Book Review: The Feed by Nick Clark Windo

The blurb

Your knowledge. Your memories. Your dreams.
If all you are is on the Feed, what will you become when the Feed goes down?

For Tom and Kate, in the six years since the world collapsed, every day has been a fight for survival. And when their daughter, Bea, goes missing, they will question whether they can even trust each other anymore.

The threat is closer than they realise…

My thoughts

In an attempt to widen my bookish horizons I gave this digital age apocalyptic debut a go.  Thanks very much to Shaz at Jera’s Jamboree for sending me her ARC.

To try and explain The Feed in one sentence, I would say, imagine all the apps you use on your mobile phone or tablet are implanted in your brain and you can also connect with other people’s Feeds by thinking about it! This in itself, I think, is a fascinating concept.  It’s like taking the social media that we use now and multiplying it exponentially – everything is on The Feed, everyone relies upon The Feed so how does the world cope when it crashes and is no longer!  Holy shit, can you imagine being without your mobile and access to the internet now!!  Only a few weeks ago businesses and TSB customers were up in arms because they couldn’t access their bank accounts!  What if you couldn’t access anything…ever again!

I’m not a fan of books that confuse me, and with this one, the the book did go straight into its jargon and terminology and so I had no idea what they’re talking about.  Not a fan of this to be honest as it did put me off somewhat from the outset.

There’s the whole survivor camps in the woods scenarios where they must go looking for fuel and food, but dare they leave relative safety for who knows who or what they might meet…savages, zombies, cannibals…you know that kind of thing which I assume all dystopian books have an element of.  So you won’t be disappointed if you like that and the tension it creates.

Although I thought the concept was a very clever idea I didn’t really connect with the characters or the book until about 2/3 of the way where something significant happened which made me read on and faster!  I think there was an element of an unreliable narrator because what I thought I knew, I didn’t and I didn’t realise at the time until the book turned for me.  So although I enjoyed the last 1/3 much more than the rest of the book, I was disappointed with the ending and still don’t understand the reasoning behind it.  The whole book had been preparing for an ending/resolution that didn’t come because it was easier to follow one route than another!

I’m glad I tried something different but not really one for me! 3*

Book links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

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Small print for info
Source: Book blogger ARC
No of pages: 368
Publisher: Headline