Genre: YA Science Fiction
Glitch Series, Book 1
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Description (taken from Heather Anastasiu's website):
Zoe lives in a world free of pain and war. Like all members of the Community, a small implanted chip protects her from the destructive emotions that destroyed the Old World. Until her hardware starts to glitch.
Zoe begins to develop her own thoughts and feelings, but nothing could be more dangerous in a place where malfunctions can get you killed. And she has another secret she must conceal at all costs: her glitches have given her uncontrollable telekinetic powers.
As she struggles to keep her burgeoning powers hidden, she finds other glitchers with abilities like hers, and together they plot to escape. But the more she learns about beauty, joy, and love, the more Zoe has to lose if they fail. With danger lurking around every corner, she’ll have to decide just how much she’s willing to risk to be free.
Zoel's world is definitely different and weird. I can't imagine being controlled by a computer chip. Some sort of human-machine hybrid although you're not much of a machine, just controlled by one. Kind of reminds me of Star Trek's Borg beings. And then of course, there's a bit of paranormal in here.
Did this book work for me? I'm not sure. There were a couple of things that bothered me. One, I wasn't too convinced of the romance in this book. There's two lines that bothered the crap out of me initially. In the beginning, Zoe says she'll never trust boy-interest who shall remain nameless. And then later on when she confesses her love for him (after knowing him for about a day), she says she's always trusted him. I guess it took a while for this romance to grow on me. I did like it in the end.
Another thing that bothered me, the characters seem like little kids in grown bodies. Granted, they've never felt emotion before, so what did I expect? I don't know. Acting like kids kind of bugged me. But it means there's definite room for character development and growth in the book. And Heather excelled with this.
Definitely a weird book for me. But it does have great potential. And it is a really good ending. Sets it up nicely for the second book.
Quote I loved:
"Fell in love?" I frowned. "Love makes you fall?"
...
"Love is like gravity?" I was still puzzling out the concept. "It sounds violent."
~p 112
Thanks goes to St Martin's Griffin and Netgalley for my review copy.
Challenges: Debut Author Challenge and Young Adult Reading Challenge
Loved the premise, and though there were 'glitchy' moments for me, I also think there's potential for the plot and characters in the sequel. Super review.
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