We're celebrating technology this week but what happens when we relinquish too much control to our technology? The following books ask us to consider how much technology we really need in our lives and what happens when that technology goes wrong.
Feed by
MT Anderson
For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party during spring break and to play around with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who knows something about what it's like to live without the feed-and about resisting its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Identity crises, consumerism, and star-crossed teenage love in a futuristic society where people connect to the Internet via feeds implanted in their brains.
Ashes by
Ilsa Bick
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, and wiping out every computerized system. Not to mention that the EMP also
kills most of the world's population, turning some of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman senses. Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom, a young soldier, and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP. For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it's now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.
Candor by
Pam Bachorz
In the model community of Candor, Florida, every teen wants to be like Oscar Banks. The son of the town's founder, Oscar earns straight As, is student-body president, and is in demand for every club and cause. But Oscar has a secret. He knows that parents bring their teens to Candor to make them respectful, compliant--perfect--through subliminal Messages that carefully correct and control their behavior. And Oscar' s built a business sabotaging his father's scheme with Messages of his own, getting his clients out before they're turned. After all, who would ever suspect the perfect Oscar Banks? Then he meets Nia, the girl he can't stand to see changed. Saving Nia means losing her forever; however, keeping her in Candor, Oscar risks exposure . . . and more.
Wither. The Chemical Garden Trilogy: Book 1 by
Lauren DeStefano
At age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years to live. Thanks to a botched effort to create a perfect race, all females live to be twenty and males live to age twenty-five. While geneticists seek a miracle antidote, orphans roam the streets, polygamy abounds and
girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world. After Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she is desperate to escape from her husband's strange world, which includes a sinister father-in-law in search of the antidote and a slew of sister wives who are not to be trusted. On the cusp of her seventeenth birthday, Rhine attempts to flee--but what she finds is a society spiraling into anarchy.
A Long, Long Sleep by
Anna Sheehan
It should have been a short suspended-animation sleep but this time Rose wakes up to find her past is long gone -- and her future full of peril. Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long gone and Rose-- hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire-- is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat. Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh. But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes -- or be left without any future at all.
Unwind by
Neal Shusterman
In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them. Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs and Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed -- but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.
Unwind challenges readers' ideas about life -- not just where life begins and where it ends -- but what it truly means to be alive
Memento Nora by
Angie Smibert
Nora is about to experience her first visit to TFC (Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic). Her parents are insisting she go after witnessing a horrible terrorist attack. Not everyone trusts the TFC though. When Nora meets Micah and Winter, she is thrust into a world of mystery and rebellion. Soon, the graphic novel, "Memento," based on their sad and frightening memories, becomes a hit. Copies are spread into different cities. Will they be able to keep their identities a secret? Will they be able to stay ahead of the people in the black vans? Will they be able to keep their memories?
From
Voya
Kimberly
Karly grew up around Bartlett and currently lives in Elgin. Her novel, Bloody Little Secrets, actually takes place in Bartlett and the Chicago suburbs! 
