Dear God. Feed was incredibly good. So ominous. So well-written. I love that the author managed to drop in reference to the ignorant characters unwittingly speaking in a sestina. I had to go look the word up, and then go back and check the chapter. Clever, clever writer. Highly recommended to young and not-young adults alike. The ending made me shiver.

(Thanks, Erica!)

For my own amusement, here is the sestina of dialogue featured in Feed. I’ve taken out everything but just the dialogue spoken, and it won’t make much sense out of context…it’s a group of futuristic teens playing spin the bottle while taking jabs at each other for fashionable lesions that are all the rage. Regardless, it IS perfect, according to the (stanza A) 123456, (stanza B) 615243, etc, form described on this page.

•Hey, take yourselves a seat and play.
•It’s fun.
•It’s for kids, but it’s kind of sexy?
•Omigod, it’s so uncomfortable sitting on the floor with my lesion.
•This is wholly stupid.
•I’ve only spun once, but I think I did kind of good.

•Hey, don’t you think Quendy looks good?
•Just shut up and play.
•I think it looks stupid.
•It’s a good look, and kind of fun.
•Huh? You can see her like muscles and tendons and ligaments and stuff through the lesions.
•Yeah, which makes you kind of think about what’s inside, huh? Which is sexy.

•You must be chatting about how Quendy looks really sexy.
•Yeah, we were…just saying that the lesions look good.
•Oh, you like the lesions?
•Can we just play?
•Well, I think they’re a lot of fun.
•And don’t let anyone tell you you look stupid.

•Nothing’s stupid
•That’s right, Quendy, because seeing what’s inside of you, all your guts, is just so sexy.
•Calista, we’re just having fun.
•That’s good.
•Time to play.
•Quendy, do you know what’s funny about your lesions?

•About your lesions?
•What’s fun is watching a girl who’s so desperate for someone’s boyfriend that she does something to herself which is really stupid.
•Okay–let’s–just–let’s–fuckin’–fuckin’–just let’s play.
•Hey there, sexy.
•Let’s make this good.
•This isn’t much fun

•We’ll show you fun.