English

=__The Unidentified __= =**Rae Mariz **= //The Unidentified// is set in the future, in a fairly realistic setting. It is set in a school for 13-17 year olds, except the school is more of a massive video game. The students aim to get as much credit and as many points possible, so they can pass into the next level each year. The students are all monitored and they don’t mind; in fact, they feel like private superstars. They speak loudly wearing the right clothes and saying the right words to try and become “branded”. This means they’re in with the popular kids and get more privileges than the other kids. Fifteen year old Katey (aka Kid) feels slightly unsure about the whole idea but this is not one of her main concerns until some kids do a prank suicide against the corporate sponsors. She does some investigating, and meets with a group called the Unidentified. They are against the way the corporation has complete watch over what happens in the Game and how there is no privacy. She then, along with the Unidentified, through a series of events, start bringing the Game down. The characters are people who want to do everything right, and want to be loved by the sponsors, being completely popular with the right clothes, words, hairstyles, friends and comments on their ‘Intouches’. The people in the Unidentified, however, do not appear as interested in the Game as everyone else, and don’t really care what happens to them. Their main purpose, to them, is to bring down the corporation. The storyline is credible enough, but at some parts it gets a little confusing to understand what is going on. The style of writing is in past-tense and easy to read, though with a complex plot. It was well written, except at the start it was a little bit hard to become interested so quickly. It fits in well with our current society, where people now can barely live without social networking and trying to ‘fit in’. //The Giver// and //The Unidentified// are different sci-fi novels, in that //The Giver// is about a community which is completely organised and in control, whereas //The Unidentified// is about a ‘school’ where the students do what they feel like. The two books are similar, however, because in both books the ‘government’ or the leading organisation is aware of what everyone does, and both books are about trying to change or get rid of the government and the way things are run. The Game is very organised and perfected, just like the community in the Giver, but unlike in the Giver where everyone has a job and has to do everything that they are told to do, the people in //The Unidentified// do whatever they feel like doing. The writing in //The Giver// is very precise and formal, as it is in the community, and slightly old-fashioned, whereas in //The Unidentified//, the writing comes from a much more personal level and is written more smoothly and freely. It gives the book a much more modern and easy feeling about it. There is much more modern language and speech used in //The Unidentified//, and the whole theme is more modern. Although in //The Giver// there is a slight mention of what is called “stirrings”, there are more ideas like that in //The Unidentified//. There’s dating, friendship problems, popular and unpopular people, all modern ideas.

Overall, I enjoyed reading //The Unidentified// a lot because it was smooth and flowing, and it was easy to understand because it was set in a modern high school. It had a slightly confusing storyline but was good in that the plot was complex. It was a great read.