ARC Review: Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

Title: Glitch
Author: Heather Anastasiu
Publication Date: August 7th, 2012
Genre: YA - Sci-Fi - Dystopian

"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" ~See it on Goodreads

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Normally I’m a big fan of Sci-Fi, but lately most of the Sci-Fi books I’ve read (especially the YA ones) haven’t really been big hits for me. And unfortunately Glitch wasn’t an exception.

The thing that really intrigued me about this book in the first place was the premise, I mean it sounded pretty darn awesome when I read it for the first time. And when I first started reading the book I was pretty interested in the story, the descriptions were great and the author took her time with the details (which I liked). And the way it described Zoe’s malfunctions put me in mind of cyborgs of some kind and had me wondering things like how these people came to be that way, how did they lose their ability to understand emotions, ect.

But as the story progressed it just seemed to go downhill for me, especially when Zoe met Max and Adrien… *sigh* it was just such a letdown. I just couldn’t take the over-the-top “insta-love”. I’m a huge fan of romance when it’s done well, and I was really hoping there would be some kind of build up to the romance in this story because Zoe was experiencing it for the first time and didn’t really know what those emotions were at first. But sadly that wasn’t the case. At. All. I wasn’t a fan of the whole “love triangle” thing either, it’s just so common and slightly overdone nowadays. Sometimes I can over look it if the rest of the story elements are good enough but in this case it was just downright strange in my opinion. But I think one thing that just really had me dumbfounded was the fact that one of the guys straight up asked Zoe to see her private girl parts, like right after meeting her..… Seriously dude?! what the heck?! I think that’s just taking the whole “experiencing emotions for the first time” thing waaaaaay too far to be believable.

The dialogue and lingo throughout the whole book was just pretty cheesy to me, I just couldn’t get into it and honestly got a bit annoying. The plotline got pretty predictable at times and I think having so much focus on the romance aspect took a little something away from the rest of the story. I also wished the characters had been a little more developed. They weren’t horrible but at the same time they weren’t great, and they didn’t make a huge impact on me.

Trying not to make this too much of a rant, so I’ll end it here. I do think there are people out there that will like this book (fans of Across the Universe for one) and then others who won’t, and unfortunately I fall into the latter category. I can see the overall appeal of the book because that’s what drew me to it in the first place, but sadly this one just didn’t make the cut for me.

2 Stars!