Glitch

June 25, 2012
Zoe, 17, lives in the Community, an underground civilization where everyone has computer chips in their brains that connect them to the Link network, dull their emotions, and turn them into drones that shuffle through their literally gray lives. But Zoe is glitching—suffering disconnects from the Link that allow her to experience color, feelings, and free thought. She knows it’s her duty to report herself as anomalous, yet she’s enjoying the new sensations, and her rewired brain has an added bonus: telekinesis. While struggling to remain hidden so she won’t be “fixed,” Zoe meets other glitchers with special powers and learns about the Resistance, which wants to free the human race from its self-imposed slavery. Anastasiu’s debut is a taut and twisty drama, and her planned trilogy holds promise, but the mix of the possible and technologically implausible may read like handwaving to diehard SF readers. Characterizations are also a bit thin: Zoe is a compassionate but passive heroine, and the realistically self-centered melodrama of teenagers feeling hormones for the first time substitutes for more complex personalities. Ages 13–up. Agent: Charlie Olsen, Inkwell Management.

July 1, 2012
A dystopian romance that feels like the love child of M.T. Anderson's Feed and Lauren Oliver's Pandemonium fails to distinguish itself. Seventeen-year-old Zoe is part of a "superior" race of humans that exist in an underground dystopian world, safe from the toxic ruin on the Surface. Like all members of the Community, Zoe was implanted with a computer chip to prevent her from experiencing the caustic influences of emotion and desire, the very things that led to the destruction of the Old World. The only problem is, Zoe's chip isn't working. Anastasiu's debut novel follows Zoe as she learns to trust her own thoughts and emotions and to call into question the only way of life she's ever known. It's an interesting premise, and Zoe is a likable-enough narrator, but in the end, the story never quite lives up to its potential. Action dominates, crowding out opportunities for character development. With little interaction between Zoe and fellow glitchers Max and Adrien to explain the sudden intensity of their feelings for one another, the emotions ring untrue. Additionally, Max is never allowed room to convince readers he is more than a raging ball of hormones, making it difficult to root for him in the fight for Zoe. Read the originals. (Dystopian romance. 14 & up)

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November 1, 2012

Gr 7-9-"Order first, order always" are the words Zoel's community lives by. Driven underground after a nuclear event, she lives in close quarters with her parents and brother, Markan. The fact that everyone is Linked lends precision and predictability to their lives, but the Link dulls the senses, rendering the world in shades of gray and making interactions almost robotic. Militaristic rule and "Was the tutoring session productive?" have replaced self-direction and words like "happy," "sad," "lonely," "angry," and "afraid." When Zoel starts glitching (malfunctioning), she becomes disconnected from the Link and finds that she likes the bright colors and most of the honest feelings that come over her, despite the fact that water occasionally leaks from her eyes. She meets Adrien, a member of the Resistance, and goes with him aboveground, which isn't poisonous after all. It's where the Uppers live in relative comfort, using the Linked population as drones. Zoel christens her new glitching self as Zoe and finds that most glitchers have gifts ranging from telekinesis to future sight to shape-shifting. Zoe has to decide whether to take the advice to put herself first or try to make a better world for everyone. Some of the characters are woefully underdeveloped, and a surprise pregnancy seems totally unrealistic. Still, this is one of many decent dystopian novels in print right now. While it offers nothing new, it is a solid read for libraries needing more stories of overbearing governments trying to regulate citizens' emotions.Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2012
Grades 7-12 Zoe lives a grayed-out existenceorder first, order alwaysin an underground Community created in response to nuclear devastation above. All emotion is suppressed by implanted computer chips, and the Link, a continuous feed of information transmitted through the implants, delivers Zoe's thoughts. When Zoe starts glitching, or disconnecting from the Link, she discovers that not only does she have her own thoughts and feelings but she also has a telekinetic ability she is unable to control. And even though she isn't the only glitcher, she doesn't know whom she can trust. Anastasiu explores the now YA-requisite love triangle in her debut novel, the first in a trilogy. This is an instantly involving page-turner with interesting world building, although the plot is somewhat predictable and the slang feels manufactured. In a cliff-hanger ending, sure to have readers clamoring for the next book, Zoe, torn between Adrien and Max, must decide where her loyalties lie and how to live in her strange new world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)