What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
This topic is about
The Roar
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. YA 2000s SF - Post-apocalyptic, boy wins piloting VR contest, looks for missing girl at fishy corporation on island [s]
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Sounds like "The Roar" by Emma Clayton
Read it around 2012, it was probably published around the mid 2000's. The cover is an industrial landscape viewed horizontally with a big tank and some trash cans or something. The title is one word, I thought it was "Feed" but a search for that turned up a bunch of unrelated books.
The main character is a rebellious boy who lives in a sort of slum-city, where it's always raining and flooding and there's never enough to eat. The rich live somewhere else in gated communities. The plot is that his sister (his friend?) goes missing, and he has to find her. He suspects this big corporation of being involved, so he tries to go after them.
More detailed scenes/plot points I remember (with spoilers):
- The setting is post-apocalyptic - there was a sort of zombie apocalypse, and the survivors built a wall around their cities to protect themselves from the infected. The government tells everyone that the world outside the walls is too dangerous to cross into, but the MC's friend thinks they aren't telling the whole truth. The MC believes that this is one of the reasons they took her away.
- A salesman for a special energy drink comes to the MC's school and gives them cases of the product. Everyone is excited because they're very malnourished, and the energy drink, packed with vitamins, will help them grow stronger. The MC alone is suspicious and refuses to drink it. As punishment, he gets suspended and has to sort a bin of multicolored beads by color - he's not allowed to return to school until he does. His mom, a single mother, is mad at him for disobeying. When the MC returns, he and the other students have to participate in the exhausting military-style exercise program associated with the energy drink. He thinks it's being used to mold the students into soldiers.
- The MC gets some kind of virtual pet?
- The big corporation is sponsoring a contest, which the MC enters. My memory is very hazy, I think I'm getting it confused with another book, but I think the contest involves playing a virtual-reality war game. The game is played in pairs, where one person flies the ship and the other shoots. Later levels involve traps and moral dilemmas. I think the partners have to switch places.
- The MC wins the contest and gets to go to a special island vacation with the other winners, some of whom are scary and have no conscience. There they practice flying the gliders. I think he steals a glider and flies over the wall to see what's there, or maybe he just thinks about it.
I know this is very long, but thanks for reading <3 and let me know if you have any ideas!