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    The Unidentified
    The Unidentified
    The Unidentified
    Ebook267 pages3 hours

    The Unidentified

    By Rae Mariz

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Fifteen-year-old Katey (aka Kid) goes to school in the Game—a mall converted into a “school” run by corporate sponsors. As the students play their way through the levels, they are also creating products and being used for market research by the sponsors, who are watching them 24/7 on video cameras.

    Kid has a vague sense of unease but doesn’t question this existence until one day she witnesses a shocking anticorporate prank. She follows the clues to uncover the identities of the people behind it and discovers an anonymous group that calls itself the Unidentified. Intrigued by their counterculture ideas and enigmatic leader, Kid is drawn into the group. But when the Unidentified’s pranks and even Kid’s own identity are co-opted by the sponsors, Kid decides to do something bigger—something that could change the Game forever.

    This funny, sharp, and thought-provoking novel heralds the arrival of a stunning new voice in teen fiction.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 5, 2010
    ISBN9780062012784
    The Unidentified
    Author

    Rae Mariz

    Rae Mariz currently lives in Stockholm after working in public libraries in Seattle, dropping out of art school in Portland, and spending her formative years bouncing around the Bay Area. She's a language geek who enjoys spending her time on ambitious craft projects and playing video games. This is her first novel for teens.

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    Reviews for The Unidentified

    3.5/5

    140 ratings34 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This was received as a Goodreads First Read.Oh, dystopian young adult fiction... you are a staple of the fantasy genre.So it's the not-too-distant future, and schools have been replaced by The Game, a corporate-run marketing fest where popularity is measured by how many online connections you have and getting "branded" by a corporate sponsor is the highest goal. Plus, being branded gets you better grades. Kid, our heroine, is one of your average teens- not one of the popular ones, but not on the bottom of the totem pole- although she's close.I really like that Kid, unlike most protagonists in dystopian fiction, started out regular- not a total drone, but not subversive from the start. She had her music, she didn't want to have a ton of "friends" because her few real ones were satisfying for her; she still wouldn't mind getting branded, or helping her friend get a sponsor. It's her curiosity regarding The Unidentified that pulls her in almost against her will.It's an interesting world, albeit reminiscent of Jennifer Government, where the company and the brand are the be-all and end-all. Unlike JG, though, the only company name that is recognizable is the commonly-used interjection, "Oh my Google!" For something that was clearly set within the next 5-10 years, the lack of brand names that the reader is familiar with can be jarring. I actually kept translating the brand names into something I knew because if you're trying to have commentary on consumerism, "iPhone" is going to make more sense than "intouch."The one other confusing idea was that teenagers were barred from most public places, apparently by law. It was never explained, other than by the teens who commented that people looked afraid of them. I would have liked to know the history the author has for those few comments, or if it was just a set-up for the illegal parking lot parties at the end. If it's legal for teens to gather, then a group dancing in a parking lot isn't subversive...But my problem areas aside, The Unidentified is worth the read, especially if you're a fan of dystopian lit.
    • 5/5
      A really interesting setup about a future where marketing and consumerism takes the frog. Lead above education. Kid was a fascinating character, though I always have a hard time connecting with the flower on the wall protagonist types.

      The book was well written. There were moments where I lost the sorry, had too many questions and didn't understand but there were also rare moments that were executed perfectly and made me stop and retread.

      Worthwhile!

      Aside from the story on the surface, the core of the book delves into deeper topics. Consumerism, the generation of millennialist and how we share absolutely everything. It poses question about how the freedom we think technology gives us is not really freedom at all. There's so much subtly in this book. It really hits you at the end and gives you something to think about when the characters and the plot feels uncertain, the story between the lines is fascinating.
    • 3/5
      I think i liked it. Ill have to reread it so I can give a better review. to e this should have been at least two books to better explain everything.
    • 2/5
      It reminded me of Extras (the 4th book in the uglies trilogy) and in a weird way also the hunger games.

      I didnt exactly hate it, except for the ending. I got the feeling that the author just wanted to be done with it and skipped to the ending.

    • 4/5
      I can barely remember the book, but I gave it 4-stars so I must have liked it.

      4-stars for an interesting dystopian world
      1-star for plot (usually teen-dystopian stuff).
    • 4/5
      Solid critique of the way the conditions of late Capitalism affect young adults, and an interesting suggestion for how to get beyond that situation. A very nice reworking of Anderson's "Feed" without the cyberpunk trappings. Recommended.
    • 2/5
      Some of the details of the world were interesting and initially intriguing. Sadly, I never felt any sense of danger or suspense.
    • 4/5
      The dystopian vision of The Unidentified is restricted primarily to education and the impulse to materialism. While some aspects of the Game are hard for me to imagine as a realistic path a society might take, they are made more convincing by their interweaving with current technologies.

      Every student in the Game carries an intouch®, on which they update their network. The network page has the functionality of Facebook: chat, information about interests and friendships. In addition to the importance of this, there are also the streams, based upon Twitter. Everyone communicates via these modes of communication and a whole culture has developed around following people's streams; for example, it is rude to comment on a conversation not directed your way and it is a big deal to be @ed by a branded person.

      I found Katey to be a very likable a and realistic character. She is mostly a loner, preferring the company of a select few to popularity. Still, she can be led astray and make bad choices. Even so, I forgave her for her errors and transgressions, because they are so high school. I can remember feeling the way she does in the book, feeling like maybe it would be worth sacrificing some parts of yourself to be popular. Just because she falls into that trap does not make her any less clever, it just makes her human.

      I really loved this book. It manages to make a dystopian society that really isn't terrifying or violent. It's mass consumerism, popularity contests, and connection without closeness. Very well done. I hope to see more from Rae Mariz!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      As budgets shrink, educational quality shrinks, too. That is, until the corporations volunteer to take over, turning abandoned shopping malls into Game Centers that feed students educational content through video games and challenges. Social networking is a fact of life, and getting branded (a game sponsor taking an interest in you personally, using your every move as PR for their company) is the best thing that can happen to a student. Katey--Kid--is vaguely uncomfortable with the surveillance, but it's the way things are. The students in her Game Center have pretty free reign to pursue whatever interests them, and one morning she witnesses that freedom taking the form of an anti-corporate prank. Who are the Unidentified who committed it? What kind of marketing are they trying to accomplish? Kid's questions get her noticed by the high-tech security firm Protecht, and their branding of her gives her far more social capital than she could have expected. But it also gives her more incentive to uncover the Unidentified--and not in the way her sponsors hope.

      This really focuses more on the corporate takeover and loss of freedoms and privacy than on the game settings, which was the part I was more interested in. For a book ostensibly about video gaming as both marketing and education, this was slow-paced and (frankly) a little dull. The first-person narration is peppered with reasonably-authentic "like"s and "I lol'd." What gets irritating is the inability for anyone to just say anything: in one short conversation, the participants mumbled, answered, shrugged, called, asked, snarked, and frowned, but never said.

      Readalikes: So Yesterday (Scott Westerfeld) and Pattern Recognition (William Gibson) for cool-hunting and corporate subterfuge; Feed (MT Anderson) for corporate invasion into everyday life.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The Unidentified cuts deep because it’s sharply observed. It’s subtle. It’s convincing. It’s the scariest kind of dystopian novel – one that seems like a plausible projection of how our world works today. If you were asked to sum up the exact problem with Mariz’s school of the future, you’d struggle. After all, what could be wrong with freedom of choice, instantaneous communication, expressing individuality, listening to young people and motivating them to learn on their own terms? And yet, the feeling of wrongness is unshakeable. Mariz’s novel is a deft exploration of the implications of being constantly connected, hooked up, linked in. Every ‘Generation Triple-A’ student has an intouch® – a handheld device that enables them to write and subscribe to twitter-like streams – and the rules of intouch® etiquette seem to go without saying. It is OK to read updates while talking with someone else, but rude to butt in on a friend’s ‘private’ conversation. It never appears to strike our narrator, Kid, that all the conversations take place in a public forum; a great reflection of Generation Y’s attitude to privacy.The language hits you in the face from the first chapter; an absorbing representation of what it’s like to be continuously bombarded and overstimulated. The characters are real – I’ve met them, and you probably have too. The dialogue is convincing – cool, quick, flippant – communication that isn’t really communication. Mariz captures an essential teenage paradox: these kids share everything with each other, and yet they share hardly anything. Technology can make us feel so close to our friends, and yet so distant. The leader of the Unidentified – the rebel group that Kid becomes involved with – asks the burning question: ‘Who are you when you’re alone? When no one is watching? What’s left then?’ It’s not until you’re fully immersed in this novel that you realise just how much Mariz has bitten off. The Unidentified isn’t just about the Internet revolution. It gets right to the heart of the enduring issues of adolescence – identity, choice, boundaries, safety, responsibility – as well as tackling themes such as consumerism and privacy.It isn’t perfect; the ending comes across a bit corny, and there are moments when the authenticity slips. Then there’s the irony of Mariz writing about a world where sponsors and businesspeople spend all their time trying to decode kids, to figure out how they interact, what they’ll go for, how to get them interested – when that’s precisely what she aims to do in her novel. Occasionally, we can feel how hard she’s trying. But as whole, The Unidentified is a success – engrossing, incisive and stimulating. It’s guaranteed to make you think, and sure to spark plenty of discussion.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      You know what’s really needed in order for a Dystopian novel such as this one to succeed? Something has to be at stake, preferably something beyond shallow happiness. And I’m not even sure that was at stake in The Unidentified. This book just fell flat for me. The pace was all right, but the plot didn’t capture me and I felt a heart was missing from this book. Even after finishing, I could barely tell you what happened. Perhaps forgettable is a good word.

      The Unidentified group is just sorta. . . there. I mean, the story is named after them, but Kid spends most of her time doing normal teenage things in the game. I think this was for the point of world-building, but it got tiring after a while. All the trademarks and the speech patterns may have lended themselves to a touch of authenticity, but they were also quite annoying after the first twenty pages. If I never see the word Intouch again, it will be too soon. Kid herself is just a pretty bland character, and I think that’s a good way to describe the book on the whole.

      The premise is interesting, but the way the world is set up seems so far-fetched to me. Now, it takes a lot for me to say that about Dystopian stories. I didn’t say that about Divergent when many people did, or The Hunger Games, or even The Maze Runner. Normally, I’m willing to suspend my disbelief for quite a while. It doesn’t take much to make me happy in way of world-building. It’s honestly not normally that important to me– I’d rather focus on things like plot or characterization. However, in The Unidentified, I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief for that long. The entire point of schools is market research? Sponsorship? I just couldn’t buy it.

      The ending to this book was also quite unsatisfactory. Things are changed ( a little bit), a celebration occurs, and then. . . nothing. The point of kids coming together is to throw off the whole idea of popularity and sponsorship, but it all just seemed so shallow. There was precious little at stake, so the “triumphant” ending just seemed kind of silly.

      I started writing this review thinking this would be a 2 star book, but the more I write, the more I realized I didn’t like The Unidentified, mainly because the point and premise all seemed shallow. I felt the book could have gone a lot deeper with its theme of marketing, advertisement, and how it effects teenagers. Instead, what happens it an artificial story where I couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters or their eventual fates.

      Final Impression: The Unidentified had an unique and engaging premise, but failed to deliver in the actual story. I found the entire reading experience rather bland, and have to say I was not a fan. I wished the themes and story had been handled with more depth and less artificiality, much like what the book seems to be trying to fight against. 1/5 stars.
    • 4/5
      Very good story about a student whose attempts to be invisible in her dystopian commercialized high school Game backfire in a public way.
    • 4/5
      Really interesting! I'd call it one of the must-reads of 2011 if you read a lot of YA or science fiction.It reminded me of Westerfeld's So Yesterday crossed with Extras, with a dash of Doctorow's Little Brother.The main character goes to a school run by corporations (the government gave up paying for schools) and run as a game. Everyone's connected with what you might call a localized version of Twitter. And one way to easily win the game and have a successful future is to get a sponsor, but of course there's strings attached to that.But of course something unusual has intruded into this world. And the main character gets wrapped up in it.As a bonus, the main character is a girl.What kept it from being 5 stars for me is the rather traditional gender roles (the girls are in the fashion cliques, etc) and the only passing reference to the idea that some people are gay.
    • 3/5
      Katey “Kid” Dade lives in the near future. She goes to school in the Game — an old mall that has been turned into a corporate sponsored school. Students earn points for playing games, answering trivia questions and watching videos. As they learn, they are also working for the corporations: all those games and questions are market research for new products. One day, a dummy is thrown from one of the upper levels of the Game with a note attached: UNIDENTIFIED. CHOOSE YOUR SUICIDE. No one seems curious about the prank except Kid and when she begins to investigate she suddenly finds herself not only in touch with the Unidentified but “branded” by two corporate sponsors. Now she is part of the It Crowd but she’s not comfortable. Who are the Unidentified and what do they want? Can they help Kid and her friends break free of the 24/7 surveillance all teens have to endure? Or is there something else behind their cryptic messages?This book tells a story that could all too easily be true, of a future where education is paid for (and works for) corporations, where only those who are “branded” stand a chance of making it in the world.
    • 3/5
      I thought the premise of this story was really interesting but I felt it didn't meet my expectations.
    • 4/5
      My husband won this book through a goodreads giveaway, and since he knew I was excited for it, he let me read it too!This book would have earned five stars from me because it really was amazing. I found myself thinking about it when I put it down, and I was anxious to get back into it. The only reason it lost a star is because there were a few unanswered questions that I would have liked to see resolved. I'm not sure if there is a sequel or not, but I would like to read one. This book was really brilliant. It stood out for me in a world of clone books as an original story. The writing style was great, and the main character, "Kid" was so interesting. I loved the undertone of friendship throughout the book and was glad to see that Kid is so loyal. So I really do not have any complaints about this book other than I wanted more of it, which I guess it a good thing! I would definitely recommend you give it a chance. It's so eerie when you read about an extreme of life and realize that we aren't that far off from it!
    • 3/5
      Honestly, I don't believe this is really a 3-star book. It just wasn't for me.Mariz has created an exaggerative world for the Y-generation where school is a game that is tech driven by advertising sponsors where every action is evaluated, every decision watched, every movement monitored, every desire motivated by product placement. She's created a whole new language of slang that's fresh and authentic, rivaling YA tech author Cory Doctorow. Problem is, the book dwells on the details of the world and language. And while the plot was intriguing, it moved too slowly. I'd gotten more than halfway through the book, hoping the plot would start unfolding a little quicker. Perhaps it would've had I hung in there, but I was tired of waiting. I closed the book when Kid spent three pages shopping with Ari, details that seemed inconsequential. Perhaps something in that scene would prove to be plot-driven, but it was just lost in the details.Nevertheless, a talented writer.
    • 3/5
      I liked the concept of this book--that we are all part of a target market--a lot more than the book itself. Ironically, none of the characters were developed well. Instead, they were flat, only playing their various roles in the Game.
    • 4/5
      Katey (or KidZero as she is known to her friends) doesn’t quite fit in. She doesn’t have lots of friends and she prefers doing real things rather than spending hours in front of a screen. This is a bit of a problem in the future world she inhabits, where schools have been taken over by corporations and education takes place by way of participating in ‘The Game’. A fake suicide she witnesses leads her to make contact with a protest group called ‘The Unidentified’.This book proposes an interesting future that seems all too possible and it keeps you guessing to the very end. Suitable for readers aged 13 and up.
    • 4/5
      This dystopian book tackles privacy, social networking and consumerism. It has a fast pace and is set in a recognizable world in the future where corporate sponsors run school in abandoned shopping malls. The students rack up points and friends with the goal of becoming “branded” by a sponsor. This is a smart dystopian book with punchy dialogue written with original slang that is a relevant commentary on privacy and consumer issues faced today. With so many vacancies in shopping malls and budget cuts plaguing schools today it makes me wonder if this type of society could occur.The Game is attractive to parents because it is a safe place for students to go to avoid the dangers of the outside world. The students are monitored with tracking devices that the parents can follow. The video game like school makes learning fun as the students develop their own educational plan based on their interests. The sponsors compete for the students’ interest with their own modules such as math tests on a flight simulator.The protagonist, fifteen-year-old Katey (aka Kid) is not playing the Game to her full potential. She has few friends on her intouch device and is not a conformist. She does not have the resources to follow the latest fashion trends that would get her noticed by a sponsor. Her best friend Ari has bought into the Game whole-heartedly and would do anything to get sponsored. Kid starts to question her role in the Game when she witnesses a rebellious act by a group called The Unidentified, and gains some sponsor attention. Kid learns that the popularity and gifts afforded by the sponsors comes with strings attached.In this world there is no privacy and all the students “perform” in school as if they are being watched on camera at all times, which they are. School popularity and cliques are taken to a whole new level with the students trying to stay on top of the trends in order to get free clothes from the sponsors. They follow the rules unquestioningly to avoid the dreaded “Game Over”. It is hard to find someone to trust and a true friend in this society where gossip and backstabbing are the norm. Even rebellion can be trendy.I enjoyed this book and following Kid on her journey in the Game. It is a unique observation of identity, privacy and consumerism. This is Rae Mariz’s debut novel and it is a stand-alone book. Recommended if you enjoyed other YA Sci-fi dystopians such as Across The Universe.
    • 4/5
      I had no initial expectations of this book, as I hadn't even read the blurb. However as the story progressed, it really drew me in. When describing it to others, I would say imagine it as a modern 1984 (not saying it is as good as or equal to this classic) - set in a kind of Fifth Element style world. The main character, Kid, reminded me of a character in a Sofia Coppola film - quiet, thoughtful & observant, an outsider. That being said, other reviewers have said they didn't connect to Kid, found her boring. I really liked her, especially that she wasn't prone to dramatics or moaning. It might have also been because I detested Ari and co. so much! In comparison to them, Kid was really quite relatable to me.One criticism would be that it beats you over the head a little, trying to get you to accept the techno-slang and so on. This felt a bit clunky in the beginning, but over time it became more natural. But I would rather a little clunkiness at the start and have original ideas throughout than a perfectly flowing text that's about something that's been done to death (vampires, anybody?).Speaking of original ideas, I really liked the themes of this book. Of course, anything taking place in a high school (sorry, 'Game') is likely to involve old friends growing apart, boy troubles and bitchiness. But in addition to the usual, it took relevant issues of today, such as privacy issues, consumer culture, isolation vs.connectivity and led them somewhere really interesting. I wonder if young people reading this would "get" it. Or maybe the kind of teenagers who would be drawn to read it are already switched on.The twist at the end was not a total shocker, but I still liked the ending anyway. -MINOR SPOILER-, don't look down if you hate any hint of what might happen in an ending.I liked how there wasn't this huge system changing revolution, but just people taking a stand. I think that's how it would be in real life, and because of that the ending resonated more for me. Overall, very enjoyable!
    • 4/5
      Pros: good writing, fast paced, nifty concept, true to life high school atmosphereCons: takes a while to understand the school/game setting, plot twists were often obviousFor Parents: there's a little swearing, minor violence, no sexIn a future where corporate sponsors run school as a game, a group of kids wants to reclaim their privacy as the Unidentified.Katey Dade (@kidzero) is in the pit when the Unidentified pull off their first publicity stunt. Her interest in the act propels her into the limelight, where she has no desire to be, and forces her to make important decisions regarding her future.A refreshing change from the weightier, more violent YA books I've read recently (The Hunger Games, Chaos Walking), this is a quick, entertaining book.Told from Kid's POV, it captures the ups and downs of high school perfectly. I could easily imagine a future where schools are run by corporations sponsoring events and certain 'in' students. And the willingness of the kids to have public lives is something facebook attests to today.The plot focused on Kid's desire to remain low key despite the advantages (depending on your outlook) of being branded. The language is easy despite a few futuristic curses and expressions (Oh Google). There's minor swearing, a tiny amount of violence and no sexual content for parents to be concerned about.The game took a while to take shape. Mariz drops you into the story with no preparation. I liked trying to figure out how the game worked but some readers may find it a chore to piece together what's going on.Ultimately it's a well told story about the importance of choosing friends wisely, of privacy and the freedom to be yourself.
    • 4/5
      I wasn't sure what to expect, and sadly I was worried this book would be a travesty like I Am Number Four. But instead I was pleasantly surprised. I'm a big fan of the cyberpunk kind of SF, whether it's YA or adult. While Mariz's novel isn't quite cyberpunk, it straddles the line enough for me. I hope she writes a follow up. The novel was fun and engaging. At first I found the texting/twitter conversations a bit annoying, but they actually played an important role as the novel went on. I think they turned out to be an assent instead of the distraction I expected.
    • 3/5
      Katey (aka Kis) lives in a world where you're nothing if you're not in the Game, and the goal is to attract a corporate sponsor. Kid has never been all that interested in the things the game promotes, so she's surprised when she's targeted for sponsorship. Turns out she was singled out for her response to a fake suicide stunt pulled by a group calling themselves The Unidentified. Is she a pawn for the sposnors or the rogue group?
    • 5/5
      Katey “Kid” Dade feels out of place in the Game, the futuristic school run by Corporations that observe everyone for market research. While her best friend embraces the hectic, consumerist, public lifestyle, Kid isn’t as concerned that she doesn’t have a large number of people subscribing to her stream, or that she is absolutely mediocre by Game standards.Then Kid witnesses an unauthorized act of rebellion by a mysterious group called the Unidentified and gets pulled into a type of game of its own. What does this group want from the Corporations? Will Kid get played by these groups, or will she and her friends find a way to overthrow the organizations that have an eye, ear, and hand on them at all times?It’s been a while since I’ve read a book that has impressed me, and so when I picked up and got instantly sucked into THE UNIDENTIFIED’s riveting and eerily familiar world, I was beside myself with happiness. THE UNIDENTIFIED is smart, well-written, and suspenseful, the perfect example of what dystopian literature should be: a fully realized and recognizable world without forgoing characterization and plot.Rae Mariz impressively introduces us to a shocking and complex futuristic world, one in which privacy has no meaning thanks to the constant flow of information and technological interconnection. With Facebook’s recent introduction of the disconcertingly stalker-like “See Friendship” button, the issues regarding privacy that THE UNIDENTIFIED explores in such an entertaining and intelligent fashion are so much more immediately relevant. Rae Mariz succeeds in crafting for us a scarily plausible world that is possibly an inevitable extrapolation of the already network-filled world of Facebook and Twitter that we live in.THE UNIDENTIFIED is smart, but it’s also hardly boring. Kid’s voice is fresh, with just the right amount of quippy attitude. She’s the perfect balance of the observant outsider with the propensity to create change, and the gullible market to which the Corporations are pandering. And Kid’s not the only interesting and well-developed characters. Her two best friends, Ari and Mikey, light up the page with their very different personalities whenever they appear in a scene. Even more minor characters are fully realized with their limited “on-page” time. The characterization is really an incredible accomplishment for a 300-something page book, which most might even consider short for modern dystopian novel standards.I really wish I had the capacity to speak more about THE UNIDENTIFIED’s marvelous critique of the infiltration of networking websites in our lives. But I’ll leave that to the academics, and just let you know that this book does it, along with providing us a highly unputdownable adventure. I don’t think I can recommend this book enough. READ IT if you’re looking for smart and snappy dystopian literature.
    • 4/5
      This book definitely crept up on me. I started off thinking it wasn't going to grab me and next thing you know I could not put it down. It's not an action packed story but it is so fitting in the society we live in today and honestly it would not really surprise me if at some point we live life like this. The teens in the Game are so hooked into social networking that it's used for schooling purposes, socializing and advertising. All the students who participate in the Game are given an intouch which is a device that is basically like being on Twitter all the time. The sponsors of the Game post about promotions, friends can text one another and parents can even use the built in GPS to keep an eye on where their teenagers are at all times.For many of the teens they strive to become "branded" which means that some company chooses to sponsor them and provide a lot of perks in exchange for those kids advertising their product. Some being better than others like advertising the latest clothing style while others are advertising tampons. I could relate to Kid because she is not totally comfortable with the idea of being branded and the attention it brings to her. She much rather stay in the shadows. So when she finds out about the Unidentified she can relate to them but there is a twist that I did not see coming with the purpose behind the Unidentifieds leader's plans.Like I said it's not an action packed book and I feel like I just cannot do justice to why I enjoyed this book so much but Kid just drew me into her world.I will have to say though there are some holes and questions left unanswered but I don't think they really took much away from the story. For instance, this was supposed to be a new way of schooling but honestly other than a few games that had some math work tossed in there did not seem to be much schooling going on. I also did not understand why the teenagers were pretty much on lockdown once they leave the Game. It would have been nice to have a little bit more explanation about the world outside of the Game.It would have also been nice to get more background on Kid and her best friend, Aria's history with each other. The story starts off at a point where Aria is consumed with getting branded where as Kid could not care less so it's hard to see from their behaviors why they were best friends to begin with. Fortunately her relationship with her other best friend, Mikey, seems much more plausible and I loved watch ng the two of them interact.
    • 3/5
      Do you ever get creeped out at how much access Google has to information on you? Forget it, because it Unidentified, that’s just a fact of life. In fact, ‘Google’ is so accepted as an all-knowing entity that it has replaced ‘God’ in common phrases, i.e. “For the love of God,” is now, “For the love of Google.”This is the world that Katey, aka ‘Kid’, is growing up in. It takes place at an undefined point in the future U.S. She is educated by corporate companies who monitor and analyze her decisions every time she swipes her student card at school, aka the 'Game'. The kids get ‘cliqued’ into groups like the Fashion Fascists or the Crafters. Instead of grades, there are game levels. Almost every student at the Game hopes to be ‘branded’ by one of the corporate sponsors who fund and run Kid’s school. Being branded means being put on the fast track to success, complete with access to VIP lounges and oodles of freebies. Branded kids have ‘stream groupies’ who follow them on the Game’s network. All they had to do is sign away rights to their personal identities, their talents, and the fruits of those talents. All students are a part of one big marketing study that is always in progress. Everything is very carefully planned. Then, one day someone throws a dummy over the railing at the Game with a sign attached: “UNIDENTIFIED. CHOOSE YOUR SUICIDE.”Kid thinks it’s the most authentic act she ever has seen in her carefully orchestrated world. She also doesn’t get it – she initially thinks it’s a failed publicity stunt since there is no clear message. Then she sinks into the mystery and doesn’t let go. First off, I like Kid, and I love her nickname – ‘Kid’ as in she can be ‘any’ kid. It felt that way to me, too. She wasn’t a poseur. She was into what she liked for the simple fact that it brought her pleasure. She wasn’t out to be branded. She felt accessible, but on a ‘real’ level, not on a virtual one. Once she latched onto the mystery of who threw the dummy over the railing and why, I was hooked. However, before that, I had trouble getting into the book. It failed to capture my interest initially, but I think that was because the author was trying to convey the sense of boredom Kid feels in her own life. By the time the book did capture my interest, it still fell within the ‘under 50 pages or it’s out’ rule. Okay, maybe that’s my rule, but it works. Once I was, I was all in, and the majority of the rest of the book flew by for me. The ending wasn’t the best – it felt rushed, and truly, I ‘get’ what the author was trying to do, but it felt like the easy way out. Let me say this may not be a book for everybody, but it could be. Frankly, it probably should be. I found the vast majority of it fascinating, with minor disappointments at the beginning and end. Despite it dealing with very real and weighty issues such as online privacy, unknowingly participating in a hegemony, corporate bullying and rebellion, Kid goes through the regular motions of being a teenager: crushes, jealousy, feelings of not belonging, etc. However, to truly enjoy it and 'get' what the author is saying, you need to have an understanding or interest in a few different things:***Social networking: if you don't understand social networking, i.e. what it is, how to use it, its advantages and its controversies, you may feel a bit lost.***PR and marketing: If you are not in the least bit interested in how companies gather their information for publicity and sales campaigns, particularly in the online world, then you may have trouble getting into this book. That being said, once you read this book, you may find yourself very interested.***Corporate involvement in education: remember the controversy over credit card companies pushing their cards on college campuses? Did that alarm you? If it did, and you have any insight and knowledge into how corporate sponsorships are playing into education, you might like this book.***If you like 1984 and Matrix-type things, you probably will like this book. Despite the beginning going slow and the very end being a little flat, I really liked the rest of the book. I would definitely pick up another offering from this author.Overall: B
    • 4/5
      Cute, Young Adult, Jennifer Government-type book. IE, 'When Corporations Rule the World!'. Entertaining, thought provoking even if it has been done better in other books - it's nice to see dystopian/post-apoc fiction becoming more and more of a presence in the YA genre.
    • 5/5
      Rae is a friend and crit partner of mine, so my review is definitely biased, but I was waiting anxiously for the release of this book, and I wasn't disappointed. It's working perfectly as a discussion starter for my eighth grade students who are studying the ethics of marketing to teens and looking critically at advertising, and the book jump-started a group project on designing the perfect school as well. Kid is a character who is easy to relate to, and even in the near-future setting, her experience is very close to that of today's teens. There are a lot of big concepts and questions to work with here, and I can see this book working well in literature circles, too! A fun read but with a lot of depth.
    • 2/5
      I won this book in a FirstReads giveaway on Goodreads. I chose this book because the premise intrigued me. At first glance, the plot and setting seemed futuristic and sci-fi. But in today's technological environment where many educational options are available, it didn't seem so far-fetched. With the advent of DVR's and TiVo, consumers are now able to skip ads while watching their favorite TV shows so corporations and the parties they contract to market and promote their products have to come up with ingenious and innovative ways to increase exposure and sales revenue. Product placement is one option. In this novel, nationwide, corporations have taken on the responsibility of education for their own self-serving ends. In the Game, the students themselves become potential brand ambassadors. Being branded has its pros and cons. Branded students are the elite and, in addition to free merchandise, gain access to VIP privileges and social events. But they are constantly monitored and find it increasingly difficult to trust anyone. I am reminded of George Orwell's 1984 and, at the same time, there are familiar elements that readers, especially YA's. will identify with such as: . cliques and outcasts . popularity . gossip . jealousy/back-biting . cyber-bullying that will always be present. The book got off to a slow start, picked up somewhat in the middle, only to come to a rushed and inconclusive end. I practically had to force myself to finish it.

    Book preview

    The Unidentified - Rae Mariz

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