The Ending of Feed

The book Feed ends similar to how I expected it to once I learned Violet was terminally ill. *Spoiler Alert* she goes brain dead. What I was not expecting was for Titus to completely withdraw from her once it started getting bad. Instead of trying to comfort her during her final days he acted like a total douche and did pretty much anything to stay away from her. When he turned down having sex with her, he didn't do it because he didn't have those feelings for her anymore. He did it because he felt like "she was already dead" and that it was wrong to have sex with her. She was willing to do literally anything for him and he just shoved her away trying to stay out of drama. He didn't want anyone to know and he wanted to keep it a secret that she was dying. He didn't want anything to do with her issue. Of course, after Violet goes brain dead and he acts like a total dick to her dad he finally realizes he still feels something for her. But of course, its too late for him to redeem himself. In fact, he dooms himself to the fate he was trying to avoid, he falls in love with someone who is gone. That's probably the number one thing that he was trying to avoid the whole time.
Outside of the whole love story, my predictions of a World War came true. The whole world goes to war with America over use of the feed while the so-called "media" does their best to cover it up. The corporations just show that they are only interested in making money and not human lives. This is shown when none pick up Violet's case to save her because her browsing and buying patterns were too unpredictable.
On top of that, I've noticed one major problem with Feed. The book ends with people losing their hair and the lesions getting worse. What doesn't make sense is how it happened. The feed has been around for generations. Titus's mom and dad had it for years with no side effects until suddenly everyone starts degenerating. How could that possibly happen. Was there suddenly some issue with the feed across the entire coding that causes this? It never gets explained in the book.
My overall opinion of the book is that it is well-written and I would recommend it for all readers. I would also highly recommend Feed to all Americans due to the current political situation that is occurring. The book shows how good intentions can lead to bad results. It also shows how corporations should not be allowed to become too powerful. I give the book 4 stars out of 5 for its relevance in today's world and for its depiction of a technology-filled world.

The Middle of Feed

The middle of Feed starts to sheer away from the good life that Titus and Violet are having in the beginning of the book. The book takes on a much more depressing tone as Violet's feed malfunctions more and more. There relationship still stays relatively strong despite this and all the differences between them.
I have many problems that I have seen with the society in Feed so far. One is that people are expected to be good looking through genetic selection. A good example of this is Link, who is considered not good-looking despite the fact that he's a clone of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was known for being handsome in his time and to think that that's now considered ugly shows that people like Brad Pitt or Ariana Grande would only be considered normal looking. This disturbs me that people would throw away their uniqueness and make their future generations all practically identical.
The people are also so uneducated or oblivious they cant see that they are mere puppets to the corporations. A hacker is beaten to death in a club, the President of the United States calls foreign leaders "shitheads", corporations own everything, the news is censored. These people don't notice these things, maybe because they weren't educated to see it. Or maybe they don't notice it because they don't want to see it. They don't want to believe that they are limited in their abilities, so they pretend that there is no issue. They shouldn't let this happen. Over the past week, I've noticed these things happening in our real world and if they continue, we need to put an end to them.
Lets leave that point and move onto a new one. There are many theories that I have about things that have happened so far throughout Feed. One theory is that Titus's dreams aren't actually dreams. I believe that his feed is connecting into world news and event and is broadcasting these events to him. I'm assuming this is a lingering effect from the hacker that the Corporations didn't detect. I'm hoping that these warnings will prove valuable to Titus and Violet and may help them.
Another theory I have is that Violet can be saved by the technicians. They simply choose not to because of her semi-radical views. Being a business, the owners of the feed will do what is best for business, even if it means letting Violet die. I am hoping there is some way to save her that can be brought around. Maybe if Violet and Titus leave to another country they can be saved by some sort of group working against the feed. With the grim way the book is turning, I can only hope for the best.

Feed

The book Feed, is set in a not so distant future where technology controls everything. The Feed is a microchip implanted in the brain that gives everyone access to the web. People can just take a trip to the moon whenever they want. The earth itself takes on a look of Coruscant from Star Wars. The Earth is layer upon layer of residential zones. The rich live closer to the surface with flying cars while the poor live at the bottom levels with ground transportation. There are no forests or animal farms, instead there are Oxygen factories and meat farms.
However, all is not well in this future world. There is no true education system. Everything including the "schools" are owned by corporations. The "President" is truly a puppet to the corporations with no real education and that angers other world leaders with his careless words and lack of diplomatic skill. Not only that but there are multiple groups that try to point out what's wrong with the feeds and these groups are kept silent one way or the other.
So far, I have found the book interesting. After reading the first 150 pages I can tell it is building up to something. It reminds me of a book trilogy by James Dashner (author of The Maze Runner trilogy and prequel) The Eye of Minds. This trilogy is set in the not so distant future as well, where virtual reality acts like the feed. People would enter "coffins" which created a virtual reality. One could spend days inside the coffin, fed by nutrients sent into their body. The virtual reality allowed anyone to do mostly anything. They could customize themselves to make them look better, they could eat whatever they wanted and not gain weight. The virtual reality in The Eye of Minds and the feed are similar in that most of the population spends all of their time using it.
There are some parts of the book I don't like so far. The language used by the main characters is difficult to understand at points. It would be similar to Shakespeare trying to understand us. He would understand parts of what we say but not everything. However, this is the only major flaw that I have with the book and am liking it more than Eleanor & Park which was read previously.

The Ending of Eleanor and Park

As the book came to its finish, I found that it was ending differently than I thought it would. I assumed that all of the references to Romeo and Juliet would result in the deaths of at least one character. I believed this character would most likely be Eleanor based off of the beginning introduction. Yet I was proven wrong. I believe that Rainbow Rowell intended to make us think that's what would happen in the end of the story. Eleanor even poked fun at Romeo and Juliet and I thought Ms. Rowell was setting the book up for some irony that they would die in a similar way. All the hints that eluded to Shakespeare were simply there to fool us. When the moment came where it seemed most likely our characters would meet their demise, the moment passed without harm to either character.
I'll admit that I thought there was going to be some tragic ending still after Park helps Eleanor escape the town. With Eleanor ignoring him and Park becoming depressed, I honestly expected a Romeo and Juliet style suicide with Park killing himself and Eleanor herself when she found out. I know, I'm a real cheerful guy to think those things but I blame Ms. Rowell for leading me that way. I think she did a good job at leading us to think that.
My overall opinion on the book was that it was well-written but not my style of book. I liked the character development that occurred because the viewpoints swapped between Park and Eleanor, allowing us to see their thoughts. Personally, I prefer books with more action in them such as the Maze Runner, Hunger Games, and Divergent Trilogies. However, I still think that the book was okay overall and would rate it a 2.5 out of 5 on a "how I enjoyed it scale" and a 3.5 out of 5 overall.

Eleanor and Park and Wealth Inequality in America

As I continued to read Eleanor and Park, the story started to turn more into a Romeo & Juliet type story. It seems like Park is willing to do anything for Juliet, I mean Eleanor, and that includes things that are detrimental to himself. He's willing to fight for her and if I bet any money I'd say he'd be willing to die for her. She also loves him but I think she's reacting to him like a damsel in distress. She likes him because he's the first person that was actually nice to her at the new school. The story continually references Romeo and Juliet and I feel that its supposed to be a modern-day version of the story. Especially when the beginning of the book shows that Park will end up without her one day wishing that she were still there with him. Maybe its actually Park 70 years down the road after they've lived a long and happy life and it is written that way to surprise us with how everything turns out. However, I doubt that the story will end happily. I'm going to make a prediction that Eleanor is going to be killed by Richie with his gun after he finds out about Park.
When it comes to income inequality, I've always known how bad the gap is. I've spent a lot of time looking into it. I already knew the top 1% held about 40% of the wealth. I've known that its been growing for decades with the introduction of larger Corporations and chains. However, I did not know that the poverty line in the United States was $12,000 for one person. I did not realize how many families were below the poverty line. I don't consider it possible to survive with less than that in our country anymore. I think something needs to be done to decrease the amount of people below the poverty line.

Eleanor and Park