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Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780763622596
ISBN number: 0763622591
Label: Candlewick
Manufacturer: Candlewick
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: February 23, 2004
Publishing house: Candlewick
Age index: Young Adult
Release Date: February 23, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 3883
Studio: Candlewick
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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.
Amazon.com:
This brilliantly ironic satire is set in a future world where television and computers are connected directly into people's brains when they are babies. The result is a chillingly recognizable consumer society where empty-headed kids are driven by fashion and shopping and the avid pursuit of silly entertainment--even on trips to Mars and the moon--and by constant customized murmurs in their brains of encouragement to buy, buy, buy.
Anderson gives us this world through the voice of a boy who, like everyone around him, is almost completely inarticulate, whose vocabulary, in a dead-on parody of the worst teenspeak, depends heavily on three words: 'like,' 'thing,' and the second most common English obscenity. He's even made this vapid kid a bit sympathetic, as a product of his society who dimly knows something is missing in his head. The details are bitterly funny--the idiotic but wildly popular sitcom called 'Oh? Wow! Thing!', the girls who have to retire to the ladies room a couple of times an evening because hairstyles have changed, the hideous lesions on everyone that are not only accepted, but turned into a fashion statement. And the ultimate awfulness is that when we finally meet the boy's parents, they are just as inarticulate and empty-headed as he is, and their solution to their son's problem is to buy him an expensive car.
Although there is a danger that at very first teens may see the idea of brain-computers as cool, ultimately they will recognize this as a fascinating novel that says something important about their world. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell
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Rated by buyers 
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Rather than focusing on the political aspects of a dystopia, Anderson focuses on the cultural aspects. Almost everyone has an implanted "feed" from a very young age which gives them acess to unlimited information, but also seems to allow corporations unlimited acess to the individual. Everyone is constantly bombarded with offers and news of sales from corporations. This has the somewhat predictable result of dumbing down the population, to the point where all they care about are stupid shows on the feed, and shopping. But wait, that sounds kind of familiar.
There are other repercussions of the feed. People seem to be developing lesions, which continue unexplained throughout the book. By the end of the book, they have become fashion statements, with people who don't have them getting them surgically implanted. But where they come from, and why, is never explained.
Also never explained is the meaning behind the attack that is described at the beginning of the book, causing several characters' feeds to malfunction. Why was the attack carried out? Did it represent some larger faction of society that was disenchanted with the feeds?
Typically, I think, dystopic novels focus on the dissenters or malcontents. Having read this book, which touches on those who rebel only slightly, I can see why that trend developed. Quite frankly, reading about people who buy into the system is just not as interesting. Still, this was a good read, with an interesting premise.
Rated by buyers -
It's been a long time since I read a book aimed at "young adults" since I'm no longer in the age category, nor do I know anyone who is. I think it's always important to keep in mind the intended audience for a book, so I went into this expecting something that was going to try to reach "teens these days," and I think this book, a sort of Philip K. Dick/Anthony Burgess combo, definitely succeeds in doing that, and in a way that wasn't overly preachy or condescending.
Feed takes place in a future America where everyone can have a chip implanted when they are very young that basically streams internet and television inside your head constantly. You can communicate by a sort of combo telepathy/text messaging from one person's feed to another, or instantly look up some fact or watch a TV show. Commercials also play in your head constantly, and in a satire on direct marketing and cookie trackers, the companies that tap into your feed develop a sort of "profile" of your likes and dislikes, and thus the commercials and/or suggestions you get on what to buy are pre-geared toward something you'd likely want. You can, conveniently, also purchase items via the feed using credit.
The story follows Titus, a teen from a relatively wealthy family. He's on spring break with his friends on the Moon, which they "thought would be fun but turned out to suck," when he meets Violet, a strange, pretty girl on the Moon by herself. Titus and his friends convince her to come along to some sort of club--despite the fact that she's a little odd and uses words longer than three syllables--where the group is attacked by a hacker who infects their feeds with a virus.
The rest of the story mainly follows Titus and Violet as they build a relationship. Violet, coming from a somewhat nonconformist family, got her feed much later in life, and, thus, isn't as influenced by the illiterate consumerism as Titus and his friends (and, it seems, most of America) are. She tries to make Titus see what is actually happening in the world around him--politically, socially and environmentally--but Titus would rather tune out and watch something on his feed. If he gets really bothered, maybe he'll buy a new shirt to feel better. The lesson here for young readers is one of warning--if our current trend of text shorthand, instantaneous gratification and absolutely irresponsible consumerism and use of credit continues exponentially, we could develop into a culture similar to the one portrayed in this book. Throughout the book, the America the characters live in seems to be in constant threat of war or just complete environmental meltdown, and yet--no one (other than the few "radical" dissidents) cares. Can we become a culture that gets so obsessed with buying our way to happiness that we completely lose track of reality? Can we get so dependent on modern forms of communication that we forget how to read or speak eloquently? It's doubtful the world would ever devolve so dramatically, but it's not a warning to just quickly forget while you move on to read the newest celeb blog...
Rated by buyers 
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It's easy enough to compare every dystopia book to 1984 or "Brave New World". Yet here's a dystopia book directed towards a completely different audience, we, the internet generation - teenagers. Aside from the completely different sort of world, "Feed" touches on a number of entirely different themes from the most famous dystopia novels.
Yet "Feed" does the same ultimate thing "Brave New World" did for me - it made my brain hurt, provided me with some food for thought, and made me a bit nauseous. It takes me to a whole new world full of familiarities yet starkly... worse. For instance, the internet, instead of being a fundamental part of my life, IS my life and is literally jacked into my brain. Fun, right?
Well, summer vacation has taught me that the internet gets boring after a while, as do numerous other services the "feed" provides. Main character Titus tells his story loosely and somewhat confusingly (there's a lot of "modern", made-up slang - there were some words that I still didn't understand until the end of the book), but the world is clear (radiation poisoning is mentioned casually at some point, indicating towards a wider world beyond the small, teen confines of the story).
"Feed" is something of a boy's book, but it's a welcome dystopia, especially in that it's clearly its own story. It's not an easy read and catching onto the made-up slang is a bit difficult, but rather interesting. Some will see themselves reflected in these characters and even in this weird kind of world. The ending is confusing and will make you scratch your head, flipping a few pages back to understand. And while there are messages etched deep into the book, it's also simply enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Highly recommended.
Rated by buyers -
In this text directed at young adults, I found myself bereft of compassion and hard to relate to the cold almost robotic emotions and actions of the cast. However, about half way into my forced endeavor (you see, this was a classroom assigned text) I found myself unable to stop reading.
It's the 1984 of a new generation. This book should be on reading lists worldwide, and more specifically on the classroom reading lists of its intended audience. The spoiled, self-centered children we are producing yesterday could greatly benefit from reading about a world which shows the cold, artificial consequences of a consumer-driven society without human remorse. Without love. Without compassion.
This book is subtle and can use the guiding hand of an educated instructor but I truly believe it will survive as one of the great dystopian works of our time. And as much as Free Speech advocates quote Orwell today, I can only hope that my grandchildren will be quoting from Anderson when corporations are deciding the healthcare reforms of a nation so obsessed with capital gains. Then again, I can only hope that day never arrives.
Everything must go.
Rated by buyers -
The story in itself is very well written. The launguage used makes it a bit more for teens 13+ years old. I enjoyed this book alot. The ending is very disturbing, but makes you think about the world. I won't give it away, but I would still recomend this book.
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