Trapped in Cyberspace by Ayala Stimler

820 Words2 Pages

Trapped in Cyberspace is an amazing novel extremely relevant to teens nowadays. It is a well-written story displaying the deadly clutches of the World Wide Web. Ayala Stimler masterfully gives over how just one time on a bad site can pull someone into an addiction that can last months on end. This novel opens everyone’s eyes to the awful dangers of the newest “necessity”, the internet.
Michal Klein was the perfect girl-- popular and fun. Internet addiction was the last thing one would associate her with. However, when her father re-installed the filter on the internet after showing his family a short YouTube video, Michal caught sight of the password. After a depressing week home from school due to the swine flu, she decided to try deactivating the filter just once so that she could watch Jewish music videos online. Soon they lost their thrill so Michal started watching Non-Jewish music videos as well. She couldn’t believe she was subjecting her neshama to such filth-- but it was too hard to keep away from it. From there, she carried on to a worse site. She remembered hearing the name of a chatting site from a friend whose brother was off the derech. Immediately after she logged on, someone with the pseudonym “Snake” started asking her questions of all sorts, including whether she’d ever tried drugs. Michal was repulsed by the questions posed and quickly logged off of the computer, but it wasn’t long before she yearned for more and was back on. Snake became her closest online friend.The Jewish songs on her ipod were quickly replaced with rocky Non-Jewish ones, and her new Blackberry was ever-present. There was one song in particular that called her soul-- she fell asleep to its beats every night. On the outside, Michal was the ...

... middle of paper ...

...ther tells her that the computer is damaged beyond repair. She lives with her dark secret for many months until a terrible loss befalls her entire community. The loss of Shuki, a secret internet and drug addict. Michal decides to finally get help, and she is put in touch with Mrs. Kaplan, a teenage mentor. Addictions can never be overcome, but Mrs. Kaplan helps Michal put her shattered life back together-- all the while keeping everything a secret.

I really, really enjoyed reading Trapped in Cyberspace. I applaud Ayala Stimler for her boldness in writing a novel about such an “unspoken” topic. I think it’s very important for all teenagers to read Michal’s story, it truly opened up my eyes to the horrors of the World Wide Web. Everything about this story is amazing-- plot, choice of words, and message. I strongly recommend this book the adolescents and adults alike.

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