Override by Heather Anastasiu

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Pages: 320pgs

The Story

Zoe is free. She has escaped the enslavement of the Community, disconnected from the hardware that had controlled her every thought and emotion, and evaded capture by the Chancellor intent on killing her. She is finally free, but she is far from safe.

Zoe and Adrien hide themselves from detection at the Foundation, an academy that trains teen glitchers to fight in the Resistance movement. Together, Zoe and her new team of superhuman fighters must risk their lives to rescue other glitchers and humans from the Chancellor's control. Challenges abound at every turn, and Adrien, who has become silent, distant, and tormented by his visions of the future, only adds to the growing certainty of defeat. But worst of all, as Zoe's team fights against impossible odds, distrust and betrayal leads to the terrible discovery that their greatest threat could already be lurking behind the safe walls of the Foundation.

The Review

A big thank you to the publisher on netGalley for accepting my request in reading this book early!

Here's the thing: I wasn't a big fan of Glitch, the first installment of this YA trilogy, and at first I didn't even want to consider reading the sequel because I was incredibly worried to be disappointed by the book yet again. And I don't want that at all (to be disappointed that is) because there were so many other readers who had loved the first book. But . . . I read this sequel anyway despite my initial opinion on the series and - surprisingly - I actually really, really enjoyed this book. I know, I know . . . wow, what a turnaround it was for me and about time too. I love being surprised like this!

OVERRIDE is everything I love in a sequel. Action-packed. Super-powered characters. Dangerous missions. Unexpected twists-and-turns. I mean, this book was not only a great read but it also had so much more to offer than the first book ever did, what with the author opening her world to me a far lot more and what with her characters growing up more in tow as well, not to mention there was plenty of drama to get your mind reeling from it all . . . I just loved it! The characters especially never once annoyed me like some did in Glitch and for once I actually felt the main character, Zoe, was someone who added such drive and vulnerability to the storyline, so I'm very thankful to come and appreciate Zoe's character more.

Now I don't really want to say more here in case of any spoilers, but the only complaint I have is about the ending or rather what happened before the ending actually came. I mean, something very significant happened to another character in this book and I was a bit taken back it, leaving me saying, "Well, what happens now? This character is really important and now this happens to he or she." But apart from that, it was a still a great book and a vast improvement to the first installment of Glitch. So, if you were disappointed by the first book like I was, then I would strongly suggest you pick up this sequel when its released because I rated the first book 2.5 stars and if you look at my book rating below, you can obviously see the difference of my opinion after having read this sequel. Trust me . . . it's really good.

Overall, even though I didn't love Glitch, it's fair to say Heather Anastasiu really steps up her game in her sequel OVERRIDE and surprises me throughout the entire book! It was a very awesome read and I can't wait to read the third and final installment of this trilogy! I hope everything gets much better for the characters considering what happened just before the ending really, really hits us!

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars

Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

Release Date: 7th August, 2012

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Pages: 320pgs

The Story

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 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. 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-paced debut, Glitch begins an exciting new young adult trilogy.

The Review

A big thanks to the publisher on netGalley for accepting my request in reading this book early!

Zoe lives in a society where order is everything in her world. Your actions. Your life. Your personality. Everything must have order. As soon as children are born in Zoe's world, everything in their lives are already planned out for them and are controlled by a simple concept of a chip that is placed inside them and are monitored by the people whom call themselves Regulators. But unlike most teenagers, Zoe has a secret to keep. She's glitching. In fact, she's been glitching for a few months now without a single person noticing. For once she can think for herself, feel what she wants to feel, and she can not be controlled by them. But if the regulators ever find out her secret, they'll have to re-program her or worse . . . de-activate her . . . for good.

GLITCH was a young adult book that has been on my to-read list for a quite some time now and I've been super excited to read it despite the average ratings it has been given previously. So when netgalley was offering up this title for readers, I just instantly jumped at the chance to read it. But when I started this book, when I continued to read through the tale, and when I ended up finishing it, this book certainly had its appealing sides which a lot of readers will love and enjoy, but the book itself was just not what I was expecting it to be like. Not whatsoever.

Firstly, the storyline starts off really slow and at some points in the book I wanted to give up. It's not a bad story . . . not at all . . . it was just slow with not too much happening. I mean, I don't mind an author taking their time to deliver a great action-packed book to their fellow readers - which Heather Anastasiu still does in a way - but sometimes slow-pacing can affect a reader for the majority of the book and in this case it did for me. The same goes for the characters, unfortunately. It took me a long time to warm up to each of the characters due to the slow-pacing.

For example, the main character, Zoe, was mostly tolerable but she also could be unlikable at times too, and I wanted more action from her than words and words. I understand she has two personas in this book, one where she's experiencing a glitch and the other one where she's trying to fight against it, but there wasn't that oomph of life I needed from her, you know? Even her love interest, Adrien, had potential greatness inside of him but, like with Zoe, he'd gotten on my nerves as well. At least when he kept saying his words of, "Crackin' Hell" which I wasn't a fan of. Trust me here . . . it was driving me crazy! See, the thing is, despite some of the funny things exchanged by the characters (for sure there was definitely some hilarious things being said and other awkward-but-funning stuff characters mentioned that related to stuff like 'pleasure' hehe you know what I mean, right? wink wink) and despite not completely falling nor caring about the characters all too much, they were still likable in their own way and it's really up to you as a reader whether or not to like this book or give it a fair go.

Overall, if you love dystopian books no matter their shape or form, then you'll love this book. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but I found GLITCH was something you need to read at the once and it offers up an interesting first installment to a YA series. While I was hugely letdown by this book, but I'm still going to give the second book another shot in the future, especially since how this book ended. It really interested me then . . .

The Rating2 1/2 / 5 stars