Randomly came across this book and am so glad I did! Great read. The story starts out following, Channel, a 17-year-old Unreal who lives in a futuristic dystopian world. The book actually takes place in 2161. Far enough in the future to feel like a new, cool idea, but not so far off that it feels completely unrealistic. This is easily something we could be working our way towards, so it was really interesting to see a glimpse of what could be.There are two distinct societies in the future: the Reals, who live in a barren and difficult landscape, and the Unreals, whose lives are lived through augmented reality. Channel grows up in a community called Paradise 3, or P3 for short. Every member of the community has a retinal implant that controls just about every aspect of what they see and how they choose to appear. While they see a world full of color and codes, what is really there are streets of grey and little natural and unnatural light. The implants connect community members to The Edge, which is basically the internet hyped up and advanced well beyond what we will be able to obtain in the next fifty years.Things begin to shift for Channel when Cerebrolink is introduced to her community. This is the next generation implant that would infuse into the person’s brain stem and eventually become part of them.We also meet Mila, her brother, Alek, and two other Real teenagers. They all happen to be the last in their area. Together they set out in search of other Reals to try seeing if they can combine resources and stay outside of the dreaded communities.I thought the story was really cool and interesting with great twists in play. I do not think it had an intense catalyst moment but it still held my interest well and had me using a free minute to keep reading the book.The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the formatting. In the Kindle version, there was no real separation between time shifts so it was confusing when one thing was happening and then all of a sudden something completely different is going on. It was not enough of a deterrent to make me take off a star!I am so glad the second book is already released and the third is coming out in April so I won't have to wait long for continuation.If you like futuristic dystopian stories with romance, this is definitely the book for you!
