Glitch - Heather Anastasiu

In the Community, there is no more pain or war. Implanted computer chips have wiped humanity clean of destructive emotions, and thoughts are replaced by a feed from the Link network.

When Zoe starts to malfunction (or “glitch”), she suddenly begins having her own thoughts, feelings, and identity. Any anomalies must be immediately reported and repaired, but Zoe has a secret so dark it will mean certain deactivation if she is caught: her glitches have given her uncontrollable telekinetic powers.

As Zoe struggles to control her abilities and stay hidden, she meets other glitchers including Max, who can disguise his appearance, and Adrien, who has visions of the future. Both boys introduce Zoe to feelings that are entirely new. Together, this growing band of glitchers must find a way to free themselves from the controlling hands of the Community before they’re caught and deactivated, or worse.

In this action-packed debut, Glitch begins an exciting new young adult trilogy.

So I'm a big fan of the "punk" genres—steampunk especially (and clockpunk as its main subgenre), mythpunk, cyberpunk, biopunk, elfpunk. I love them all. Especially steampunk, as I said, because of the cool weapons and armor and stuff people can come up with for their work (gotta say, I don't like The Girl in the Steel Corset, for so many reasons, but the actual steel corset is pretty cool). And steampunk is super popular right now, so I always get a little thrill when I see cyber- or bio-punk.

So imagine my little happy dance when I saw Glitch by Heather Anastasiu at the library. It's one of those cyber-punk stories with people having microchips and stuff implanted in their bodies and being hooked up mentally to the internet and whatnot. I love those. I love me some technology, but I also love reading about how technology could come back and bite us all in the butt. So I cracked open Glitch with happiness and good feelings.

To quote Marlin from Pixar's Finding Nemo, "Good feeling's gone."

I understand that the main character, Zoel (pretty name, gotta give props) is hooked into the Link—aka the Internet—and for the most part exists in this gray, emotionless fog. I get that. But the book begins with Zoel glitching, losing contact with the Link, and experiencing real emotions…only it really doesn’t feel like it. It feels blank and dull, empty.

This review is going to be short because only one thing is really wrong with the book. The plot is interesting (as I said, love me some cyberpunk), the characters are sympathetic, the twists are good. Things make sense. It's not the book itself. It's the writing. It's very…it's lackluster. There's no sense of immediacy, no sense of "this is actually happening" in the writing. Zoel is very much the automaton for most of this book, even when she's not Linked. I would've expected, since emotions are suppressed so strongly by the Link, that when she glitched, things would come out stronger, but the monotone of the book never really changed. I'm not sure why (with another book I read, The Darkness After, the problem was a lot of forced telling vs effortless showing) but it just really dragged for me, even though the plot was twisty and complex and cool.

I think the book sold on its brilliant creativity (because it is pretty smart and imaginative) but there wasn’t enough effort put into polishing it up after acceptance. Now, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe other people like it. I'm not saying it's terrible and I'm not trying to insult the author by any means. I think Heather Anastasiu is a very creative person, to mix together psychic ability into a dystopian cyberpunk novel.

And two things I have to compliment her on, that I absolutely love: the book is totally not depressing, when it absolutely could have been, but she gives it just the right amount of levity; and there's no cussing. I don't like cussing strictly for the sake of cussing (like in Nancy Kress's Flash Point so the fact that Ms. Anastasiu doesn't do that wins her BIG points from me. I love the alternative words she uses instead (godlam'd, cracking, shunting). So kudos to her for that. But the book just didn't…didn’t grab me like I was hoping. I found myself unsurprised by anything because it seemed like Zoel wasn’t really experiencing any of the plot twists. I feel bad, but there it is. I just didn’t connect with the story. I connected with Zoel just fine, but not the story. I hate when that happens. It's a rare thing, too, which makes it all the more disappointing.

In conclusion, I give Glitch 2.5/5 stars because the plot and the world really are creative and the thought of being that hooked into the internet and the technological world is kind of creepy (esp. when I see those pictures of kids in a line with their heads bent over their phones, no one looking around at anything…ugh). And the plot twists were pretty unexpected. But I just didn’t…care about the plot. And that makes me sad.

Sincerely,

LA Knight

PS — I must also say this: the cover is absolutely beautiful.