Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Feed by M. T. Anderson

Feed

Author: M. T. Anderson

Publisher: Candlewick Press

4 out of 5 stars

The latest and greatest! Come and get your very own t-shirts from the moon! Did you have a fun time visiting the moon? Are you stoked to come back next year? If so, get your t-shirts with all kinds of sayings such as Lo-grav or no grav! And you could always try...

The same great taste, but in new packaging! Our always refreshing pineapple and citrus flavor now has a new design. You can find…

See the new rad band, We Rock Your Socks Off, live at the Tune Lounge! They will be playing Friday night, and performing all of their most popular hits! Bring all your friends…

Tired of everything being so null all the time? Then buy the new parrot birds that walk and talk! It’s like having your very own… 

This is what it is like having the feed. Advertisements are spouted out left and right, enticing you to go ahead and try this new product or that new service. It’s almost as if you can’t even think for yourself. You are constantly bombarded with thoughts that aren’t your own as you try to live your life. The feed is implanted straight into your brain, and in the future, it is a daily part of life. You talk to your friends and family through the feed, buy products, and even do your schoolwork through the feed. Everyone has a feed, and without one you’re missing out on life. Or are you?

Titus is a teen in the future, and the feed is everything to him. He uses it to read, write, and even think. He’s always grown up with the feed and he can’t imagine life without it. That is, until a trip to the moon.

Titus and his friends travel to the moon, thinking it will be a lot of fun, but instead the moon totally sucks, as Titus puts it. There’s nothing to do, and what’s worse their feeds have to be removed after being hacked at a club. Not permanently, but Titus and his friends’ feeds have to be shut down and examined to figure out what happened. They can’t stand it anymore. Titus realizes that this is what it is like without the feed, and he can’t wait to get his back.

Violet is the girl that makes him question what the feed is all about. After meeting her on the moon, they start to spend more time together back on Earth. Violet isn’t like all of the other teens out there, having their lives ruled by the feed. She thinks and questions and wonders about the world. Titus isn’t sure how to respond, but he enjoys hanging out with her. That’s when things take a turn for the worse.

After their feeds are hacked Violet is slowly losing control of her body. Titus isn’t sure what to do, and he doesn’t know if he should stick by Violet’s side, or just forget about her. Will Violet be able to fight back and resist this strange disease that seems to be infecting her? Will Titus be there for her or call their relationship quits? M. T. Anderson reveals all in this awe-inspiring tale about two teens that fight themselves and the feed in, Feed!

Feed is definitely a book with a lot to take in. At first, it was hard to adjust to Titus’s futuristic world with their new slang and their built-in feeds. However, as the story progressed I got used to it, and slowly understood what it was like to live in that time. M. T. Anderson portrays an extreme version of what our world might become if we continue the way we are. The youth of society will be the hardest hit. I suggest Feed for teens fourteen and up as it does contain inappropriate language and inappropriate references and scenes. Many of the topics may not be suitable for younger readers.

I enjoyed the futuristic take on our world in Feed. It was very interesting to see how people lived with the feeds built right into their minds, and it literally thought for them at times. The people in the future depended on the feed, and life basically revolved around everything that happened in the feed. We had turned into consumers, and all we thought about was what to buy next. It was interesting to see society from Violet’s point of view as well, because she hadn’t always grown up with the feed, but received it when she was older.

It was intriguing to see Titus try and cope with what was going on with Violet. At times he was very supportive and tried his best to understand and help her, but at other times it was all too much for him. The ending brought me a lot of closure and tied up everything very well.

However, it was quite hard to keep up with all of the futuristic slang. When I first started reading Feed, there were many times when I just wanted to put it down. However, I also wanted to find out what happened with Titus and Violet and read more about their adventures together. It might be hard to digest at first, but Feed is definitely worth reading! It might have been nice if a glossary was added explaining the various slang words.

In the end, Feed is a breathtaking tale about the limits one will go for love, while battling the restrictions that society sets between them. Join Titus as he struggles to resist the feed, all the while coming back to it in, Feed!

-This is T.B. with Another Book Back on the Shelf…
Until Next Time, Keep Reading!


Check out M. T. Anderson's website at http://www.mt-anderson.com/.
Feed is available from Amazon here.

5 comments:

  1. I had started reading this but I wasn't getting too into it so I shelved it until I have the time to really try and understand what's going on. The wording, like you mention, definitely takes away from the story, but it sounds like it gets better. Thanks for the review!

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  2. I found myself getting very annoyed at the lingo from the Uglies series, so I might want to skip this one, but thanks for the review! :)

    -Sandra from http://sandrathenookworm.blogspot.com

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  3. Laura (All of Everything)- You might be able to understand Feed a bit better now that you've taken some time away from it. The end really picks up, and I even found myself shedding tears when the last pages came around. I hope you give it a second chance!

    Sakura Sandra- No problem! I totally understand what you mean! In the Uglies series, the lingo is SO hard to catch onto at first, and it doen't get any better in the rest of the books. This does help set the tone, and it feels like I'm immersed in the world, but it can be hard to understand. I've noticed that Scott Westerfeld does this with many of his series. You might want to wait on Feed for now then, since it does contain some confusing wording.

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  4. The wording was a bit difficult, but I loved the concept that Anderson fleshed out in this book. Being a huge SF fan, this book appealed to me big time. Glad you enjoyed this book as well!

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  5. The concept really was amazing, and in the end it all came together extremely well. The last-half of the book and the ending were both so sad and heartbreaking. The whole idea of it was on such a large scale, but it shockingly represented what our future might be like.

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