Feed

Titus and his friends take a little trip to the moon where he meets Violet, a girl that seems so different from the shallow, trend-obsessed girls he knows.  Then, when they are all together at a club, a man infects them with a computer virus which shuts down their feed and disconnects them from the whole world.  While this is an inconvenience for the others, it's life threatening for Violet.  Her relationship with Titus gets more and more strained as her feed malfunctions, and worst of all, while she's been trying to be her own person, the companies that run the feed have decided that she is not a good enough consumer, and thus not worth saving.  This is a hard look at connectivity, consumerism, and relationships that will leave readers reeling.

If adults think that teens are too connected to their devices now, just think about this book for a second. Even in our overly connected world, devices haven't quite invaded our brains specifically, but it's an interesting idea to throw around, especially how getting the feed at an older age turned out to affect Violet.  Plus, Violet states in the book that something like 30% of people don't have the feed, which really makes you think about internet connectivity in our society-it's not as present as we are led to believe, even in this country.  The digital divide is a real issue currently, and seems even bigger in this book.

While Feed is a thought-provoking book, it is draining.  The conversations are so jumbled, due to the feed and what it has done to people, and the governmental messages are just horrible.  Violet's spiral into sickness is hard to read and the ending is like a mile long drop.  

I had a hard time dealing with Titus.  While it was more believable that he didn't get overly involved in Violet's quest for life, it was hard to see him miss that the world was crumbling around him.  He was too self involved to take notice, but then again, everyone was too self involved.  I wish he would have been more courageous.

I need some time away from dystopian fiction.  I'm very glad that I read Feed, but I need a break.  I tried to start reading, The Fault in Our Stars, but Doug made me stop.  For good reason.  Reading a book about teens with terminal cancer is probably not a good pick me up.  Right now I'm reading Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot.  Trust me, there is nothing dark about that book.  All pop songs and sugar, with the occasional homicide.  Well, the homicide is dark, I suppose, but not the way the Cabot writes it.  

Anyone else out there need a little sweetness and light?

Happy Reading!