Review: Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

 April 28th 2013

Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

When I first picked this book up I was excited to read a book that had some Sci-Fi elements. I haven't had a chance to review a Sci-Fi book yet so I dived into this book somewhat blindly. I can't say that it was a  bad book, but it wasn't the most interesting either.I was a little disappointed because this one was on my Amazon wishlist for a few months before it actually came out, but I just found other books to buy.I can't say that it met my expectations but that doesn't mean it was a BAD book. Perhaps it just wasn't for me.Allow me to tell you about the what I did like and didn't like about the book.

The story follows a young teenage girl in a society that has become a  Utopia by installing V-chips that suppress human emotion.Because of this there are no wars, no famine, no disease, Everyone's just complacent, under-stimulated and stays in their lane. Everything from a job, a mate, AND EVEN KIDS are decided for you, this is what keeps their society referred to as "The Community"running and efficient.

Being "linked"to the community means you don't feel feelings, you don't see in color, you don't "taste"good foods, anything from keeping people from  being over stimulated or what they call "Glitching". Being a glitcher means something god awful in their society and they'll risk any means trying to "fix" you, so naturally glitchers try to keep it a secret in fear of being deactivated and reprogrammed. This is what the lead character Zoel fears, so at all costs she attempts to keep it a secret.

The main character Zoel or Zoe is what she liked to call herself, was a bit inconsistent and boring. I understand that in a book where people are being controlled by V-chips might lean in that direction, but the first 100 pages were just dull. It appeared as though all glitchers had supernatural abilities.Zoe's ability was Telekinesis and it was a helpful power but she had no way of controlling it nor was she good at hiding the fact that she was a glitcher.

What I liked about the book

1.The Community had the potential to be an interesting topic. I'll admit it did fall a little flat but I have a wild imagination so I envisioned perhaps more than the author gave me.

2.The fact that the glitchers had abilities. It reminded me a lot of X-Men and I'm a huge fan of the tv shows and comics.

What I didn't like about the book:

1.Her friend, Max. He showed every sign of an abusive friend and she always excused his behavior. He was in love with her and had been a glitcher for months before she started glitching. He was dealing with issues that were hard for him being "Linked"to the community for so long like desire,hormones and inability to control how he felt. Why is it that authors always have to have a guy like this around to move the story forward? He served as a monkey wrench in her boring love triangle and to be honest I could've done without his character. I hate when authors try to create this love triangle but from the start its always leaning toward one person. It's not really a love triangle if the other guy never stood a chance at all. I liked him at first but in the end he was just stupid, conniving and selfish. 

2. Her main love interest, Adrien, was also really boring. I really didn't get why they were in love and I got so sick of her describing his blue-green, aquamarine, green sometimes blue eyes. It got tedious and  made me want to put it down several times. Guys always bloody look the same in these books. It just made me want to read about a white girl dating a black or asian guy. 

3.The swearing language in this book was obnoxious and corny. Shunting & Godlam'd. I swear i wanted to shunting throw this godlam'd book out the window!I get that you're writing for a young audience but either use actual swear words or none at all. The language seemed really inauthentic because of this.

4. The romance overshadowed everything that could have been cool about this book. I know it's a YA book and romance plays a big part in books like this but it took away all the seriousness the book could have had. Without the romance I'm not sure if the story could have stood alone on its own, which is usually what i look for in these type of books. Would the story still be a story without a romance?This one failed at this miserably.

5.I would say it's more dystopian than Science Fiction. It seemed to be tagged as Science fiction but it's actually more of a light sci-fi novel.

6.Zoe was so boring and kept blaming herself to the point were she was kinda annoying. I wish she would have realized that some things were out of her control and I wish she would have stood up to Max when he would pressure her to do things. I also didn't get why some feelings she had like love and frustration were easy to understand but she needed embarrassment and anger explained to her. It would have been better if everything she was experiencing was something new and alien and beyond her understanding.

This has been on of the harshest reviews I had to give on our blog so far. A 2 out of 5 stars isn't the lowest but it has been the harshest. I hope that the future books get more interesting because I'd really like to get more into the series.

Didn't bother dreamcasting for this book because the characters were kinda generic to me. I couldn't picture them!

Libertad's Rating: