If this is how the world is going to end up, we need to divert all of our attention to space travel. We need to find a planet where we're not top dog, where our benevolent superiors make us behave, make creativity more important than creature comforts.

Alas - 'Feed' does not quite get us there. It's the reason we need to get there.

I can certainly see a time when we have chips in our head that stimulate our every sense and advertise non-stop. Technology keeps our strict hierarchies intact. When everyone has the feed then everyone can be numbed and manipulated, even more so than television today.

Of the two main characters here, Violet is the one coming from thoughtful parents who resisted the feed for themselves and for their daughter. When they sense that they'd be holding back the daughters chance for success, they let a cheap feed be installed when she is seven. She's too developed by then, too aware. In her teen years she tries to resist all the advertising - but by doing so, she jeopardizes her life. The gigantic corporations that rule the media/world won't assist a person who doesn't constantly consume.

Then there's Titus, a champion consumer. He's a tad bit more aware that his friends, but still a dolt. I think he's even more self-absorbed than I was as a teen. He gets upset, which means he buys a lot. You can't see the people you're really empowering while shopping at the catalog website our world is becoming. Violet pins all her hopes on Titus and is let down in heartbreaking fashion. That Titus can't handle her demise but is still the main character is at the heart of why this book works. It's not the feed, placing us in the middle of a daisy field feeling Zestfully clean - the characters stay authentic to the bitter, lesion-infested end.

'Feed' spends most of the time developing this world, showing how lackadaisical everyone becomes. When the U.S. starts losing a war, nobody cares. We're easy prey. We can't see the forest for the trees because there are no trees left. Still, it's very much a teen book, focusing on Violet and Titus's time together instead of placing them in more globalized action. It could have been moodier, or with it's focus more intentionally tied down to nobody caring anymore. The books purpose is to create this world, trying its best to get in all the correct lingo, trying to make the current version of us get up and stimulate our senses on our own. It's not too late for a lot of things if we decide they're real.