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I checked Feed by M.T. Anderson out of the library the other day then forgot all about it. I had a bunch of other books to read and it slipped my mind until I got a notice saying it was overdue. I found it in my closet (Why was it there? No idea. Must have been YA reading Gremlins.) and was just going to take it back, after all it was late and the cover wasn't very interesting and the blurbs were silly, but I gave it a one chapter chance and was captivated. My initial impression was that it was Catcher in the Rye, on the moon, with a brain implant.

Titus (whose name I didn't catch until about a third of the way through the book) is very much a product of his times, a spoiled, neglected teen who has been molded into the ultimate consumer. Like everyone else in his peer group, he has a feed implanted in his head, which allows him to chat, listen to music, shop, watch movies and TV shows, etc. He's inundated with ads; in fact there is often little difference between ads and entertainment. He also has virtual personal assistants that exist solely to find things he might want to buy. He can't go anywhere or do anything without an avalanche of inducements.

When we first meet Titus he and his friends are heading to the moon, planning to have a fabulous time just like they see in the movies and on television. But of course when he gets there it can't possibly live up to his hyped up expectations. Everything is a little bit shoddier than, or not as popular as he's been led to believe. He still tries to have fun and perks up when they go to a nightclub and he sees an interesting girl who stands out from the rest. But not long after spotting her everything is disrupted when a hacker attacks. The hacker doesn't go after the nightclub, he goes after the kids, disrupting their feeds and turning them into robotic puppets that must obey and repeat his every demand.

While the teens are in the hospital recovering from the attack, Titus gets to know the girl, who is called Violet. She's very different from anyone else he has ever met; homeschooled and from a different socioeconomic background. Violet's father is an eccentric who teaches dead languages and has an outdated feed. He speaks in odd patterns that Titus can barely decipher. When Titus and Violet start seeing each other she avoids introducing him to her father; instead exploring new horizons with Titus.

While Titus enjoys spending time with her, and is fascinated by the novelty of her views of the world, she also makes him uncomfortable. She looks beyond the surface of the glossy, glitzy world he inhabits and she doesn't view his friends the same way he does, which ends up driving a wedge between them. It's hard to hang out and have fun when you're under a microscope. He also worries about whether he is stupid or not and frequently feels inferior when Violet talks to him about the wrongs and sufferings of the world, which he largely doesn't notice. Titus doesn't know that Violet's feed has been severely damaged by the hacker or that since her feed is such an integral part of her nervous system she is also damaged and is completely unprepared to cope with what that means.

Feed is billed as a satire, a title that confuses me. Perhaps I'm just being daft but when I think of satire I think of A Modest Proposal, and don't feel that Feed is in the same ballpark. Instead of being a completely ridiculous, sarcastic treatise, Feed is more of an extrapolation of today's society, with a strong emphasis on increasing commercialization. Our current society has suggested that we sell naming rights of elementary schools to big corporations so allowing them to completely take over the education of our children doesn't sound that farfetched to me. From there it's only a small step to tailoring the curriculum to encourage increased consumerism and waste.

Feed is a book that takes a little getting used to as there are loads of slang terms that need deciphering, but once you get the hang of the language you're set. M.T. Anderson did a lot of research for this book, listening to people talk on their cells in public places, reading teen magazines, etc. I was surprised by one comment he made where he appears to be dismayed by a student who says that England was dumb, or stupid, I don't recall the exact word. Mr. Anderson's response was that it was a whole country, implying it couldn't possibly be dumb or stupid. He uses this remark in Feed when Titus says he's been to Mars and it was dumb, causing Violet to point out it's an entire planet. Mr. Anderson has a fantastic ear for YA dialogue and his characters are utterly believable but I think he makes an error here. When a teen says a place is dumb, they mean they feel uncomfortable or out of place there and they'd rather be somewhere else, most likely with their peers. They aren't actually saying anything at all about the place; instead they're complaining about their lack of relationship with said place. It's interesting to me that he nails so much about teens but forgets this one thing. But I digress.

You can read an excerpt from this engrossing novel here: http://www.candlewick.com/cat.asp?mode=book&isbn=0763622591&browse=Autho.... There is a link on the left-hand side of the page which will give you a popup window.

Don't forget to enter our contest to win an autographed copy of Boy Toy by Barry Lyga. Contest ends in one week. http://qualitytimeweekly.com/content/boy-toy-and-contest

One-Paragraph Review

This week's one-paragraph review is from Hungry Boi, who says "Hardees has new onion rings that are really good. They're batter fried and remind me of the ones I get at the steakhouse. The new orange shakes suck. Don't waste your money." Do you have a one-paragraph (or smaller) review you'd like to share? Send it in to me for consideration. You can reach me at feedback@qualitytimeweekly.com.

This week we have something super special for you. We're going to talk about an incredible book and then we're going to give away an autographed copy of the book, courtesy of the author. YA author Barry Lyga has very kindly donated a copy of his novel Boy Toy and I'll be forwarding it to one lucky reader. I'd been planning to read this novel for some time as it's a story that seems to draw more than its fair share of censorship attempts and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, so the timing on Mr. Lyga's offer was perfect.

Josh is a senior in high school. He excels at both math and baseball and is trying to decide which college he'll attend; one that will have more of an emphasis on athletics or one that lets him push the limits of his brain power. This might be enough to keep any teen busy but he's got a whole lot more on his plate. Five years ago, when he was twelve, Josh was involved in a crime and to this day he's not sure what his place was in that crime. Was he a victim? Did he instigate it? Did anything bad actually happen? Because of the sensational nature of the offense everyone in town knows what happened and he is convinced that people think and talk about it everywhere he goes.

Josh is also struggling with the aftermath of an incident that launched the investigation; an incident that caused the loss of a dear friend, a girl called Rachel who had been friends with him since he was very young. She is just as involved with ball playing as he is, although she has recently focused on softball instead of baseball. Five years ago Josh and Rachel went into a closet to make out during a party and when the dust settled everyone knew that something sexual had happened between Josh, who was twelve, and his middle school teacher. Josh's reaction to Rachel was so strong that the whole dirty secret came out as their parents tried to make sense of his actions.

Now his teacher is in jail, he's wracked with uncomfortable emotions and far too many flashbacks (which he calls flickers) and he still hasn’t sorted things out with Rachel. As the book begins he punches his coach, discovers his ex-teacher is getting out of prison early, and runs into Rachel for the first time in years. It's enough to give him a panic attack and make my heart break.

It seems to me that the basic nature of the crime in this story should be pretty cut and dried. Adult in position of authority has sex with a child. To me it's obvious that the adult is in fact a criminal and the child is a victim. When the child is a girl public response usually agrees with me. But when the victim is a boy there are all sorts of inappropriate responses, usually from other males who say they wish they'd had a teacher like that. From now on, whenever I encounter someone who makes such a ridiculous comment I'll hand them a copy of Boy Toy.

There are a lot of metaphors for the after affects of a life changing event. Living under a cloud, haunted, tainted, etc. Marley's ghost tells Scrooge we wear the chains we forged in life and I think there's a great deal of truth in this. When something shocking happens that is very much in the public eye it’s like the old you is killed and chained to you and the new you has to drag the corpse of the old you around everywhere you go. When you talk to anyone at all you know in your heart that at least a part of their attention is on the corpse, not the new you. You can't possibly "get on with your life" so long as this tattered and stinking thing is always with you.

Being metaphorically chained to someone dead is hard enough but Josh's burden is even heavier. He's afraid his corpse is a zombie that will rage to life and attack any girl that Josh dates or touches or tries to kiss. An out of control monster that will destroy whatever remains of his life and everyone will think it's his fault. It takes a delicate touch to write about this subject without being preachy or crude. Mr. Lyga has that touch, walking the fine line with nary a waver that I could detect. He wrote Josh as a troubled teen who still manages to be endearing and gains our sympathy without appearing pitiful.

Boy Toy has had many attempts to censor or ban it. I've seen some crazy responses to it, including someone who responded to a protest about another book, which we’ll call Book X, being banned by saying that Book X was fine and Boy Toy, which hadn't been mentioned at all, should be banned. I guess the frank language and difficult subject matter scare some folks so much they think nobody should have access to this book. I am firmly in the opposite camp. I think that not only should it be widely available but that there are scads of people who would feel less alone and more understood by reading it. It's sad to think that someone who has been in a similar situation may not be able to read Boy Toy because someone else, who doesn't know them, has decided it shouldn't be read.

With that said we come to our contest. Barry Lyga has donated a copy of Boy Toy, which I will give away to one person who comments. I was thinking it might be interesting to talk about a book that changed the way you think, made you look at things in a different way, or made you feel like maybe you weren't a freak who would never fit in. I've read plenty of books that fit into the last category and I'm always excited when I discover them. You can either register a username or comment anonymously, whichever suits you best.

One-Paragraph Review

This week's one-paragraph review is from Lucky Lucy, who says "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was crazy. I never saw so many animals smashed and eaten in my entire life. Where was the SPCA? I'm surprised they didn't eat a monkey brain." Do you have a one-paragraph (or smaller) review you'd like to share? Send it in to me for consideration. You can reach me at feedback@qualitytimeweekly.com.

Do you ever think gosh, I'm a real dope? I especially feel that way when I discover something that I love and I wonder why I waited so long to get on the bandwagon. Take for instance chocolate. I used to hate it. Just loathe it. I wouldn't eat anything chocolate had touched. Then one day I had some excellent chocolate and my eyes were opened. The same thing happened when I picked up a copy of The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet unexpected tales of the fantastic and other odd musings.

I just finished a fascinating book, called The Devlin Diary, by Christi Phillips. How fascinating you might ask and I would tell you that it was fascinating enough to take my mind off the abscessed tooth that plagued me last week. I had a bad reaction to some medicine for said tooth and took to my bed for a couple of days, too fretful and ill to do much of anything. When I could dredge up any modicum of concentration I lost myself in the Devlin Diary, a book that contains two, two, two mysteries in one!

This week I have an abscessed tooth, a root canal and a reaction to some medication. Luckily playwright James Comtois swings to the rescue, bringing us a guest column reviewing a film that opened last Friday.

Drag Me To Hell

By James Comtois

Finally, a horror film that deals with the subprime mortgage market and foreclosure crisis. Sort of. Okay, not really.

After spending the bulk of the decade being entrenched in the Spider-Man series, director Sam Raimi has decided to go back to his Evil Dead cult filmmaking roots with Drag Me To Hell, a delightfully trashy comedy-horror that serves as a de facto Evil Dead 4, albeit with a larger budget and (sadly) no Bruce Campbell.

When you read enough of any genre you can't help but notice certain patterns. I don't just mean that Westerns tend to have shootouts or thrillers love their serial killers, I mean some of the more subtle things. Back in the seventies I read a bunch of historical romances set on plantations that pretty much ignored the horrors of slavery. Oh sure, maybe the neighbor of the protagonist was an awful person but the protagonist was dearly loved by their slaves, who were always treated well, except for the fact that of course anyone who is enslaved is by definition not being treated well. These books always gave me the creeps and I started avoiding any story set in the antebellum south. In the same vein I noticed that servants in historical romances set in England seemed to be fair game for the upper classes.

Are you watching True Blood on HBO, the series about the mindreading waitress who gets mixed up with the paranormal? It's loads of fun and about to start its second season. If you're not, you should give it a test drive and see if you like it. I knew I was going to like it within the first few seconds of the first episode, as two drunken idiots try to get a thrill from interacting with a vampire, only to get a real scare when they realize their preconceptions are wildly wrong. Don't worry if you missed season one; it's currently on demand on HBO so you can get caught up before season two gets started. But I'm not really here to talk about True Blood; this week I want to discuss another series by the author behind the Sookie Stackhouse books. Charlaine Harris has written another terrific series about a girl called Harper Connelly who also has an unusual ability.

I've been reading loads of short stories, mostly scary stories but a few that are surreal, and have some recommendations for you. I've got a couple of awesome zombie tales, one about a woman who has already faced tragedy and now faces an agonizing death at the hands of a lunatic, a story about a group of children growing up in a world where growth can be halted and rights are not automatically granted to parents and some others that are equally interesting.

Summer will be here before we know it so it's time to take our annual look at a few new roller coasters, designed to scare the pants off of anyone bold enough to take a ride. This year we've got mostly steel coasters, one wooden, one in the UK, one in Germany, and the rest in the US. Many of them lay claims to be the scariest or the tallest or the fastest or the most ferocious. Of course they can't all be the best or most massive or have made the most guests faint, but they each might have one thing that makes them special.

I know everyone is talking about Twitter, so much so that I refuse to read anymore articles about it, so I apologize in advance for mentioning the service. I mention Twitter because I use it to follow some of my favorite YA authors (Maureen Johnson is particularly amusing) who have introduced me to some writers who are new to me. One of these authors is Lisa McCann who just released the second book in her series about a teen girl who falls into other people's dreams.