Review: The Unidentified

Title: The Unidentified
Author: Rae Mariz
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 296
Rating: 4/5
From the book jacket: 
Fifteen-year-old Katey (aka Kid) goes to school in the Game -- a mall converted into a "school" run by corporate sponsors. As the students play their way through the levels, they are also creating products and being used for market research by the sponsors, who are watching them 24/7 on video cameras.

Kid has a vague sense of unease but doesn't question this existence until one day she witnesses a shocking anticorporate prank. She follows the clues to uncover the identities of the people behind it and discovers an anonymous group that calls itself the Unidentified. Intrigued by their counterculture ideas and enigmatic leader, Kid is drawn into the group. But when the Unidentified's pranks and even Kid's own identity are co-opted by the sponsors, Kid decides to do something bigger -- something that could change the Game forever.

-----------------

I think the thing that hit me hardest about this book is that it's totally plausible. Maybe not in the immediate future, but the technology of the Game is fast approaching and education spending is decreasing and corporations are on the rise... is it really so ridiculous to imagine a world where "school" is a blend of technology, video games, and marketing?

Before I get too rambly, let me start at the beginning. Katey, known to her friends as "Kid," is basically the epitome of mediocrity in the Game. She has decent scores, "riding high on the bell curve" as her advisor puts it, a few friends... she's not on the It List (which is an actual list in the Game), she's not a social pariah, she's just...average. And she's happy that way, mostly. And then an anti-corporate prank rattles her world. She's the only one who seems to care - and that attracts attention. Suddenly corporations want her, her friends don't understand her sudden popularity, she maybe has a boyfriend -- and the anonymous group responsible for the prank knows she knows about them. Cue mystery and hidden agendas.

It took me a while to get into The Unidentified for a couple of reasons. First, the set-up was kind of confusing; I didn't really understand the Game for the first several chapters. Second, the slang was not what I was used to; Kid and Mikey and Ari were using words that I didn't know. It took some getting used to. But once I got into it...wow. I couldn't put it down.

I love that The Unidentified challenges us to think. To think about popularity, and fashion, and corporate America, and what it means to have an identity. The ideas that this book tackles are so big and so real that it's impossible to read it without fully engaging your brain - and that's a good thing. But at the same time, it's a very basic look at friendship and humanity that is just as applicable now as in the technology-dominated society Kid lives in.

It's a bit confusing at times, but I think The Unidentified is definitely worth your time.

Links:
Rae Mariz's website

Review: Crashed

Title: Crashed
Author: Robin Wasserman
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pages: 440
Series: Skinned trilogy #2
Rating: 4 stars
From the jacket flap:
Everyone has something to lose.


Before the accident, Lia Kahn was happy.
Before the accident, Lia Kahn was loved.
Before, Lia was a lot of things: Normal. Alive.
Human.


Lia no longer believes in before. Six months after the crash that killed her, six months after being reborn, Lia has finally accepted her new reality. She is a machine, a mech, and she belongs with her own kind. It's a wild, carefree life, without rules and without fear. Because there's nothing to fear when you have nothing left to lose.


But when a voice from her past cries out for revenge, everything changes. Lia is forced to choose between her old life and her new one. Between humans and mechs. Between sacrificing the girl she used to be and saving the boy she used to love.


Even if it means he'll hate her forever.


After I finished Skinned, the first book in the series, I was looking forward to the second book but wasn't really sure what to expect. Now, having read Crashed, I can say that I am seriously excited about the upcoming release of book three (Wired, due out in September). The characters are wonderful, the plot just keeps getting more intense, and the themes just sort of worm their way into your head and refuse to let go.

Lia's interactions with Jude, Riley, Ani, Auden, and her family are all very well-written. Her thoughts, actions, and reactions are all so starkly human, even as she debates just how human she really is. She's a wonderfully developed character, and she's constantly changing in response to the world around her. That said, at the beginning, I really didn't like her; I thought she was a snobby brat and she whined too much. But as the story went on, I liked her more and more, and she really is the perfect character for this story. She'll never be my favorite, though; I think that award has gone to Riley now.

The story is very well-done too; I love that Crashed shows us cities and corp-towns, changes in scenery from the luxurious world that Lia is used to, and the piece-by-piece revelation of Riley and Jude's backstory is excellent. While the actual storyline is fairly archetypal and there were a lot of bits and pieces I was able to predict, it's the details and the characters that make this story absolutely worth reading.

On the whole, though, I think what really kept me engaged in Crashed was the way it made me question so much. What does it really mean to be a human? Is there any such thing as "human," or is there only what we are programmed to believe?

Crashed is definitely a book that I would recommend, although it's not a stand-alone sequel; read Skinned first. A little strange, maybe, but worth your time.

Links:
Robin Wasserman's website

EDIT: I apologize for starting with a review of book two instead of book one; it's been a long time since I read Skinned and I don't have a copy on hand right now, so I couldn't give a thorough and complete review of it. However, you can read my thoughts on it from an earlier date on a different site here.