Hey, guys! I listened to Feed on an audiobook, so I apologize for any spelling mistakes, but I'll include an review of the audiobook's style at the end of this review!
For the first three quarters of this book, I was not engaged. It was kind of boring and heavy on its political message (more on that later). However, the last quarter of this book was amazing. It was one of the best and most organic endings I've ever read. It was so good, in fact, that it bumped my rating of the whole book up to four stars. Feed is definitely an interesting book to analyze, but it isn't as good for casual reading.
The Cover:
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.
My Review:
I'd heard about this book for years and just now decided to read it. I wish that I hadn't waited so long because I felt like I had already read it. Feed was published back in 2004 but with all of the dystopian books popular now it was just kind of repetitive (although it was first). I feel like I would have appreciated it more if I wasn't as familiar with all of these more recent books.
Feed was an objectively good book. I finished reading it and I felt that I had actually gained something from reading it. I think it'd be a good book for schools to teach as well or maybe even a book club. It deserves to be at least slightly analyzed. However, for just a casual read, it can be a bit slow. Still good, but slow.
The narration style was interesting. It was told like a conservation, slightly stream of conscious. It was in first person and used future-slang constantly in a way that actually wasn't confusing. Also, sometimes the dialogue was introduced in a way similar to, "and Marty was like, "Unit!"". It was really neat to have the style be like that and added to the book. It felt a lot more intimate, for lack of a better word. Of course, at the end of the book, that choice makes perfect sense in a beautiful way.
The characters were... interesting. I thought that M.T. Anderson did a nice job on Titus, the main character who is only mostly brainwashed by consumerist America. He was complex and was mostly predictable (which is kind of the whole point of the book) until sometimes he wasn't. Titus had very human responses to his situations. On the other hand, Violet the only other character who was developed at all was unrealistic. I think this is the thing that bugged me the most about this book. She had no real reason to do anything that she did until the last fourth of the book. She was supposed to be the stereotypical girl who opens the main character's eye to how messed up the world was, but she was flat. She liked the personality necessary to earn sympathy. I hated her, but I hated Titus's other friends (who you are supposed to dislike) more, so I won't complain too much. Her character made the book lose its realism.
Overall, I think that this book is great to think about and is a sort of classic dystopian novel, but it isn't as great for just a casual read. I would recommend it if you are interested in reading about a future where technology and consumerism get out of hand.
Audiobook Review:
It both did some things well and others terribly. Violet constantly whispered, and you had to strain to hear her. That was terribly irritating. On the other hand, whenever Feed had an add inserted into it, the various narrators and music backing it made the adds seem real and to cut in, just like the book envisioned. That was really neat. David Aaron Baker (the narrator) did a great job making the book seem like a conversation between Titus and the reader/listener. It was a decent audiobook that I would recommend if you have good volume control.
Phrase:
Hey, Unit!
Happy Reading!
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For the first three quarters of this book, I was not engaged. It was kind of boring and heavy on its political message (more on that later). However, the last quarter of this book was amazing. It was one of the best and most organic endings I've ever read. It was so good, in fact, that it bumped my rating of the whole book up to four stars. Feed is definitely an interesting book to analyze, but it isn't as good for casual reading.
The Cover:
The Cover:
It shows a normal human during later events of this book, Titus, completely bald and with the Feed (a kind of built-in computer) stuck into his head. The words on the cover are from the first page or so of the book. It's won quite a few awards, as you can see, which I think were justified. It's one of those books that you finish and feel like you've earned an insight into human society. Overall, the cover is straightforward and interesting. It's intriguing, but not insightful. Overall A- cover
Official 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.
My Review:
I'd heard about this book for years and just now decided to read it. I wish that I hadn't waited so long because I felt like I had already read it. Feed was published back in 2004 but with all of the dystopian books popular now it was just kind of repetitive (although it was first). I feel like I would have appreciated it more if I wasn't as familiar with all of these more recent books.
Feed was an objectively good book. I finished reading it and I felt that I had actually gained something from reading it. I think it'd be a good book for schools to teach as well or maybe even a book club. It deserves to be at least slightly analyzed. However, for just a casual read, it can be a bit slow. Still good, but slow.
The narration style was interesting. It was told like a conservation, slightly stream of conscious. It was in first person and used future-slang constantly in a way that actually wasn't confusing. Also, sometimes the dialogue was introduced in a way similar to, "and Marty was like, "Unit!"". It was really neat to have the style be like that and added to the book. It felt a lot more intimate, for lack of a better word. Of course, at the end of the book, that choice makes perfect sense in a beautiful way.
The characters were... interesting. I thought that M.T. Anderson did a nice job on Titus, the main character who is only mostly brainwashed by consumerist America. He was complex and was mostly predictable (which is kind of the whole point of the book) until sometimes he wasn't. Titus had very human responses to his situations. On the other hand, Violet the only other character who was developed at all was unrealistic. I think this is the thing that bugged me the most about this book. She had no real reason to do anything that she did until the last fourth of the book. She was supposed to be the stereotypical girl who opens the main character's eye to how messed up the world was, but she was flat. She liked the personality necessary to earn sympathy. I hated her, but I hated Titus's other friends (who you are supposed to dislike) more, so I won't complain too much. Her character made the book lose its realism.
Overall, I think that this book is great to think about and is a sort of classic dystopian novel, but it isn't as great for just a casual read. I would recommend it if you are interested in reading about a future where technology and consumerism get out of hand.
Audiobook Review:
It both did some things well and others terribly. Violet constantly whispered, and you had to strain to hear her. That was terribly irritating. On the other hand, whenever Feed had an add inserted into it, the various narrators and music backing it made the adds seem real and to cut in, just like the book envisioned. That was really neat. David Aaron Baker (the narrator) did a great job making the book seem like a conversation between Titus and the reader/listener. It was a decent audiobook that I would recommend if you have good volume control.
Phrase:
Hey, Unit!
Happy Reading!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BookshelfSecret
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookshelfSecret
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