Book Review: Glitch

Glitch

By: Heather Anastasiu

Published By: St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: August 7, 2012

Page Count: 371

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: ARC Kindly Provided by Publisher via NetGalley

Audience: Young Adult - Dystopian

Glitch is set in a dystopian world where a society lives entirely underground, and its citizens are connected to a neural network to keep them compliant and placid. Everyone knows their place, their function and there is no fear. There is also no love, no color and the food is tasteless to those under the influence of the 'link'. The main character is Zoel, a teenage girl who starts to glitch and wake up from the link. At first it is terrifying as she ascends to consciousness  amongst the drones that are her family and class mates. She considers turning herself in to the authorities to be 'fixed' but she has a secret to hide, which she has reason to believe would cause her permanent deactivation. Then, as she starts to develop as an individual (becoming Zoe), she fears discovery. She notices the people around her, and in particular a curious boy with vivid eyes who can't stop staring at her... Adrien. He plays a major role in Zoe finding out more about the truth behind the society. 

I have two major gripes about this book that I have to get off my chest and, even though I have left this a number of days to write since finishing, I am not sure I can be as objective as I would like to be, and normally am. The first gripe is that this book is technically not full of swearing, but at the same time it also is... the author used words like 'godlam'd, 'cracking' and 'shunting' to represent less palatable words... even the odd normal word like dirty was transformed into 'gnangy'. This annoyed the pants off of me because swearing was not in the least bit necessary and those words are also ridiculous. There was not one instance of their usage which didn't jolt me out of the flow of the narrative, and they were used gratuitously throughout the book. Sometimes I managed to read maybe two pages before they popped up again and time after time it made me sigh along the lines of "give me strength" because I found it so annoying. *deep breath* 

The second major gripe I have is that Zoe and Adrien fell in love in about two seconds flat. I can and have happily explained away relationships in the past which have started up at the drop of a hat and gone from 0 - 60 in something-ridiculous-seconds, but even I (as a notorious Happily Ever After Twilight fan) couldn't deal with this; the explanation was just too thin for me, and I will call this by what it was: 'insta-love'. One minute Zoe is terrified out of her mind that everything around her is going to poison her to death, she is severely agitated with worry about what is happening, and the next she can't get over how awesome and hot Adrien is; never mind the death thing... those lips look awesome... annnnnd make out session. Granted the make out session was written really well, and it was quite hot for YA, but I just felt the lead in was lacking. 

Once I pushed those irritants to the side, this was a pretty decent read. I thought the world the author had invented was well thought out and she even threw a little science in there to impress me with her research about allergies - as a Biology teacher I really appreciated that! The plot is good with plenty of twists, betrayals and there were a range of characters who had believable motivations and generally I liked them a lot. Two exceptional moments stand out though - one when Adrien transformed from swoonsome leading man into a petulant three year old in serious need of a naughty-stepping by his bizarrely hostile mother, and the other when a glitching character tries to ingratiate himself with Zoe by asking bluntly if he could see her genitals... total moment of reader disbelief there!!

I really did enjoy the bits in between the new language but to be honest I fought to finish this book against the gripes above and I would only read the sequel if someone assured me that all the silly language was left out. I am sure that other readers who wouldn't be bothered by it would give this book a higher rating than I have; I am glad of that - there is potential here and I think it was just a personal thing for me that I really couldn't get past. I think if I am going to cope with new words, I need it to be more of an immersion experience, where a much larger percentage of the prose is affected - Blood Red Road by Moira Young is an example of what I mean, because I loved that book and the language did not bother me in the slightest. My overall feeling on this one is that generally it is a good read with a number of "what the heck?!" moments, and I would really like to know what other readers thought! 

Summary:

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.