Unplugged

by Donna Freitas

Overview

In the tradition of M. T. Anderson’s Feed and Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies, Unplugged is the first in a thrilling and provocative new series that Kass Morgan, New York Times bestselling author of The 100, called “chilling and addictive.”

Skylar Cruz still remembers the day she plugged in and joined the App World for the promise of a better life—the day she left her family behind in the Real World. Skylar is now a virtual teenager and even though she’s surrounded by everything she ever dreamed about, she’s never felt like she fits in and all she wants is to see her mother and sister again.

Skye is desperate and ready to risk everything to unplug from the App World. But she soon learns that the only person she can trust—in either world, including friends and family—is herself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062118615
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/28/2017
Series:	Unplugged , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Donna Freitas is the author of The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano, Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention, and many other novels and nonfiction books for adults, children, and young adults. Her latest YA novel is a rom-com that takes place in her favorite city, Barcelona: Stefi and the Spanish Prince. She has been featured on NPR and the Today show, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among many other places. Donna currently serves on the faculty at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s MFA program. She also lives half the year in Barcelona, where she loves partaking of its many bakeries and delicious restaurants galore. Learn more about Donna at donnafreitas.com and on Substack: donnafreitas.substack.com.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for UNPLUGGED: “Ambitious and thought-provoking.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Chilling and addictive, UNPLUGGED will change the way you look at the world . . .and how you look at yourself.” — Kass Morgan, New York Times bestselling author of The 100

“A fast-paced series opener. An expectations-defying heroine, a world facing drastic change, and an impossible love triangle.” — Publishers Weekly

“The first book of an exciting dystopian sci-fi series. An intriguing tale with diverse characters. This work will appeal to gamers and to those who enjoyed Dan Wells’s Bluescreen or M.T. Anderson’s Feed.” — School Library Journal

“A fast-paced, plot-driven dystopian story that explores the interconnectivity between beauty, commercialism, race, and technology. Thought-provoking, relevant, and promising. Pacing is excellent with lots of action, twists, and turns.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Praise for THE SURVIVAL KIT: “As fragile and lovely as a rose.” — Jenny Han, bestselling author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series

Praise for THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD: “Behold: A rare bloom of a book . . . THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD, while never gloomy or dogmatic, is a literary work of mercy. Let us rejoice and be glad.” — Gregory Maguire, bestselling author of WICKED

Praise for THIS GORGEOUS GAME: “A remarkable book that will speak not just to teens, but to women of all ages.” — Sara Zarr, author of National Book Award finalist STORY OF A GIRL

From the Publisher

Praise for THE SURVIVAL KIT: “As fragile and lovely as a rose.

Jenny Han

A fast-paced, plot-driven dystopian story that explores the interconnectivity between beauty, commercialism, race, and technology. Thought-provoking, relevant, and promising. Pacing is excellent with lots of action, twists, and turns.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Praise for THIS GORGEOUS GAME: “A remarkable book that will speak not just to teens, but to women of all ages.

Sara Zarr

Praise for THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD: “Behold: A rare bloom of a book . . . THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD, while never gloomy or dogmatic, is a literary work of mercy. Let us rejoice and be glad.

Gregory Maguire

Chilling and addictive, UNPLUGGED will change the way you look at the world . . .and how you look at yourself.

Kass Morgan

2016-03-30
The selfie-tastical virtual world decides to unplug from the physical one, stranding one girl from her family—and from the truth.At a young age, Skye's family plugged her into the App World, a fully digital existence for the consciousnesses of the fortunate while their physical bodies are tended to by the less-privileged Keepers. Skye's been looking forward to her Service, the required time digital citizens spend in the Real World, when she'll finally see her mother and sister again. But a mysterious situation involving disgruntled Keepers results in the cancellation of Service, the closure of the border between the worlds, and even more extreme actions to separate the digital from the physical. Skye, whose distress is apparent, is recruited by a sketchy figure for a mission to the Real World—giving her the opportunity to illegally unplug into the physical world. Skye finds that things are far more complicated than she could have imagined, and twist after twist leave her unsure whom to trust. Readers may become frustrated by her reluctance to probe characters who are clearly keeping information from her. Additionally, there is looseness to the worldbuilding, involving race—in App World, everybody is Caucasian 4.0—and economics, which may be addressed in the sequel. At heart, this is an action novel about capitalism taken too far.Despite imperfections, one of the more ambitious and thought-provoking entries in a crowded genre. (Science fiction/dystopia. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews