"Feed" me!

Thanks, Miss Jessica, for this recommendation:     Feed, by M.T. Anderson 
And thanks even more for the discussions we have had about it!
I love having you across the hall.

This was a great read, a wildly fun punch in the face, and all the more hilarious because Feed was published in 2002. Whoa. Hard to believe this book is almost a decade old already, because that is pre-Facebook, and practically, like, dinosaur times.

The teenage vernacular here is so jammed with snark and charm, I feel like I have learned a new language. Indeed, I have. There were at least four times where I had to stop reading for a moment, and just shake my head and chuckle over a new “vocabulary” word that Anderson has invented. I would go all geek mode, sitting there with a book in my hands, but looking up at the ceiling, saying “slamsuit” out loud, and using it in a sentence. In book review terms, I guess that can’t actually be called atmospheric , and the new vocabulary didn’t technically transport me. But yea, that’s definitely great writing.

So, a decade ago, this crafty YA novel came out, and I’m just now getting caught up.  How can the verve and nerve of Feed actually be timeless? Ah, good writing holds up over time! Even five minutes ago, this story still holds up. Maybe it is the combination of dystopia and teenagers, surely that kind of story will never get old. Or, possibly it is the mix of banner ads in the brain and lesions on the face, those details obviously must stick on readers of any era. Or, perhaps it is simply the fact that, even though I have now been warned by this book, I totally want a feed of my own.