The Unidentified by Rae Mariz

Title: The Unidentified	Loved it	Graded
Author: Rae Mariz
Genre: Dystopian
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Elements: Technology
Series: Potential for a sequel

Kid knows her school’s corporate sponsors not-so-secretly monitor her friendships and activities for market research.

It’s all a part of the Game; the alternative education system designed to use the addictive kick from video games to encourage academic learning. Everyday, a captive audience of students ages 13-17 enter the nationwide chain store-like Game locations to play.

When a group calling themselves The Unidentified simulates a suicide to protest the power structure of their school, Kid’s investigation into their pranks attracts unwanted attention from the sponsors. As Kid finds out she doesn't have rights to her ideas, her privacy, or identity, she and her friends look for a way to revolt in a place where all acts of rebellion are just spun into the next new ad campaign.

I liked THE UNIDENTIFIED. It didn't sweep me away, but we had some good times. The story had so much potential to be truly amazing instead of just extremely good. And I wanted Kid to live up to my expectations of her, because she had so much potential to shine, but she chose to stay in the background and do things. Same case for the plot, which had a quiet but satisfying ending.

I realised that what I actually wanted was for the plot to be bigger! Flashier! And that was exactly what this book was talking about. The world that Kid lives in is a marketing world. Products and services are tailor made to get more attention. Everything has a 'wow' factor in the sense that it pops up and makes faces right in front of you. Aggressive selling in the guise of getting feedback and being branded.

This book is subtler than that. It works its quiet magic and left me quietly holding my breath, not quite gasping but breathless and contemplative about this world we live in. Twitter and Facebook seems to have melded with iPhones and credit cards to create a mega multi-purpose application that you know will be made soon enough.

Privacy's pretty much nonexistent, and it's not optional for those in the public eye. Scary part is that it's normal in Kid's world! Only twenty years ago people didn't know what the Internet was. Now, look at us tweeting and Facebooking our every. single. thought.

THE UNIDENTIFIED taught me that technology changes, and that the change will come sooner than expected. The way people live will change, and privacy is only a concept rather than reality. But people themselves? Their nature never changes.

Sure, we might adapt to a different society and if you put me in the Games, I will be excited. But only for a day or so. Okay, maybe a week.So here comes the questions.

How does one get into the Games? Is it implemented all over the country? Is there a Games headquarter somewhere? Where can I get that cool intouch? How do the students count or do science or figure out how things work when they don't study? Okay, wait, that was answered in the book: via an arcade game. Does being branded mean that you're a celebrity?

And most importantly, what is life like outside the Games, in that same universe?

Those are the questions I want answered before I sign away all my rights and ideas and personal belongings to be part of this world. On second thought...