Feed

This is by far one of the most interesting books that we have read this semester, as it completely invents its own slang throughout the novel. For this reason as well, it becomes hard to read in points because of language that the reader is not so used to. Having only read part of the novel, I thought it was interesting the way that some of the characters developed. The author seems to have a habit of introducing the names of important characters at a later point in time than most other authors generally do. While it is a futuristic novel, there are some gender stereotypes that seem to still exist, such as guys being interested in football. I also think that the novel could be commenting on humans’ dependency on technology through the device of the “Feed”.  I thought it was very interesting that everyone seems to have a bunch of lesions on them that are just pretty much normal. It was not something that I was expecting from the novel, even if it is a futuristic type of novel. I also thought it was interesting because it is probably the only sci-fi young adult novel that I have ever read, or heard of.  I think that it would be interesting to compare this specific novel with another sci-fi young adult novel and determine what the similarities between the two are. I also found it very interesting that the moon was a rather simple destination to travel to for the characters, and I was especially intrigued by how run down some of the places were in the text. I just thought that in a futuristic novel that some of the areas would be in better shape, but this book had a dystopian feel to it because of these factors in the novel as well.

I think that this text positions adolescents in a way that is difficult to discern at times due to the language being used in the book and how different it is from our own society and reality. Despite this, however, I think that the novel does positions young adults as sort of stereotypically teenagers, with their focus on a lot of the things that teenagers are focused on (i.e. girls, etc.). From what I have read, I would say that they are neither portrayed as weak or strong, but rather just human. I think it is everyone’s dependency on technology that stands out the most to me throughout the duration of the novel.

Having only read part of the novel, I would give this book a B. It is indeed an interesting read, but because of the vernacular used throughout the text, it actually becomes a bit of a difficult read. I did enjoy reading a sci-fi young adult text though, as it is something that I am very much not used to in any sort of capacity.