Hello Kiddies! Some agent somewhere on a blog mentioned this book, and of course I had to read it. Feed was the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, plus an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, plus a Publisher’s Weekly Best book, and the list goes on and on.
The jist? The future, and we’ve all got “feeds” implanted in our brains, which means we have a computer implanted in our heads. Humans can “chat” which each other in their head, and they are constantly getting “bannered” with adds to purchase on line stuff from Weatherby and Crotch (nicely done MT Anderson!).
Titus is the teen protagonist and the book starts off with a journey to the moon him and his friends make…looking for a good time. Anderson has made up his own language, which is something I love when writers do, it draws me in immediately. For example, he uses meg for big and brag for cool and my favorite, da da da for son on and so forth. Loved the language. Loved it.
The book moves at a nice pace although it became a little bit slow in the middle, and I understand Anderson was attempting to create that relationship between Titus and his love interest, Violet…but for about fifty pages it moved kind of slow. Then suddenly, Anderson hits me with the unexpected plot twist that really nudges at my heart and I realize I have grown close to these characters (even during the slow 50 pages!).
The book finishes on a very sad note. It is so sad that it really makes me want to change the world single handedly (if I could I wouldn’t be writing this blog now). Feed makes us really question where we are going as a society, and where it may lead to.
Now I understand why it won all those awards….it wasn’t just written with a unique voice, but it had a philosophical teaching that I hope many teens can read, comprehend, and take into account since they are the future leaders of our great nation. Okay, now I am getting all political/philosophical….but this is what Feed did to me.
On a lighter note, there are some very funny moments in the book, for example, the fashion the “future” kids wear. OMG! There is this one part where dressing like seniors at convalescent homes is what’s in, and all the kids are getting canes and walkers at Weatherby and Croth. HILARIOUS!
I applaud you MT Anderson.
To learn more about MT Anderson go here http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/m-t-anderson/
