Review: Calculated by Nova McBee

It's been forever since I had a review on my blog. And since Calculated kept popping up in recommendations all over the place, I decided it was high time I gave it a review.

Problem: I don't have time and barely read anymore.

Solution: My friend Rebekah, who already read it, has recommended it multiple times, and writes fabulous reviews.

So may I introduce Rebekah Doose, a close friend of mine who also happens to be fantastic with reviews. ;P

(PLEASE NOTE: Calculated deals with some dark, gritty topics, and as such this review covers those same serious topics. This review may not be appropriate for all ages. Also, there may be spoilers. Just sayin'. ;P)

The Story

She has many names - Octavia, Double 8, Phoenix, Josephine. She's a math prodigy, a calculating genius, and everyone wants her.

In seventeen-year-old Jo River's complicated world of numbers, there's no such thing as coincidence. When she is betrayed by someone she loves, kidnapped by the world's most wanted smuggler, and forced to use her talent to shore up a criminal empire, Jo deems her gift a curse-until she meets Red.

Fellow captive and unlikely sage, Red teaches Jo to harness her true potential, so she can do more than just escape. Before he dies, Red reveals a secret about her enemies and makes her vow to right his wrongs. But Jo has a vow of her own.

With help from Chan, a bitter billionaire, and Kai, his off-limits son, Jo rises into a new role, ready to take down those who ruined her life. Until a mathematical error comes back to haunt her with a threat much more dangerous than the criminals on the loose.

To beat the odds, Jo must decide who she really is and if risking everything is worth it.

After all, history is not made-it's calculated.

The Review

“I planned to start by telling you my name, but that won’t work. I’ve had too many. I don’t know who I am, much less which name suits a girl like me. So I’ll start by telling you what they call me. Double-Eight. Like the digits. 88. I live in China – no, living implies choice. I exist in China and my existence depends on my gift.”

Thus read the opening lines of Calculated, by Nova McBee – a fast-paced YA spy thriller with a dash of romance, a cupful of numbers, and a band of diabolical human-trafficking criminals for its villains. With a female protagonist who’s strong but not overpowered, a love interest who’s both gentle and kickbutt, and Christian themes woven through the most surprising of places, it’s not much of a surprise that this is my favorite book.

First, we’re going to look at the storytelling side – characters and worldbuilding, mainly – then we’ll move to the themes and how they relate to Christianity. Lastly, I’ll outline the content warnings, because while this is an amazing book, it also tackles one of the most difficult topics I can think of.

Let’s get started.

First, the storytelling side. The plot holds incredible twists. The prose is smooth and gripping – so much so, that even on my second time through, I couldn’t seem to put it down. But the worldbuilding and the characters are by far my favorite parts. We’ll begin with the characters.

Jo, our math-prodigy main character, is honestly one of the most complex characters I’ve ever come across. Part of that is how many names she has (and the fact that each name seems to represent a different facet of her character). Part of that is how complicated her backstory is (I’m not even going to try to outline it here… suffice to say that she was kidnapped and forced to use her math gift to shore up a criminal empire). But most of it is how realistically her backstory influences her, and the constant tug-of-war between her desires for revenge and peace. But even her desire for revenge isn’t a simple, run-of-the-mill vindictiveness, once you actually look closely at it. It’s a pain-riddled craving for justice… for closure. Jo wants – needs – to see her captors knocked from their pedestals, prevented from ever hurting anyone else, so that she can finally walk away and start a new life. Throughout the entire book, you’re rooting for Jo to find peace and healing. To succeed, so that she can go back to being just a normal teenage girl.

Kai, our incredible love interest, is one of the best male characters I’ve seen in a long time. He’s wealthy but not prideful. Strong, but perfectly in control of himself – unlike some men in the story, Kai uses his strength to protect others, not harm them. He does his best to be a friend to Jo… and waits patiently until she finally feels safe enough to open up. He teaches her that trying to bear the weight of her past alone is the worst thing she could do.

Then there’s our villainess. Madame, Celia, Maxima Moreau, Maryam Mataar. Like Jo, she has a seemingly infinite number of names. And for spoilery reasons that I can’t give, she almost seems like Jo’s foil. She’s creepy. I doubt she’s fully sane (obsessed with gold, and apparently doesn’t eat on Tuesdays). Like every scary villain, she’s always two or three steps ahead. But she still has shards of humanity left inside. I hate her guts… and yet still feel kind of sorry for her. That’s the mark of an excellent villain.

The side characters all have so. much. depth. They have arcs. From the big ones, like Chan the bitter billionaire or Red the lovable sage or King, Madame’s murderous lackey, to the minor ones, like Guard San, Yu Tai, or Dr. Ling, they’re all clearly well-thought-out characters with a backstory. It’s their very presence that gives the world of Calculated such life… because (to quote the late Lani Forbes) every side character is the protagonist of their own story.

Next up is the worldbuilding of Calculated. (Because yes, even contemporary spy thrillers need worldbuilding.) Most of the story takes place in Shanghai, China. Nova McBee doesn’t comment on the communist regime ruling it – there are exactly two lines in the entire book that even show that this version of China is, in fact, communist (and both of them were so minor that I completely missed them on my first time through). My guess is that she didn’t want to get too political, which I suppose I can understand. Instead, McBee’s focus is on the culture of China – its people, its traditions, its cuisine. And there was such depth that I felt like I was actually there.

That’s the storytelling side. Next, let’s talk about the themes… and how they relate to Christianity.

Before we get any further, I’m going to tell you that Nova McBee is a Christian author. Calculated, however, is not an explicitly Christian novel. It’s written with that worldview in mind, and absolutely imbued with hope and the concept of infinity (specifically, infinite love)… but God and Jesus aren’t mentioned. Ever.

Because of this Christian worldview, hope is everywhere in the book. Without that hope, it would probably be a depressing mess, given its subject matter (human trafficking). Even in the darkest of places, light shines – from the criminal-infested tunnels where Jo’s imprisoned, to the upper echelons of Chinese society.

Red, Jo’s adoptive grandfather, teaches her about the concept of infinity. At first, Jo isn’t sure how infinity – infinite love – can be possible. How can it, when it’s surrounded by so many “imperfect equations” that should, mathematically, end it? But as the story unfolds, she realizes that love can’t be explained by numbers or logic. It doesn’t depend on variables in order to exist. “Red was right. Love can’t be counted or calculated. The more you give, the more it comes back to you. It increases where things like money can’t and will remain even when the world doesn’t. It has to be trusted, given freely, risked. I understand now. It’s in love that we find our infinity.”

I’m not sure what Red’s character believes. He holds that everything has a purpose, and that infinite Love (note the capital L) rules all. At another point, he’s described as “a man of faith,” though we’re not told what his faith is in, exactly. I suspect he’s a Christian character… but that’s just a suspicion, as nothing’s stated outright. (And there were a couple of points where he felt almost mystic-y.)

R: “Madame and King have chosen to use their life and wealth for evil. This is not living. They have lost the path to true blessing.”

J: “Which path is that?”

R: “The path of Love. To live by love is to walk on a path with higher rules than of this earth. There, you will always prosper.”

Another massive theme in Calculated is forgiveness. Jo’s story is arranged like a retelling of Joseph’s tale in the book of Genesis (interesting, given the fact that her name is Josephine). Throughout the book, she wrestles with her anger towards Madame and King, her criminal captors, and the betrayal she feels because her family did not come for her when she was kidnapped. But by the end, she realizes that her anger is hurting only herself… and slowly, slowly, she lets go of it, even to the point of verbally saying “I forgive you” to those who hurt her, and meaning it.

Now that we’ve touched on the storytelling and thematic sides of Calculated, we’re going to move to our last point: The content warnings.

Calculated is a book brimming with hope. But it’s still not without its dark places. For one thing, it deals with the topic of human trafficking… specifically, sex trafficking.

Madame and King run hundreds of brothels, hidden expertly beneath the noses of the authorities. After Jo is first kidnapped, she’s forced to use her mathematical abilities to earn money for Madame – money that finances this human trafficking operation. When Jo learns this, she is horrified and sickened, and vows to take Madame down. We hear King say that his men will often “sample the cargo” (or girls) before it’s shipped out. 

Two trafficked girls are rescued from a hospital by the caring Dr. Ling, and brought to Jo for shelter. We’re told that they were at the hospital because of failed abortions. Later, Jo sees a thug returning a young girl to a brothel – her clothes are torn, she’s bruised and bleeding, and her captor continues to beat her while he waits for the brothel door to open.

In a flashback chapter, we’re told that Madame’s husband, Lev, cheats on her every chance he gets. It isn’t long before he starts making advances on a 15-year-old Jo, just like in Joseph’s story, and she only barely manages to get away.

Jo and other trafficked girls are drugged throughout the book in order to subdue them. After a young Jo tries and fails to escape from Madame, she’s branded for her trouble. Other times, she’s beaten. King nearly drowns her, holding her underwater with his bare hands for minutes at a time. Some men in the Pratt make suggestive comments. We learn that another character was also trafficked and abused as a young girl.

As far as language goes, we have two or three uses of h*ll, one use of godforsaken, and a handful “thank God”-type phrases. Jo mainly just says aiya, a Mandarin word expressing dismay, exasperation, or surprise.

I love Calculated. Deeply. But I’m not going to pretend that it isn’t dark. But unlike in some books I’ve read (I’m looking at you, Mockingjay), the journey is oh-so-worth-it by the end.

Human trafficking is a heavy topic. But McBee’s portrayal of it is honest without ever once exceeding the limits of what her audience can handle. Rather like the Angel Studios film Sound of Freedom, it jars you out of your comfortable life and makes you ask yourself what more you can be doing to help.

But even more than trying to raise human trafficking awareness… Calculated is a story about hope. Hope in the midst of darkness. Hope in the midst of suffering. Hope that there is a purpose in all this blaze of pain, that there is a Higher Force Who will use it to put you where you need to be.

And that is a message that we all need to hear.

---

"Pure gold does not fear the fire." -Red

---

What about you? Have you ever read Calculated? If so, what did you think? What is your opinion on dark/gritty-but-realistic stories like these? What are some of your nicknames? Are you excited for the movie?

Until next time,

Take courage, pursue Christ, and smile while you still have teeth!! ^_^

-Joelle

Subscribe to the Newsletter!