The Feed by Nick Clark Windo

"Where are you going, Mark? What are you traveling for?"

He stares into the miasma, at the rain-ghosted trees as the drops prickle-smack around them. It seems he has ignored her and Kate turns away. But then, still staring at the rain, he says, "Because I've not found anywhere like home." 

~p. 139

In the near future, almost everyone has a chip implanted in his or her brain. The chip connects them to the Feed. Everything you can do on the Internet (in today's world) is done inside your brain via the Feed. It's so all-consuming and so good at thinking for you that when the entire system, the electrical grid, and society collapse, people don't know how to do much of anything.

Tom and Kate and their daughter have managed to survive for 6 years after the apocalyptic Collapse. They live with a motley group of survivors and they're still trying to figure out how to get power and grow food. When Tom is followed home after an expedition to find fuel and the children from their camp are kidnapped, others viciously attacked, Tom and Kate set out into a dangerous new world to find the children.

Recommended, especially to lovers of SciFi and thrillers - The Feed by Nick Clark Windo is the one book that I keep thinking about, this month. It took me quite some time to get into the story because it was initially confusing. The author doesn't baby you. He doles out information about what happened verrrrry slooooowly, so you're theorizing and trying to understand and sometimes just flat confused, at first. Eventually, though, the story of what caused the Collapse begins to come together and when it does, the cause is kind of surprising.

I had a little trouble with some of the world building in The Feed, but to describe it would give a bit too much away. I think it's best to leave the description somewhat sketchy. Even without fully buying into some elements, once I got into The Feed I was totally swept up in it. I wanted to know what it meant to be "taken" -- one of the things the author keeps you guessing about for quite a long time -- and how the Collapse occurred. Did I feel like I got all the answers? Nope, not entirely. Some minor aspects I felt like I was still guessing at, in the end, or just didn't buy into. It didn't matter. I was fascinated by this apocalyptic vision, I found the ending satisfying, and I can't wait to see what Nick Clark Windo comes up with, next.

Addendums:

Totallly forgot to mention that I received this book from the publisher. My thanks to HarperCollins! And, it's also worth mentioning that I didn't manage to write a Monday Malarkey post, this week, because I didn't have access to a computer, yesterday. I've got a busy week with some reviews already pre-posted, so I'm not going to do a substitute for the usual Malarkey post. Instead, I'll do two weeks' worth of Malarkey next Monday.


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