Backspaced

by Nicholas Antinozzi

When a new breed of social media goes viral, schoolteacher Henry Hubert warns his students to steer clear of the website. Backspaced is unlike anything the world has ever known. The site allows users to rate their peers, anonymously, using review commentary and a star rating system. Rate whomever you like, or dislike, as often as you like, the choice is up to you. Meanwhile, in a bizarre twist of fate, two long-feuding families find themselves sharing a Saint Paul hospital waiting room. With no place to run, they are forced to put their differences aside. Suddenly, without warning, the city is placed under quarantine. The group in the waiting room soon learns the shocking truth: a deadly plague is sweeping across the planet. The Sixth Great Extinction has begun.

There is a vaccine, but only enough to save a fraction of the population. Across the globe, governments harness technology to decide who lives or dies. Social media plays a big part in this decision. Mysteriously, the world seems all-too prepared to deal with this unprecedented crisis, but those who publicly question authority are soon deleted, backspaced; but by coincidence or design? How would the planet respond to such a devastating pandemic? Imagine learning that you have been chosen to receive the vaccine, but your spouse has not. Would you choose to go on? As current as tomorrow’s headlines, Backspaced is a dark look into an uncertain future.

209 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 21, 2014

Reviews

[Bron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book two months ago. If I'd rated it then I would have given it two stars at best, probably just one. It is tiring, the storyline is loony and the characters brittle. Things are tied together poorly and I found it irritating how poorly the namesake software was implemented in the story.

This book reads like a first draft that nobody edited. It is probably a straight to ebook that is exactly that. From the depths of my mind I just wanted to jigsaw it into a semi reasonable story when I was done rather than the ramshackle that it was.

HOWEVER, I did not give it one star. I have given it three. This book covers a lot of ground. A lot of dystopia cliche and some paranoia conspiracy theories are bandied about within a small space. As though the author was working too hard to get all his ideas into the one space.

None of them are well detailed. Just the same I find myself returning to the particular construct of dystopia offered here. A government condoned apocalypse.

They are fun ideas to work with. The book itself, well I'm sure if it even gets to second draft it could be ok.

[Ky · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was incredibly boring. I can't believe how distant the writing made me feel from any of the action or the characters. All the characters felt like the same person, as they all spoke and expressed emotion in exactly the same way. Description was bland and not evocative in the slightest. I've read books that made me angry or made me laugh with how terrible they were, but this was just agonizingly dull, which is depressing because the storyline probably could have been great.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relevant scenario

Wake up call to those who over share on social media. Not as farfetched as some might think. Never under estimate the power of those who govern the world we live in.

[Rena · Rating 1 out of 5]

Called it quits after chapter 3.