Feed

Anderson, M.T. (2003). Feed. Listening Library

YA / Dystopian / Sci Fi
Audio Book

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BLURB:
Identity crises, consumerism, and star-crossed teenage love in a futuristic society where people connect to the Internet via feeds implanted in their brains.

For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party during spring break and play with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a not-so-brave new world — and a smart, savage satire that has captivated readers with its view of an imagined future that veers unnervingly close to the here and now.

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HALL WAYS REVIEW:  Audio book review. Wow. I should have marked this a horror story because it's so likely the direction society is going with our addiction to technology. Information instant gratification is taken to the next level with it being wired into the brain, and the dumbing-down of society takes off. There's the loss of language, including speaking, reading, and writing skills, but also there's the loss of reason -- like clearing out entire forests to build oxygen production centers (because humans need a lot of oxygen). 

The audio version is excellent because not only is the narration top-notch, readers/listeners also get blasted with feeds in the midst of the story. It was intrusive, invasive, annoying. . . and it's annoying that everyone from adults to kids speaks in some kind of surfer-dude type lingo. And that's part of Anderson's point about what happens when we're no longer actively seeking information and learning. No need with the feed, right? This will make you think.

I'd recommend this book for mature high school aged readers and older since younger/less mature readers might miss the point. There are mildly sexual situations, underage drinking/drugging, and lots of profanity, so sensitive readers beware. 

This has been on my TBR list forever, so thank you to Sync Audiobooks for Teens for the free download, no strings attached. (via the Sync Free Summer Audiobook Program)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: M. T. Anderson is the author of Feed, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, as well as The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation Volume I: The Pox Party, winner of the National Book Award and a New York Times bestseller, and its sequel, The Kingdom on the Waves, which was also a New York Times bestseller. Both volumes were also named Michael L. Printz Honor Books. M. T. Anderson lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

RELATED: Also by M.T. Anderson

Click for Hall Ways Review