Title: Glitch
Author: Heather
Anastasiu
Publisher/format: Kindle
Edition, St Martin’s Griffin
How I got this: A big thank you to St Martin’s
Press for providing me with a review copy of this book via Netgalley.
Challenges: 2012 Ebook
Challenge, 2012 YA challenge, 2012 DAC
Synopsis (From
Goodreads.com):
In the Community, there is no more pain or
war. Implanted computer chips have wiped humanity clean of destructive
emotions, and thoughts are replaced by a feed from the Link network.
When Zoe starts to malfunction (or "glitch"), she suddenly begins
having her own thoughts, feelings, and identity. Any anomalies must be
immediately reported and repaired, but Zoe has a secret so dark it will mean
certain deactivation if she is caught: her glitches have given her
uncontrollable telekinetic powers.
As Zoe struggles to control her abilities and stay hidden, she meets other
glitchers including Max, who can disguise his appearance, and Adrien, who has
visions of the future. Both boys introduce Zoe to feelings that are entirely
new. Together, this growing band of glitchers must find a way to free
themselves from the controlling hands of the Community before they’re caught
and deactivated, or worse.
In this action-packed debut, Glitch begins an exciting new young adult
trilogy.
Review:
Given I’ve been pretty into my dystopian
books recently, I was really excited to receive this book. I really liked the idea of the premise, with
the idea of the human race effectively having been turned into mindless drones
in the name of efficiency. I was pleased
to find out upon reading the book that this was actually done really well. I liked the way that the society in this book
had been built up in post-apocalyptic
setting, and how there was a clearly oppressive government. The societal system is well developed and
well explained, and I think that was part of the reason this story worked as
well as it did.
I was also pleased that the book actually
starts with Zoe beginning to glitch. I
think reading a first-person book about robotic behaviour could be pretty
tedious, but that doesn’t happen in this thankfully! The way that Zoe’s newfound emotional
reactions to things are described was also done well – until reading this, I
never thought how different things would be if emotions weren’t there or came
on suddenly, and I think this was a pretty fair insight.
Something else that pleased me was Zoe’s
internal turmoil about what she should be doing – she struggles with the
conflict between what she wants to do as an autonomous person whilst glitching,
and what she feels she should do having grown up in the Community and taken on
its ideals. For me, that added a good
level of realism, and made Zoe a stronger character for it. I also liked the way that some backstory was
woven in to give Zoe the passion she has once she finds out about the
resistance to the Community, and their cause.
I’m not saying any more because I try and keep my reviews spoiler-free,
but again, this gave Zoe a lot more depth in my opinion.
I also really did like the way that the
link and the hardware was explained somewhat scientifically, as affecting the
hypothalamus – I think that may be my inner psychology nerd, but the author’s
obviously done their homework, and it makes sense as to why emotions aren’t
there. Also, neural plasticity! Basically, I appreciated the fact that effort
was made to explain why there were differences with glitchers and the rest of
the population – I hate it when there are those kind of plot holes, so I was
glad of this!
So far, so good, but there were a couple of
things that bothered me about this book.
Not enough that any of them ruined the book for me or anything, just
little things that I noticed. One was
simply the curse words used in this novel.
At first, I found them bizarre, and they completely put me off. I more or less got used to them towards the
end of the book, but at first they seemed a little juvenile given the tone of
the rest of the book.
Also, quite simply, the love triangle that
develops. I understand that once you
suddenly have emotions, it might be difficult to keep them in check, but
still. It’s just one of those things
that always gets to me in books – it kind of felt like it was trying to add
tension where there was enough already for me.
I was also a bit put off by the instant love between Zoe and
Adrien. Admittedly, on Adrien’s side,
there is some build up, given he has these visions of Zoe and therefore he does
know her enough. But for Zoe, it’s more
or less nothing, then she loves him.
However, I’m aware that’s also probably due to my personal preferences
when reading books.
Overall, this book was a really good debut,
I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s one for
fans of dystopia, and anyone who enjoys books about kids with supernatural
powers – definitely hints of the Xmen in there!
Thank you very much to St Martin’s Press
for providing me with a copy of this book for review!
Overall rating: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
My Enjoyment: 4/5
