(Goodreads) Fifteen-year-old Katey, aka Kid, goes to school in the Game—a ‘school’ run by corporate sponsors. Social networking is as natural as breathing, your online profile is everything, and striving to get ahead in the popularity stakes involves a careful navigation that could go wrong at any turn.
The corporations watch the students to spot the next trend and the kids vie with each other to be noticed and sponsored by the corporations. Being ’branded’ means celebrity status, not to mention financial freedom.
But what kind of freedom is it when you’re always being watched? And how important is it to be the coolest and most popular kid when your identity is owned by a corporation? When Kid witnesses a mock suicide staged by an anonymous group calling itself the Unidentified she begins to ask herself those questions.
The Short Story ? - A clever and well-written debut! A wonderful and well portrayed dystopian society, based on the influence of pop culture and teenagers. Clever, witty and insightful. A psychological novel about teenagers, their influences and what freedom is to them!
The Long Story ? - Okay, the short story was really hard to write because it's so hard to sum up this novel in three sentences! I'm still a little unsure about what to think of it. I enjoyed it, it was highly original and Rae has teenagers down pact. She pretty much summed up teenagers in and out in this amazing debut. Okay, let's break it up.
I really like the whole dystopian society that Rae has built. It was highly original and a society I actually wouldn't mind being part of. Basically the government has converted shopping malls into Game Centres ( aka school) where kids spend all day doing things they love and trying to rise in popularity. If you get sponsored then you're pretty much a celebrity and social networking is the key to success. It's a shallow society and pretty much sums up the life of teenagers.
The plot was confusing at times but it's not because it wasn't well-written more like it was too complex, I never fully understood how this society worked and some parts of the novel required a little re-reading. More than anything I felt that even though I really enjoyed it, I felt it was still a little lacking. I kind of finished the novel like 'great novel, loved it but...what exactly did I love?'. It's one of those novels that you just can't pick out what parts you like. It's a love it or hate it novel. It's also rather slow paced but it flows nicely, not a long novel either, you could easily finish it in one to two days.
I liked the characters, Kid was your stereotypical social outcast. I really liked her, she was shy, quiet but had punch to her as well, there were times where I wanted to shake her and say ' WHAT ARE YOU DOING' but for the most part, she's a smart cookie :P The minor characters were all intriguing and believable. The romance department was a little lacking, it wasn't well developed and the love interest didn't hold any appeal to me. I would liked to see a more of a scandalous romance :P However, The Unidentified ( who shall not be named) were brilliant, loved them. They were your ideal ' rebels'.
Overall, I really enjoyed the novel but could see spots of improvement here and there. It's really hard to pick out specific good parts since I really just enjoyed the novel as a whole. Picking it apart just ruins it. I would definitely recommend you guys to read it though, it's a fresh take on teenagers, controlling societies and life in gene real, this is really what being a teenager is all about. So we can add educational to the list of good things! Highly original, clever, witty and educational!
Rating - 4/5
Badass Bookie xx
This sounds very original and I am liking dystopian novels more and more. Fab review!
ReplyDeleteHmmm... Going just from your 'short' review I would have grabbed it immediately! But... the longer review... 'meh'. I don't know!
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