Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

Title: Glitch
Author: Heather Anastasiu
Series: Glitch, #1
Source: Traded for
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: August 7, 2012
Goodreads||The Book Depository

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.

Gah. That is the best intro word I could think of for this review. Gah. I liked this book, I honestly did, but I just can't look past all of the issues that I had with it. For one, the link. It connects all people, it controls their emotions, it makes them thoughtless drones. But here's Zoe, telling us about how her link reconnected and now she's a thoughtless drone. Okay, then how are you telling us this? If you are "thoughtless" and without emotion, how on EARTH can you tell us this?

That just didn't make sense to me. It just doesn't scream thoughtless drone, you know what I mean? Anywho, I don't think that I should continue with that train of thought. Moving on, but to another issue. Crackin' and shuntin'. What do you suppose that means? I can only imagine that they're some kind of cuss words, but seriously? I just couldn't get used to it all-- plus I had the added moment of horror where I was trying to figure out which cuss words they were replacing...unfortunately, I never did figure it out.

How did Max hear something over the link? He's glitching, he CAN'T. And then at some point in the book, he turns to Zoe and says "They just called for you over the link, Zoe." BUT HE'S NOT CONNECTED. How does he FREAKING KNOW? Plus, Max is honestly a freaking jerk. "Can I see your genitalia?" (Actual quote from him, I am not kidding. Ick.)

"Max hasn't talked to me in two weeks, ever since last night." I'm just paraphrasing here, but it's in the same chapter. She says that he hasn't talked to her in two weeks, then three minutes later she says that everything changed between her and Max last night. Okay, time lapse just happened. I'm sure that you thought I wouldn't catch that, BUT I DID.

But you know what? In spite of all of that, I liked Zoe and Adrien. I liked the story, even if all the points that I just mentioned were ridiculous. Zoe was just so curious and eager to experience emotion, and Adrien is helping her...what did you expect? I liked that part. I am a bit miffed that Zoe wasn't all I had hoped, but she was still a good character.

All in all, I had too many issues to really LOVE this book, but I definitely liked it.

"Beauty, happiness, they're things so big that they can't capture them with their scientific words. It's like what they used to call magic." ~ Pg. 90