You probably haven’t heard of this book, but I promise it’s amazing. It left me crying.
Writing Character depth/development Plot Je ne c’est quoi
4/5 4/5 3/5 4/5
Writing: I loved the writing. The book written from the perspective of a teenager in the future, so it was full of creative slang that really added to the story. For instance, the word “very” was “meg”, as in mega. “Null” meant boring or stupid. “Unit” was “Dude” and “Unette” was “Dudette”. Also, while it was mostly written like a typical teenager was telling the story, there were some kind of poetic pieces in there, which were nice. For example, “It would be good to have someone in the upcar with you, flying home with the lights underneath you, and the green faces of mothers that you can see halfway through the windows of dropping vans.” This seems to be trying to tell us that Titus (the main character) is not a typical, shallow teenager of this future world. There is excessive swearing in this book, so if that kind of thing bothers you than Feed probably isn’t for you. Usually I hate books that are written in first person, but for some reason I loved this one. Maybe it’s because the way that Titus speaks is almost like poetry, and it would lose some of that beauty in third person.
Character depth/development: The characters are very deep and well thought out in this story. You really get a picture of what motivates them, and why they do what they do. It’s exciting to see Titus develop from a selfish teenager who allows himself to be manipulated by the consumer society he lives in, to a kind person who is more aware of the effects of his choices. One of the things that I really liked, is that in some books it’s very easy for the protagonists to see the error of their ways and change themselves. Titus struggles much more, and that made him seem much more real. I was able to really sympathize with all of the characters in this story, even the ones who did terrible things.
Plot: Feed’s plot was really original and interesting. I really don’t want to give anything away,but it was kind of like a modern Fahrenheit 451, except that it almost felt more real to me. It’s scarily easy to see how our society could deteriorate into the one that Titus and his friends live in. The idea is that everyone has a chip or “Feed” implanted in their brain that is connected to the Feednet. The Feednet has replaced the internet, which means that people can chat, send emails, or play games online in their heads. This has affected almost all aspects of society. For example, instead of doing drugs, Titus and his friends “go in mal”. Mal is short for malfunction, and going in mal is accessing a website which messes with your feed, and has the same affect as drugs. It sounds ridiculously stupid, directly messing with part of your brain just to get high, but I think its part of M. T. Anderson’s way of showing a) drugs are dangerous and stupid and b) Titus and his friends live in a consumer society where getting what you want now is more important than long term consequences. This is partially true of our world now, another reason why this book is so thought provoking.
Je ne c’est quois: This book definitely had that certain special something. I mean, I have no criticism!
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