Book Review: Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

Glitch by Heather Anastasiu
Publisher: Macmillan
Publication date: August 2012
Pages: 336
Source: e-book from NetGalley
For: Review
Series: Glitch trilogy, Book 1

In Zoel's world, there is no pain or anger or sadness. Everyone is implanted with a computer chip to suppress their emotions and this has helped save hundreds of lives from war and crimes of passion. But when Zoe's chip begins to glitch, she starts to feel things that she doesn't understand. She also has unexplainable power that she can't control. When she meets other glitchers, she begins to understand just what she's missing and what she's putting in danger.

Things I Liked:
This story had an interesting idea and I loved watching Zoe's understanding expand and broaden from totally believing in the V-chip and her society to not.  And boy did the story pack some serious twists and surprises.  It seemed at the end especially, there were numerous layers of deception and surprise to explore.  There were great action scenes, though not as many as I'd like and some fun futuristic elements that made for interesting ethical dilemmas for our main character (and this reader) to chew on.  A fairly unique story of a controlled future.

Things I Didn't Like:
I was not a fan of the romance in this one.  I guess I didn't care much for either of the boys (yes, it's a triangle, but not as bad as some).  I thought there was a bit too much emphasis on Zoe figuring out which one she liked or her emotions in general and not enough explanation of her gift and the chip and why those things existed.  To be fair, the whole chip idea was suppressing emotions, so exploring those new feelings makes sense, it just seemed like overkill to me.  I honestly had to eventually put the questions I had about the technology and powers away to enjoy the story.  I couldn't put it down at the end, but the on reflection there are a lot of unanswered questions.  Interested to read the next book, though, to see where things are headed.

Read-alikes:
Feed by M.T. Anderson
A bit like Delirium by Lauren Oliver

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !@
a few, no f-bombs

mrg-factor: X
explored in a rather clinical way, with some steamy scenes

v-factor:->->->
some pretty gory parts

Overall rating: ***

Do you think there will ever be an implanted chip to control humans?

(For more dystopian awesome, check out Presenting Lenore's Dystopian August celebration!)

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