iBoy, the not completely realistic but awesome story of a boy called Tom Harvey who has an iPhone dropped on his head from a 30-floor council flat and develops superpowers from the pieces lodged in his brain. These powers include: control over electricity, access to the entire internet just by the power of thought (as well as the phone lines), somehow the knowledge to hack anything on the internet and listen in on anyone's conversations and electric force-fields.
The same person who threw the iPhone was also involved in gang-raping Tom's childhood friend Lucy and Tom sets out to take revenge on the attackers but soon learns that nothing good comes from getting involved with gangsters...
Notable for being literature for older teens but exploring some incredibly dark themes, as well as realisticly exploring the psychological effects of developing super-powers.
In 2017, Netflix made a film adaption.
Examples:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: A minor one, but Tom's mum died when he was two in the film instead of when he was six months old. It's also established that he was aware of her being a drug addict, while this was something his gran hid from him.
- Adaptational Context Change: The film changes the context of Tom's presence during Lucy's rape: in the book he was waking when Davey threw the iPhone at his head from Lucy's flat window, while the film has him actually walk in during the rape and being chased until he got shot. This makes Tom feel guilty, since he feels he should have done something to help Lucy instead of just running, despite everyone telling him what he did was the right thing to do.
- Adaptational Dye-Job: Tom is described as having dirty blond in the book, but Bill Milner has dark brown hair. Lucy also goes from having blonde hair and blue eyes to being a brunette and having grey eyes.
- Adaptational Name Change: Tom's gran has her name changed from Connie to Wendy.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Tom's Sanity Slippage is absent in the film.
- While still a villain, the Big Bad Ellman is changed from a violent psychopath to an Affably Evil gang leader in the film. As a result, he's far more civil when interacting with Tom and while mockingly suggests he could be his dad, doesn't come up with a story about murdering his mum just to mess with Tom while also being less sexist as he's more respectful towards Lucy and doesn't try to rape her. Also while it's very downplayed, the teens who raped Lucy do show at least some guilt over what they did and are uncomfortable being around her, especially when she reminds them of how they've known each other since they were little kids.
- Adaptational Personality Change:
- Tom is presented as being less of a loner and a bit more willing to interact with others, as well as being much smarter at least academically. He's also more traditionally heroic, as opposed to the brutal and violent antihero of the book who struggled with controlling his actions.
- While still traumatised from the rape, Lucy isn't as afraid of leaving her flat like in the book and is more active in trying to move on with her life. She also doesn't admire iBoy for fighting the gangs, recognising that he's doing it more for himself than her like he claims.
- Adaptational Wimp: In the film Tom loses his Shock and Awe powers and ability to disguise himself. Though the ending has him create an electrical pulse to defeat Ellman.
- Archnemesis Dad: Subverted. While it's not confirmed to be true, Ellman does explain how it's possible he's Tom's father, since if he's to be believed she tended to Really Get Around.
- Big Bad: Gang life seems to run on there being bigger and bigger bads as the chain of command goes higher but... Howard Ellman.
- Broken Bird: Lucy, although she gets a little better as the story goes on.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: Tom is definitely fighting vile criminals who feel no regret over what they've done, but he comes to realise that he isn't doing it to make the world a better place. He's doing it to make himself feel better because he couldn't do anything to save Lucy, who would prefer to move on with her life, and as the book goes on he does start to realise that he doesn't actually have a proper plan. He can also be pretty violent when using his powers and causes serious harm to what are still just teenagers.
- Canon Foreigner: The film gives Tom another friend named Danny, though he's later revealed to be a Composite Character of Davey, Tom's Evil Former Friend, and the girl who filmed Lucy's rape.
- Childhood Friend Romance: It seems like it would've been a pretty straight example until Lucy was raped, Tom got super-powers and inadvertantly made Lucy fall in love with his online iBoy persona...
- Cursed with Awesome: Well, the tagline for the book is "His powers are his curse".
- Cool Old Lady: Tom's grandmother who raised him when his mother died, although she is only in her 50s.
- Darker and Edgier: Than your average teen superhero origin story. Tom lives in a very violent gang-ridden neighborhood, and the event that sets off his quest for revenge is his love interest getting raped.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Tom is able to bring all the gangsters to justice, Lucy is able to overcome her trauma, and the movie ends with them sealing their status as an Official Couple with a Big Damn Kiss.
- Evil Former Friend: Tom used to be friends with Davey, but they drifted apart when Davey started getting involved with the gangs. The film turns Canon Foreigner Danny into one after he betrayed Tom for money, seemingly ending up in charge after Tom got rid of Ellman and most of the higher ups.
- London Gangster
- One-Word Title: Also a Portmantitle because it's a compound word, possibly.
- Only Friend: Lucy was this for Tom, though the film gives him a friend named Danny who becomes his Evil Former Friend.
- Piecemeal Funds Transfer: Justified in the film adaptation, as the funds transfer needs to be done in small pieces in order to not attract attention.
- Police Are Useless: Somewhat(?) justified in that they're dealing with gang-members, a lot of which are only minors.
- Pop-Up Texting: Played with. Anytime Tom texts someone the message will show up like this for the viewer, but this is because he's actually got the ability to see electrical signals. He doesn't even have to use his hands.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: How does the Big Bad find out Tom is the one attacking members of his gang? Because the name iBoy comes from an insult said to him just a few weeks earlier by someone who who works for Ellman and knows Ben. When Ben and Lucy first see Tom as iBoy, Ben mistakenly hears it as eBay but while telling those people helps them make a connection. The reality is that on an estate, someone like Tom would be relatively well known and therefore it wouldn't be that difficult to make a connection.
- Technopath: Tom becomes this courtesy of his accident that left a piece of phone stuck in his brain. He's initially only able to "see" electrical signals and telecommunicatons through Extreme Graphical Representation, but he's able to hack into any network, operate cars, and even explode things.
- The Yardies: The professional British gangsters are mainly black or Pakistani, although they're led by a white London Gangster.
