{Blog Tour} Book Review + Giveaway: GLAZE - Kim Curran

Title: GLAZE

Author: Kim Curran
Release Date: May 22nd 2014

Publisher: Jurassic London
Age Group: Young Adult
Source: eARC for blog tour

Goodreads

Petri Quinn is counting down the days till she turns 16 and can get on GLAZE – the ultimate social network that is bringing the whole world together into one global family. But when a peaceful government protest turns into a full-blown riot with Petri shouldering the blame, she’s handed a ban. Her life is over before it’s even started.

Desperate to be a part of the hooked-up society, Petri finds an underground hacker group and gets a black market chip fitted. But this chip has a problem: it has no filter and no off switch. Petri can see everything happening on GLAZE, all the time. Including things she was never meant to see.

As her life is plunged into danger, Petri is faced with a choice. Join GLAZE… or destroy it.

GLAZE is a book that majority of the world needs right now, in this age when we are so immersed with social media and everything online that we forget how to connect in the real, physical world. Okay, so this book may be an exaggeration of today, but it is still an eye-opener.

Our protagonist, Petri Quinn, feels very left out. She's yet to turn 16, so she can't get on GLAZE like all the other kids in her year. She can't watch what they're watching or listen to whatever they're listening to when they tune out of the physical world and into the virtual world. But when a rally she attends turns into a riot, she gets the blame and is banned from GLAZE for five years - five years that she knows are crucial if she wants to make connections that matter.

Puberty, people, is a bitch.

Petri's mom, creative director at the company that invented GLAZE, has always left her wanting for more love and attention, so for her, getting hooked on to practically the rest of the world is that important. She's just a normal girl who wants to fit in and belong, and I really felt for her when she was given the ban. What she did to override the ban was very drastic, true, but I have to admit that if I were her, I'd have done the same.

"I'd rather risk the chaos of freedom than be denied the choice. Choice is everything."

GLAZE is like everything online we have right now taken to the extreme. Imagine having every information you need about everything and everyone at a single thought. Name? Check. Where everyone bought their clothes? Check. Who planted the freaking apples and oranges in your fridge? Yes, even that. Creepy but essentially, it's not evil. It's actually a lot of good, but a handful of people just had to be blinded by greed and use it the wrong way.

And that's when Petri realized that the community she's longed so much to be a part of was actually imperfect. She and a ragtag group of hackers worked together to bring down GLAZE, only they had no idea just how deep the evil ran. Danger was around every corner and with their enemy able to track their every move, they had to use everything they had if they were to survive.

I really have nothing but praise for GLAZE. It didn't lack in action and it never bored me. It's so easy to read and the sweet romance didn't hurt and didn't overpower the plot, either. In all, GLAZE is a unique addition to the dystopian genre and a book that I can recommend to everyone. Everyone, seriously.

MY FAVORITE PART was the ending. Kick that sucker.

RATING:

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