Joelene Reviews: Rae Mariz's - "Unidentified"
In a future where education is a game held in defunct shopping malls across America and students are the brands, Kid is a minor player. The daughter of a single mother who struggles to meet bill payments, she doesn’t set the trends or follow them. Until the day she witnesses a prank played in the cafeteria of the Game by a group called the Unidentified that could be a media stunt or a band of disenchanted kids rebelling against a system based on mindless consumerism.
Her curiosity drives her to uncover the secret at the heart of the rebel group, the Unidentified; risking her friendships and education in the process.
It was a delightful surprise to find the characters in The Unidentified to be realistic and believable across the board. The students in the Game are young; ready to question the world and their role in it but not quite sure how to change the problems that they find. The narrator, Kid, stood out from her peers with her mixture of confused naivety and her willingness to find answers and do what’s right. The friends Kid makes as she searches for answers, and some of the friends she already has, are amazing. They all have their own personalities and, while they may be as confused as Kid, they stand by one another and work at not selling themselves out.
There are so many snippets of wonderful in The Unidentified that even if I wanted to ruin the book for everyone, I wouldn’t be able to list them all. The thing that really stood out to me, though, was the relationship between Kid and her mother. It’s an incredibly side-line topic; but every sentence that Kid’s mother is in shines. She is there, doing her best for her daughter and checking up on her as much as she is able. Better still, Kid doesn’t blame her for this; she’s proud of her. In an era where YA novels with abusive, neglectful or dead parents are the norm, Kid and her mother are a breath of fresh air.
The world-building of The Unidentified is possibly the only issue with an otherwise superb novel. I hesitate to mention it, because it did not affect my reading enjoyment in the least, but the world hasn’t been explained as fully as it could have. Children are put into the Game to test commercial products and innovate their own. Outside of the Game they have no rights, are able to be monitored by their parents at all times and cannot enter certain shops. With children being the market research for the brands; how do the brands make the money? Adults don’t have the same tastes as teens and the teens can only buy from select outlets.
The world of The Unidentified is not something that bothers me because the novel, although entertaining, is an exploration of ideas and philosophy. In a world where people are the brands, everyone is watched constantly and nothing is a secret, how does someone find themselves? This is the question at the heart of The Unidentified. In our world, where everyone sells the image of what they are on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the dystopian world of The Unidentified is incredibly relevant.
Teens and adults alike will love this new dystopian read. While set in an unfamiliar future; its characters, corporations and society all ring true. It is the substance and strength of the characters that prevents the story being mired down in gloom; giving it a sweet twist that is hopeful and realistic all at once.
Unidentified – Rae Mariz
Harper Collins (January 31, 2011)
ISBN: 9780061802089
