Title: Shutdown
Author:  Heather Anastasiu
Publisher/Year:  St Martin’s Press  7/2/13
Length:  320 Pages
Series: Glitch #3

Overview

The battle is all but over, and all hope seems to be lost. Zoe and her fellow Resistance fighters are on the run, having lost their home, their protection, and their leader. They are outnumbered and outmatched by the powerful corporation that controls the world, and the cruel Chancellor is inches away from completing a scheme that would kill most of humanity. Zoe’s only remaining option is to chase the impossible dream of upending the Link system, freeing the world from the hardware that controls their thoughts and emotions, and hope it will trigger a revolution.

The plot requires a nearly impossible mission to infiltrate the dangerous Community, and it is a task that Zoe must unfortunately complete alone. After horrific torture at the hands of the Chancellor, Adrien remains unresponsive, an empty shell of the boy Zoe loves. With challenges and surprises at every turn, nothing goes according to plan. Adrien’s visions of the future now show two possible outcomes: one in which they succeed, and one in which humanity falls. It all lies in Zoe’s hands.

My Thoughts

Thankfully my assumption that book 2 was just suffering from the classic dilemma that most bridge books have, book 3 made things a bit better.  Going in to this final installment, i think that we were all under the guise that either the Rez was going to come out on top, or that at least Zoe would, and that she would live happily ever after with Adrian.  I think that the nice thing here is that the path from point A to point B kept throwing such extensive curves into the loop that it was never clear who was actually going to make it to the end and what that end looked like.

If you remember, in book 2, they had rescued Adrian only to find that he had been lobotomized and this meant that not only did he lose his visions, but he no longer felt emotion.  While medicine has advanced quite a bit, no one had ever tried to repair that part of a brain before, and well, no one knew if it was possible.  The relationship that had been built between Zoe and Adrian, the thread that really held us together for so much of the story so far was only hanging on by the slightest bit of that thread.

What i really enjoyed about this finale is that we get to know more about the other glitchers and characters that were secondary before become a big part now because they have to.  There’s quite a bit of scheming in the hopes that Zoe will be able to get to the Chancellor and kill her, yet failure after failure keeps them away.

Zoe continues to struggle both with her power and how much its growing and is rather uncontrollable….as well as dealing with the fact that the air alone is deadly to her.  She’s managed to use her powers to keep the mast cells a bay, but that’s only possible if she has enough energy, and we find through many many times in this story that she’s really not able to hold onto that strength and comes close to the edge.

I have to say that i didn’t necessarily expect the full outcome at the end, meaning the players that were most involved, but i think that we all can say that it’s a safe assumption the key players that would remain standing.  (even if not on their own 2 legs).  Max continues to play a big part – mostly though trying to make amends to Zoe which she has no plans to do.  Henk plays a big role as does Ginni – which is nice.  We see the softer side of Xona and a great side of Cole – and as is classic and typical in these stories, we really see Zoe grow up and come into what she’s meant to be.  It’s a nice take though on the expected – meaning that she becomes a leader, but not in the sense that people want a figure head, just that she naturally commands and people listen.

I also enjoyed how our lovely author was able to give us an epilogue that brings things together in a sense of closure.  While it’s not game changing, it makes the reader feel like things that happened happened for a reason.

The one thing that kept throwing me off is that we never really know which part of the world or country this story takes place, and while i can make assumptions, i find that it’s easier to get into a story in more depth when i know where they are.  For finding this series so late in the game, i’m glad that i came across it.  IT’s a nice mix of YA, Dystopia and superpower / fantasy that can be appreciated for what it is.