{Review+Giveaway} Remote by Lisa Acerbo @Apocalipstick_ @etopiapress

Remote by Lisa Acerbo
Pages: 207
Published by Etopia Press on November 20, 2014
Genres: Dystopian, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Source: ecopy from Publisher

When technology fulfills every dream, reality becomes a nightmare.

Below the streets of New State, the undergrounders fight to remain free of the technological control of the world above. Every night, Yara risks her life fighting New State’s deadliest weapons, the drones. Half human and half machine, their living half tortured until everything human is gone, the drones have only one objective. Kill. And they do it with exacting precision.

Yara is good at her job and committed to her raids on New State. Until one of those raids brings her face-to-face with Joshua, a New State citizen who doesn’t quite fit her preconceived expectations. After a couple of awkward encounters, he shows her the meaning of hooking up—a computer simulation that allows people to live out their fantasies—without the complication of emotional entanglements or physical reality. But what Yara feels for Joshua is very real. And it’s punishable by law.

As she and Joshua grow closer, she convinces him to leave New State for her underground cause. But as the unrest between New State and the underground escalates, and the drones move in to destroy her world, nothing goes as planned. Families are arrested, loyalties are strained, and Yara’s forced to choose between her people and her feelings. The wrong choice could mean the end of her people, and reality could slip away—forever...

Remote is the first book in the young adult sci fi/dystopian series. Although it doesn’t say specifically that there will be a series, the ending led me to believe that there would at the very least be a sequel. I don’t read too many young adult science fiction books with a dystopian leaning. Because they need to be really well done for me to enjoy them. World building is so, so critical to the development of the story and for whatever reason, I find myself not liking more books in this genre than others in young adult. I don’t exactly know why because I really love some of them, they are just harder for me to find. I am happy to report that I found Remote to be a very enjoyable read. It certainly goes into the well done category of science fiction and dystopian books. I found the world that Lisa Acerbo created to be detailed, descriptive and well developed.

New State is a world where everyone is implanted with a micro-chip at birth and that enables them to “hook up” to their computer and experience a virtual reality that is whatever they want it to be. New State is obviously very big on government control over all aspects of their citizens lives. While I think that the hooking up idea is fascinating and I would certainly like to try it, the freedom and privacy you give up for it is not my cup of tea. But still, it was not so far off that I would say this plot is implausible. And that is the scary part. Putting that aside, I do love to read technology based dystopian books because they are so fascinating to me. It is one of the reasons that I liked Remote so much. I liked how Josh011015 was not completely sold on hooking up and was starting to question his world. It was the perfect time for Yara to enter his life and make a connection with him. That aspect of the book felt very natural and flowed great for me. I loved watching their friendship develop, and a lot of the world building details stemmed from their initial talks and meetings.

Yara is a rebel that lives underground. The rebels are the people that weren’t properly chipped, so they are not “plugged in” to new state. They underground world seemed fantastical in a whole different way than the technology based world of New State. I enjoyed seeing the differences in the two worlds and watching what kinds of people they produced. Remote is a fast paced, fun science fiction tale that I think young adult dystopian and sci fi readers will really enjoy. While I do wish there was a little more information on the how and why New State initially formed, I thought the present day world building and details of New State were great. I got a wonderfully descriptive picture of what the world was like as the story was going on, and that made the whole book feel much more immersive. Remote is a very good read.

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