Malice

Gr 8 Up–Alice and her genius brother attend an exclusive STEM-focused high school. She has a strict no-dating-in-high-school policy, but when a voice accompanied by an electric shock enters her head, she tells Bandit, one of the best-looking and most popular boys at school, that she loves him. The voice tells her she is not to fall in love with Bandit and that someone at her school will create a virus that will wipe out millions of people in the future. This mystery voice is none other than older Alice, from the future (she calls herself Malice). Alice learns that she must stop or even kill the virus creator, but the voice won’t tell her directly who it is, causing her to destroy friendships and relationships along the way. Alice starts to wonder how truthful her future self is, and whether the things she is being asked to do are really necessary. There are many twists and turns as Alice tries to figure out what Malice wants and why, although teens will likely guess the identity of the virus maker, even with a few red herrings in their path. The ending wraps up swiftly and almost too neatly given the complexity of the plot.