Feed

swore way too much, couldn't even get through the first 10 pages

Read this a month ago in my Science Fiction class. This was a wonderful book, it was easy to read and get myself into. Also it was a pretty quick read too!

This was so good! Also sad. Also infuriating.

I came in expecting more ‘fuck capitalism' satire in the vein of Landscape Under Invisible Hand, and I got that, but what I didn't expect was the depressing exploration of how algorithm driven content drives people into segmented niches and cliques, reinforces (and refuses to challenge) their beliefs, and softens/hides the harsh realities of the world while brazenly, surreptitiously, cruelly, and kindly is always trying to peddle shit. How people raised and taught by an algorithm driven hyper-capitalist nanny are exactly perfectly ill-equipped for any sort of real moments requiring patience and introspection. How our weird self-induced technological isolation bubbles are completely fucking our brains into vapid misery.

It's fun. I loved it.

This book made me want to destroy all of humanity. It should be mandatory reading for the modern age. 10/10

The more I think about this book the more it grows in my estimation.

nothing particularly spectacular or innovative in this satire. your usual too reliant on technology, enviromental dystopia. Skip.

Allow me to start with the fact that there is a lot of language in this novel. By language I mean not only curse words but new words and slang for the time period, challenging readers to keep up with the layered aspects of a future scarily resembling ours.
In the beginning, Anderson introduces a pessimistic narrator, just about dying of boredom. In an advanced technological world, Titus

Mother of God, was this depressing. I still feel sad when I think about it, and it's been almost a week since I finished it!

Short, brutal YA novelette about a teen romance souring amidst, basically, the collapse of civilization. The authorial voice is spot-on teen, and it lends a wonderful spin on the “unreliable narrator” conceit: such as when we discover, via our unreliably-narrating teen hero, that they're all covered in lesions... and this is probably because Earth's environment is f*ked... well, damn.

There's not much in the way of plot, really. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl get their brain/internet connections hacked. One gets better, one gets a lot worse. It's mostly an exploration of a place (imagine the worst dystopia you can, and then populate it by completely brainless teenagers) and feelings (which, oh man, did they ring true). And it basically makes you want to (a) NEVER BUY/CONSUME ANYTHING AGAIN, and (b) NEVER USE THE INTERNET AGAIN.

I might have to read some techno-utopianism now, like Doctorow, to feel like I'm not contributing to the slide into horrible decay by just writing this review on Goodreads. Instead of, you know, being outside planting trees and reading Thoreau.

Edited, almost 1.5 years later: Upping the stars to full five, because I've been thinking about this book - and admiring its prescient genius - a lot since reading it.

M.T. ANDERSON

In a future, consumer-driven world, America's elite are given brain implant computer “feeds” at birth, which allows them to chat and communicate mind to mind. More importantly, the feeds allow corporations to market personalized products right into their minds, which they can then purchase with a single thought. Titus and his friends go through life using their feeds to lead them from one product-based thrill to the next, until they meet Violet during Spring Break on the moon. Instead of using her feed to speak, she likes to communicate vocally, and even tries to confuse the corporate marketers by ordering a wide range of random products. Titus and Violet begin to date, but Violet's eccentricities become too much for him when her feed begins to malfunction. It was difficult to connect with Titus's voice at first, but I think that that's part of Anderson's point. Without having to do anything for themselves, the feed people no longer know how to think or even speak meaningfully anymore. I'd advise this book for older, more mature teens because of drug scenes, frequent profanity, and (nearly) hopeless ending.

A fascinating look at a possible future for consumerism-and-media-obsessed America. I am a fan of dystopian books, but sometimes they seem quite farfetched. Feed describes a world that I can see forming before my eyes as the 21st century progresses: A world run by corporations; a world in which all lifeforms–forests, oceans–are dying; a world where the decaying flesh of humans is cool; a world in which people survive because of and for the feed. And although all these things are frightening and significant, Anderson manages to write a YA novel that is not too overwhelming or preachy.