Feed

title: Feed
author: M.T. Anderson
how I read it: printed book from the public library (first time), audiobook read by David Aaron Baker (second time)

Imagine pop-up ads drowning out your own thoughts. Imagine instant messaging your friends from inside your mind. Imagine being tracked, followed, targeted by advertisers without being able to turn off the ads. Imagine living your life to a neverending soundtrack of mindless TV soaps and inane pop music that is always on. Inside your brain.

Are you shuddering yet?

Now imagine that the vast majority of people willingly have chips ("feeds") implanted so that they can live in this constant stream of noise, ads, apps and useless information. On purpose.

From the first line of Feed ("We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck."), M.T. Anderson crafts a world that is coloured by disconnection, boredom, mindless consumerism, corporate branding, conformity, environmental degradation and utter indifference. Titus and his friends jump from activity to party to purchase, always looking for something that will hold their attention. When Titus meets Violet, a girl who wants to fight the feed, his world is turned upside down. Feed is a brilliant satire and social commentary that tackles some frighteningly real and timely issues.

I'm going to make a confession here: the first time that I read Feed, I thought that it was an okay book. I enjoyed it, but I don't think that I fully appreciated it until I listened to David Aaron Baker read it aloud.

Audiobooks force me to slow down and think about every word. Whereas in a print book it's not unusual for me to skim over long descriptions or flip back and forth to re-read favourite parts, in an audiobook I give up control. The reader controls the pace, the emphasis and the tone. David Aaron Baker's reading left me reeling. His voice, his inflections, his expression brought that book to life for me in a way that my own internal voice could not. He is masterful at voicing the book's different characters. And the advertising, jingles, songs and clips that punctuate the audiobook? Brilliant!

Until I listened to this book read for me, I hadn't realized just how funny it was. I was also able to more deeply appreciate Anderson's ability to "show not tell". Anderson doesn't tell me what life is like in Feed's world. Instead, he slowly reveals how people live, sentence by sentence and page by page. His is a rare gift.

The language and author voice in this book are very strong. Invented slang sometimes falls flat in fiction; that is not the case in Feed. The slang used in this book is believable and helps to further flesh out a world in which language and vocabulary are no longer terribly important. I was struck in particular by scenes with parents and doctors, with these educated adults struggling to express themselves as they stumble over "like"s, "so"s and "dude"s.

While I did empathize with the two main characters, the supporting characters are neither terribly likeable nor relateable. They are shallow, frivolous and ultimately interchangeable. While in another book this might be a flaw, in this book it worked perfectly. These kids live in a bleak and disconnected world; this was made all the more powerful by the fact that I didn't really care about many of them.

Feed is a frightening book, in large part because it paints a future that doesn't seem all that implausible.

This book made me want to: Turn off my computer and have a conversation with a real live person.

Verdict: Read this. No, listen to it. David Aaron Baker is a phenomenal reader and his voice combined with Anderson's words will leave you reeling.

Sequels: None! A stand-alone young adult dystopian novel? Is that even allowed?