Glitch

Originally reviewed on A Reader of Fictions.

Going into this, I had already seen the negative reviews rolling in from trusted sources. I am really grateful for that, because, had I not known, I'm pretty sure this would have been an even worse reading experience for me. Since I knew not to expect anything at all, I was better able to appreciate the few things that entertained me.

The society set up in Glitch is, at least, dystopian, not just marketed as such, so that is good. It is not, however, particularly original, feeling from before the first page like so many others. In a little section before you begin the book itself, it says that secrets "started the wars and almost destroyed the planet. Secrets and lies and destructive passions. show more But we were saved from all that. We were logical. Orderly." This pretty much sets the tone for Glitch. I feel like a quarter at least of the dystopias I read are built around this basic premise: X causes terrible wars, so we have eliminated X with this drug/technology/whatever.

The very first issue I encountered as I began to read Glitch was the awkwardness of the first person storytelling for this kind of tale. Zoel is glitching, meaning that her connection to the Link intermittently crashes. During these times, she can think for herself and feel emotions and see colors. Ordinarily, she is completely logical, which apparently also means zoned out and zombiefied. Anyway, moving past that, I could not deal with narration that would tell me the Link had just reasserted control and she was no longer capable of thinking, followed by numerous emotion-fraught thoughts. Anastasiu never successfully made the Link sound like it was working on Zoe.

The next problem I noticed was Zoe. She is one of those heroines that is eternally surprised by everything. She has no survival skills. Like none. She does whatever people tell her to do, except when her telekinesis kicks in and does things FOR her. She spots Adrien following her everywhere and is all like, hey, that's vaguely creepy. Then, she gets taken by some official to a room where he generally is horrifying. Adrien breaks in and takes out the official and drags her up above ground, even though she doesn't know him and he won't answer any damn questions. Girl, don't even.

Heather Anastasiu decided to create new swear words for this future: "shuntin'," "crackin'" and "godlam'd." Certainly, swear words do often change with time (as some words used in my parents' day, for example, have lost impact or ceased use), so I totally get why she did this. However, they didn't come off as authentically belonging to these characters or this world: they read like obvious substitutions for the words we use now and made me immediately dislike Adrien, the one who said them all the time. Most irritating to me was godlam'd, which seems to exist solely to make it clear that it means goddamned. I mean, what would the longer word be if you reinserted the part now replaced by the apostrophe? Godlambed? Godlaminated? Godlamaaed? I can't think of anything that would make any sort of sense. Also, would a logical, emotionless society really still cling to religion enough to use an epithet built around God? These words might have worked better had there been any other changes between our modern terms and theirs, because they would not have stood out as much. The only other original word I noticed: "gnangy."

Yet again, I was disappointed to be reading a dystopia where the good guys and the bad guys are precisely who you think they are from the outset. Seriously, why is this the case with so many dystopias? Haven't you heard of twists? Or shades of grey? (Note: not 50 Shades of Grey)

At this juncture, the review is going to be entering spoiler territory, so continue at your own discretion.

Now, I have to talk about the 'romance' in this book. We have both instalove and a creepy stalker/rapist. Awesome, right? The instalove bothered me, but really pales in comparison to the other issue. Still, let's start there. Adrien has been crushing on Zoe ever since he saw her in his visions of the future. He takes her to his mom's house after breaking her out of school, where they make out and declare undying devotion to one another. Then they have to wipe her memory so she can return safely to school.

Up to this point, I wasn't in love with the book, but it was steaming along at a fairly respectable 2.5. The book had issues, boring and uninspired, but meh. Then things happen. It gets so much worse.

Back at school, with no memory of Adrien, Max, who Zoe tutors, requests additional study sessions at his house. Conveniently, parents work until ten PM, giving them lots of alone time in his bedroom. Max promptly confesses that he glitches too, can look like any other person, and that he wants to see her genitals (no joke...this scene was mad awkward). Teen boy new emotions seeing porn by accident = ATTEMPTED RAPIST. He proceeds to force many make out sessions on Zoe, and she lets him even though she's not enjoying them, because, obviously, it's nice to let boys do things with you, unless you're COMPLETELY sure you like some other boy better. Only then should you stop them. (Note: FALSE)

When Adrien comes back into the picture, Max begins to get insanely jealous, which means more forced kisses, some grabbing and lots of yelling. Finally, Zoe figures out that she's in OMG TRU LURV with Adrien. Note that all of this takes place with lots of sneaking into bedrooms, despite this being against the rules, surveillance and Regulators everywhere. Max sees them kissing and reacts in precisely the way you would expect: shoving her up against the wall, forcing a kiss on her again, and saying she WILL BE WITH HIM SOMEDAY.

All of this happens, plus Zoe finds out that Max was spying for the enemy. Still, SHE DOESN'T HATE MAX AND WANTS TO BE FRIENDS. Even Pinkie Pie would not want to be friends at this juncture. Honestly, I feel like I have a better understanding for Max's character than I do Zoe's. I mean, he at least has a reason for behaving the way he does. Her actions make no sense. She has no motivations. AAAAAGHHHH.

Summing up, Glitch is as filled with glitches as the heroine. I suspect some people will like it, but most will be disgusted by the lack of personality in the heroine as well as the lackluster plotting and writing. show less

Glitch tells the story of Zoe. Zoe lives in the Community, a place that consists of people living with the VChip. The VChip takes away all emotions and connects the person into a Community Network called the "Link." Everyone is connected and is programmed to report anything out of the ordinary (anomalous), which could be as little as someone that knocks something over and reacts. Being "linked in" is normal. Glitching, or being unlinked, is anomalous. According to the code of the Community, anomalies may result in deactivation. Yep. Death!

Now, Zoe is a glitcher in a crowd of drones, trying to appear like she isn't full on freaking out. And, on top of glitching in and out of the Link, Zoe discovers she has the power of telekinesis. The show more journey of Zoe learning how to control her telekinesis was probably the coolest part of the book. It was really powerful and I thought the author, Heather Anastasiu, did a wonderful job capturing all the emotions that are raging through Zoe. Going through the process of learning what emotions are and what words correspond to different feelings is something Zoe struggles with constantly. Being human and having a free mind and so many conflicting emotions causes a lot of turmoil for her. It is an amazing arc.

The character development throughout this novel was stellar. I was always on my toes trying to figure out the different characters, their motivations, if they were lying, etc... All signs of a perfect read!

5 stars to Glitch!! show less

Everyone is plugged into the Community. Their senses are dulled and emotions simply don't exist anymore. Everything is done for the greater good with no thought to selfish desires. Zoe has started to glitch. She is periodically free from the Community ad experiences raw emotions, sensations, and a sense of self. She knows she should turn herself in for the good of all, but ultimately decides to hide it out of curiosity. The risk is great and rapidly escalates as her emotions are hard to hide and she develops telekinesis. If anyone discovers her secret, the authorities will deactivate her. There are others like her and a Resistance exists outside of the community which occasionally infiltrates, but their efforts may be useless if anyone show more finds out about them.

I love reading about dystopian worlds where even emotion is outlawed, like Glitch or Equilibrium. It's just something so fundamental to humans that it seems an impossibility to ban it. I was definitely drawn into Heather Anastasiu's unique world where technology is used to sedate and dampen the masses into little automatons that don't protest or care about anything. The government is free to do whatever they want with people: kill them, enslave them, or make them do anything. When Zoe glitches, she starts to question her whole society and sees value in these emotions instead of destructive as she has always been taught. The world building was one of my favorite parts because it just fascinates me. The writing was fluid, engaging, and succeeded in sucking me into the world. It made me gloss over some of the flaws while I was reading the book because I was so interested in the world and the conflict.

There are some very glaring flaws. It was interesting to see Zoe dealing with new colors, emotions, and situations, but it was very uneven. For someone who has never experienced a lot, she had names and definitions for many things she shouldn't have. I liked Zoe for the most part and I understood her emotions throughout the novel, although others may find her annoying. The things that really annoyed me were made up curse words and one of the love interests. Come on. If you're going to use curse words, please use the normal ones in our parlance. If you think they will really offend, just don't use any at all. I cringed every time one of them came up. It sounded very juvenile and grated on my nerves. On to my next grievance: Max is another glitcher that she goes to school with. He is very selfish and is fascinated with sexuality to the point where he was pushy and demanding. He truly disgusted me and the fact that Zoe continually forgave his horrible behavior and basically thought to herself how nice he really is underneath it all. No, Zoe. It's not ok and he's not nice. Ugh. I just wanted to shake her and get her to see how much of a jerk he was.

Glitch is a fun new dystopian novel with some unique elements and also some big flaws. I will definitely stick with it for the next installment to see what is in store for these characters and hope that some of these flaws are corrected. show less

I pretty much enjoyed this book. In my opinion, Anastasiu crafted her world very well. I understood what was going on and how the people were controlled. I felt what it was like for Zoe to be malfunctioning and trying to control her emotions and at the same time not wanting to lose her newfound feelings. I loved the way Anastasiu described Zoe's shock at seeing colors. That was some good writing. It had me wondering what it would be like to discover color in my teenage years. How would I have reacted?

The one drawback is that the entire story felt very familiar - like it was something that I'd already read before but didn't quite remember the entire story. That could just be due to my reading too many dystopian books but I wish it had show more been a little more distinguishable in that aspect. In spite of the familiarity of the story, Anastasiu did manage to throw some good plot twists in at the end.

Overall, I enjoyed it and I'm wanting to know what happens to the characters. show less

I know that I am going to sound pretentious in this review and I just cannot help, so why should I try? Glitch is a book that seems to have been written straight from the depths of my mind, and quite honestly shares a remarkable number of similarities to my own novel that hides amongst the folders on my Macbook. In short, Zoe lives in a technological and mechanical world known as the Community. In the Community, all emotions have been rejected and society is driven by implanted chips which break down life into simple and harmless tasks. Every day is the same and every one is the same. When Zoe’s chip begins to glitch and she gets a glimpse of how world is without the rose-colored glasses of the Link network, Zoe becomes curious about show more the rest of world and how different life could be. In addition to this mental clarity, Zoe also learns that her glitch is due to her own mental development of telekinetic powers. Zoe struggles to control these newfound powers and remain in the only society she knows, all well longing for something more. I will not say much about this book simply because I could go on about it for hours; however, I will say that I found the plot line to be wonderful albeit the pace was rather slow. Regardless of the pace I stayed up all night turning pages and have not regretted that loss of sleep at all. I cannot wait for the second book and the resolution to a well placed but purely evil cliffhanger. Kudos to Anastasiu for keeping me waiting.

For a longer review or other reviews, check out: www.mylifeinverse.com show less

In this dystopian novel, humanity has given up the ability to feel emotion or think for themselves. Instead, they are all connected to a network which regulates their activities and decides when they should be deactivated. However, many young adults are beginning to "glitch", suddenly experiencing emotion and also displaying strange new mental powers. As Zoe struggles to hide her glitches and control her erratic telekinetic powers, she also has to deal with feeling emotion for her family and for boys for the first time.

I loved the way the author introduced us to the world. She does a great job of showing instead of telling and revealing little bits of information at a time. It kept me interested and helped me get inside Zoe's head to show more understand how confusing suddenly feeling emotion was for her. The writing was a style I like in YA books; clear, straightforward, with vivid descriptions and believable behavior and dialogue.

The only thing that kept me from really loving this novel was the feeling I'd read it before. And I basically have, because the story parallels the plot of Uglies very closely. I liked the setting and the premise of this novel a little better, but that didn't make the plot any more original. There was also the oh-so-ubiquitous love triangle, although our protagonist was clear about who she liked (at least when free of outside mental influence) which made it much less frustrating than in many other books. Overall, nothing new here, but still a fun read which kept me turning pages well into the night.

Who should read this? fans of the current trends in YA (dystopian, love triangles, etc), people looking for a little more sci fi in their lives

This review originally published on Doing Dewey. show less

The premise of this dystopia is that human emotion caused all the major disasters on Earth, so now everyone gets implanted with a chip that suppresses emotion and connects everyone to the link, which seemed to be a continuous news channel. However Zoe has started glitching, aka disconnecting from the link and feeling emotion. Even though she knows she should report herself and get fixed, she can’t quite give up feeling emotion. On top of that she discovers that she can move things with her mind. Zoe soon realizes that she is not the only glitcher out there and two very different boys are vying for her attention. There is Max whose ability lets him impersonate anyone. He wants to use his ability to protect Zoe and live a good life. show more Then there is Adrien, a resistance fighter. He has visions of the future, and says that Zoe is vital to the success of the resistance and freeing humanity. Zoe is torn between the different choices they offer and those confusing new emotions aren’t helping her decide.

I am a little undecided about this story. The characters and the plot didn’t really do anything for me, but I was really intrigued by the idea of someone experiencing emotion for the first time, especially if they had no familiarity with what those emotions even are. I didn’t really like Zoe but I thought the author did a nice job with Zoe’s confusion about what she was feeling and her struggle to identify and understand those emotions. And she pulled off the thriller factor, because it was hard to know who to trust. There were twists inside of turns to keep you guessing.

Zoe’s unfamiliarity with love was the only thing that made the love triangle of the story work at all. Zoe barely knows either of these boys and yet she thinks she’s in love after only a few days. Adrien should know better since he understands emotion. I frankly was a little uncomfortable with their relationship, because it felt a little wrong to me. Zoe was basically a child when it comes to emotion and Adrien was like an adult. Instead of giving her the space to learn and grow he gets involved with her right away. On the other hand I saw Max’s issues coming from a mile away and boy did he make my skin crawl. At the same time it kind of made sense why he could turn out like that. That’s really how I felt about the rest of the book, the problems I had could all be explained away by the fact that most of the characters were dealing with emotion for the first times in their lives, but overall I didn’t really like it. On the other hand, I have continued to think about it, so there is that. I am possibly curious enough to pick up the next book when it arrives. On a totally nerdy side note, did the link remind anyone else of the Borg? The soldiers even get body armor.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. show less