I think this book was published before its time. As young people become more dependent on technology and social media, the themes in this book become more relevant. Usually a science fiction novel is so far-fetched compared to reality, but Caytlyn Brooke brought the sci-fi to our front door with her tale of how addiction and obsession can take over someone's life. Maggie and her friends get the latest technology, the Vertix H2, which allows the barer to access social media or an app in a virtual reality type of setting. Doing this causes a rush of adrenalin that is intoxicating and addictive at the same time. Maggie soon learns that this addiction can turn deadly and finds it harder and harder to unplug and return to reality.

My thanks to BHC/H2O for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Wired’ by Caytlyn Brooke. It was published in July 2018. My apologies for the late feedback. I have since purchased its Kindle and audiobook package.

In the near future technology has advanced and for some has become the new drug.

The novel’s narrator Maggie Stone has just purchased the Vertix H2, an innovative device that creates a powerfully immersive online experience. It’s unlike anything she’s ever known and she quickly becomes a fan.

However, the rush she experiences is intoxicating and the device begins to take over her life. While her mind is immersed in virtual reality, she is neglecting her bodily needs - rarely eating, not washing, and ignoring her outer world. She has become ‘wired’, an addict. Can she kick the addiction or will she spiral further?

I felt that Caytlyn Brooke did a great job in creating relatable characters and a realistic setting, now only 11 years in the future. Given how often I am glued to my tablet and smartphone, I don’t feel in any position to pass judgment on Maggie.

While marketed as Teen & YA fiction, despite Maggie being twenty-five, this is a cautionary tale for readers of all ages who find the lure of technology hard to disconnect from. Some scenes were quite strong, including Maggie’s hallucinations and her body’s responses to her neglect and addiction to the rush provided by the Vertix.

Overall, a harrowing tale of the power of addiction.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this title. I will review this title at a different date.

An exhilarating read that had hooked from page 1. It was frightening how the main character descended into technology addiction. The author's vivid descriptions made me feel like I was right there in the middle of the action. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more titles by this author!

YA novels are hard for me to read because several author use overly descriptive words or adjectives to describe scene but than lack the ability to fill in the details that move a story forward. The author doesn't seem to keep all her facts straight and small details can detail a story quickly.

While the story is about how destructive being addictive to technology to the point of loss connections between human contact. The author has a great start to a book but it need more dive deeper, pull more emotions and less adjectives about the appearance of the people in the story and more the emotions that cause the addiction.

Thank you to Netgalley ad the publisher for a copy of Caytlyn Brooke Wired

Personal thoughts.
I think author might not realize that 12-21 year old adults ca handle harder subjects that dive deeper into the psychological side of life. Teens and young Adults are able to handle a lot more deeper darker subjects because of the world we now live in,

People love to joke about being addicted to their devices. Yet addiction and dependency, as serious medical issues, have specific definitions. There’s a lot of debate right now about whether one actually develops addictions to the Internet, or to the use of one’s phone—and if so, what do we do about it in a society that not only rewards but often requires the use of these tools? Wired establishes an addiction to such communications and entertainment technology beyond the shadow of a doubt, then it tries to demonstrate the harm that such an addiction can cause. After reading it, I find myself in the position of enjoying Caytlyn Brooke’s storytelling but hating her writing.

Maggie Stone, along with her roommate, Sarah, and her brother, Andy, attends the launch of the “Vertix H2,” a revolutionary new augmented reality replacement for one’s phone. Tapping directly into the brain stem, the Vertix can pretty much manipulate your mind. Unlike more sinister science fiction novels, however, this isn’t the prelude to an authoritarian power grab. Rather, Maggie finds herself wrapped up in the virtual worlds available through the Vertix. When she’s connected, she is on top of the world. When she is disconnected, she becomes physically sick. As Maggie’s dependency on the Vertix becomes desperate, she struggles to maintain a grip on reality and everything else around her.

Pretty much from page 1, Brooke’s prose proved too purple for my liking. She doesn’t like to pass up any opportunity for an adjective, or even to repeat that adjective later. Maggie’s hair is almost always “auburn,” Sarah’s hips are “curvy hips,” etc. It’s not that Brooke’s writing is bad; I don’t think there’s anything wrong with her style so much as it’s just not for me. If I were her editor, I’d be leaving some stern comments on the manuscript! At first it grated on me, and then I tried to screen it out and dig into the story. I was also worried it was going to prejudice me against the story itself. I worried I was being hypercritical of Brooke’s characterization, of the way Maggie interacts with Sarah and Andy at the Vertix launch, or the way Maggie interacts with Jeremy and, later, Marco. Sometimes, when you find yourself vehemently disliking an author’s style, it’s hard to separate stylistic issues from storytelling issues.

I was also a little confused by Maggie’s employment. She has recently become a full literary agent at a place called Red Leaf Literary, which seems to imply she works for a literary agency. Yet later in the novel, her boss refers to Red Leaf as a “publishing house,” and indeed, a lot of the work featured seems to be closer to what a publisher does—Red Leaf has a marketing department, and Maggie sits in on marketing meetings about cover designs and marketing strategy. She even pitches a cover design of her own for a book. From my admittedly cursory knowledge of the distinction between literary agents and publishers, it seems to me like these aren’t things most agents do. (I know that literary agents’ specific duties vary from agency to agency, but all in all, this just strikes me as weird.) Finally, Brooke keeps portraying Maggie as having time to read manuscripts on the job, whereas it’s my understanding from my Twitter friends in publishing that such a luxury hardly ever manifests in real life!

But I digress.

As Maggie’s life spirals out of her control, the stakes get higher, and Brooke does a fairly good job portraying Maggie’s gradual surrender to her dependency. Again, just as I’m not a literary agent, I’m not an addict or former addict myself, so it’s hard for me to comment on how “accurate” the depiction is—but it certainly tries to go deep. The Maggie at the beginning of the book is very different from the Maggie in the middle or the end, and the transformation is gradual and spiky, with plenty of moments where it feels like if Maggie tried just a little bit harder she might have changed her fate. Of course, that’s the problem with dependency—it isn’t always about willpower.

If anything, I kind of wish Brooke went even further. Here’s an example of what I mean: at one point, there’s a throwaway remark by an observer about how susceptibility to Vertix addiction appears to be genetic. This explains, then, why both Andy and Maggie become addicted but Sarah doesn’t. Yet beyond that one line and these two characters’ addictions themselves, Brooke never really revisits this idea. Indeed, we’re meant to infer that Wired people are a bit of a miniature epidemic, yet we never really get to see the scope of the issue. Even in the epilogue we never get a sense of how much society has been rocked by this new drug.

The ending is also a bit of a letdown. Not the climax or falling action, mind you—those were great. Perhaps my favourite aspect of Wired is the extent to which Brooke has Maggie’s dependency drive her to more and more destructive or self-destructive behaviour. She doesn’t let up, and it’s very moving. Yet Brooke decides to skip the whole recovery part and move right to the redemptive moment. The ending is ambiguously hopeful, leaving us to wonder if Maggie has indeed got her life back on track. (And it appears she is never convicted for murdering Paul—or if she was, perhaps found not responsible, given her mental state, since she only ends up spending a few years in prison—the details are frustratingly vague.) There’s nothing wrong with any of this per se, but it makes the epilogue feel less weighty. A flimsy bit of postscript—if you chopped it off, the novel’s entire tenor suddenly changes.

Science fiction has a long history of exploring addiction and dependency issues through fictional drugs and the technology that enables them. Wired is a kind of calorie-light alternative to heavier cyberpunk fare that isn’t afraid to explore the links between biotechnology and addiction in greater detail. As a result, Wired’s contribution to this legacy is pretty good, but not great. Brooke creates a convincing, detailed, solid portrayal of how one might develop a technological addiction. Yet there is untapped potential here for so much more to this story.

Creative Commons BY-NC License

With our dependence and obsession with all things technology I could see some form of this actually happening. Games are already a cause for concern among some groups because of the addiction aspect and taking yourself out of your word when things are tough and going into VR would be something everyone could relate too at least once or twice in their lives. This was a well written and imaginative book that keep me flipping pages as fast as I possibly could. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

The YA speculative fiction novel about virtual reality technology that becomes addictive like a drug is crazy intense! The craziest part is how actually realistic and possible this could be. Since I have a background in neurology and educational technology, I can confirm that our brains can treat stimulants from technology in the same way as drugs, gambling and other addictions. Who hasn’t experienced this with our current smartphones and Kindles (which are in antique stores in the book)? It is not many steps removed from the technology featured in the book. The novel is very engaging and I would recommend it to teens and adults.

Thanks to NetGalley, BHC Press, and the author Catylyn Brooke for an electronic review copy.

I really loved this book and the concept of technology being an immersive addiction that can take over some individuals' lives if not used responsibly. In my opinion, it really hit the nail on the head as this book dived into the sort of technology that is around us in today's society. It was definitely a page-turning book that made me look at my own use of technology and what I might be missing out on while scrolling through my phone or playing a game on it.

The ONLY reason I would not recommend this book to my students is there is some not-age-appropriate content for middle schoolers in my opinion when it discusses one of the dating apps.

Wired by Caytlyn Brooke takes place in high-tech future. Phones are replaced with watches called iJewels. Calls are replaced with holographic messages. The iJewel can also be used to make payments as a credit card might. My favorite feature of the iJewel is a holographic cat that tells the weather.

But a new tech gadget has just come out that can do all that and more. The Vertix H2 connects via the neck to the spinal cord. It can make you see, taste, hear, and smell anything you would like.

Maggie, the main character, has acquired one of these. At first, it's a pleasant calm in the midst of her stressful life. Then, it becomes sickening to live without. What follows is a very real look at addiction and the pain for everyone involved.

This is a very powerful read. It gives you a very raw look at addiction, not sugar coating it. For this reason, it may be a trigger for some. Read with caution. It also proposes the possibility that technology could become an addiction as strong as drugs. This book will make you think.

This book is very well-written. Besides being well-edited, the plot is also very well thought out. At first, I found myself wishing I could connect to Vertix H2 and escape for awhile. Then, after reading the affects of disconnecting I wonder if I too would become addicted -- or wired. This is why I give the book 5 out of 5 stars. I suggest this to anyone who won't be fazed by the addiction mentioned in this book who is looking for their next favorite science-fiction read.

Well, when I've read description of this book I expected somethin like Black Mirror with future technology and dangers it creates. Well, in a basic it is that, but if You're loking for something complex with a lot of techno facts, you will be disappointed. I was a little.

The entire concept about being addicted from technology was great, but execution could be a little more dense in my opinion. Wired is actually a junkie story with another kind of drug. It's pretty likeable, but nothing special. R|eading a few first pages I thought it was a YA novel because of the style of writing. It improves later on, but not much. Still, it's easy to read, but I think it's really predictable and I think it's lacking depth of characters.