Book Review of Feed 

Jaclyn Parris

Feed

M.T. Anderson

Science Fiction; Post Cyberpunk

            This book is written with a lot of slang for it is written from the perspective of a teenage boy; Titus. It takes place in a futuristic society in the United States where 73 percent of American’s have feed or computers implanted in their brains. Ordinary teenagers of the time Titus, Marty, Link, Calista, Loga, and Quendy travel to the moon. There they meet Violet a weird, curious, home schooled girl. She tagged along with her new normal friends to a club where her life was changed. Titus too changed; he never felt quite the same about the feed afterwards. The book tries to get people to be less ignorant and dependent on their technology.  It makes people listen to their own beliefs and not conform to society’s perception of normal.

            The majority of individuals in the book allow themselves to be tracked. Most do not care that the market is recording everything they do so they can make a better customer profile and a larger profit. I like that the book focuses on something that will become imminent reality. And the society does not notice the extent that the marketing industry controls them. I can connect because like the characters in the book I never realized how prominent marketing is today.  Retailers have already begun to market specifically to the customer, it is interesting to see this taken to the furthest extreme. Thomas Gray once wrote “ignorance is bliss,” I feel this applies almost perfectly with the story. It connects because the citizens live a very happy life with the feed because they don’t know any different; no one realizes how damaging life with the feed is. And it is surprising that this is not so far from or reality.

           I would recommend this book because the theme of the book is so pertinent to our lives. And because the characters reacted to the marketing industry in a way which would be shocking to us, but truthfully society now is just as ignorant. And it is a Utopian society pictured in the book so you also have to be interested in ideas of the future and be willing to admit how likely parts are to happen. This book really makes you think about the direction our world is going; I would suggest this book be read for something more than entertainment. Unfortunately this book I would say is better suited for girls because it focuses a lot on a romantic relationship and in most cases guys are not interested in that. But overall it is a good book if you are prepared to wonder about the future.