activities (like a zipline and a hot spring bath), meditation, and a vegetarian diet.

Tyrrell is allergic to nearly everything. His skin breaks out for what seem almost random reasons. The diet has helped some, but there are still a lot of vegetables he cannot touch. He just wants to have a somewhat normal life.

Brooklynne knows her way around the camp better than any of the other kids. She has been going there since she was six. When a couple of the kids rescue a small lizard from the hot spring, they decide to keep it as a pet. It would not survive in the hot water or in the current of the nearby Saline river. Brooklynne knows where there is an old utility shed that is not being used for anything where they can keep the creature. She also knows where they keep the key for the diesel motorboat that the camp ground crew uses.

Camp rules prohibit electronic or communication devices of any kind (hence the book’s title), no meat, and no pets. Campers are allowed to write and receive letters. Some of the fun comes from when the kids alter letters Tyrrell’s older sister gets from her boyfriend.

The focus, though, is on Jett and his complaints about “Nimbus” and his camp. The four kids, even Grace, know that they could all get in trouble for keeping a pet. It is just that Jett goes farther in his rebellion. While Korman would never psychoanalyze a character, we get the sense that Jett may be acting out. His family is so rich, he is used to getting what he wants. But his father, whom he does seem to respect, works long hours, and his mother travels all over the world working on her favorite charity, Orthodontists without Borders.

Things escalate, especially as Jett and Tyrrell begin to believe that Ivory is going beyond meditation to brainwashing, and as the kids use the boat to go to the nearby town to buy meats and candy. Alert readers might be able to figure out what kind of lizard their contraband pet is. Jett brought a second phone that he did not surrender to the camp. He began ordering things such as a hovercraft and Dance-Dance Revolution. He has to return all the items, but no one notices that he has hidden some fireworks under his camp bunk.

The ending is wild. The kids actually discover an illegal operation going on which puts them in danger. There is a lot of action which reminded this reader of some of Korman’s Swindle mysteries. Readers of all ages will get a kick out of this one. Korman remains a favorite with us.