Glitch by Heather Anastasiu

With the nuclear destruction of the Earth, what is left of humanity now lives in subterranean communities. Everyone at birth is implanted with a port that connects with a V-chip located at the base of the brain. The V-chip connects each person with the Link. With no emotions, thoughts or actions of their own, humans are nothing more than mindless robots. Order first, order always is the motto everyone lives by. Anomalies are rare and almost always fixable. In extreme cases where anomalies cannot be repaired, humans are deactivated.
Zoe has been experiencing glitches with her connection to the Link for two months now. Vowing each day to report the problem to a Regulator, her unknown view of the world around her is too stimulating to give up. While waiting on a subway train one day, Zoe sees a young girl starting to fall from the platform onto the tracks below. Unable to stop herself, she is able to save the young girl from certain death by levitating her back onto the plat5from. Zoe fears the secret of her glitching and the power of telekinesis is out when she sees a green-eyed boy watching her.
While in class at the Academy, Zoe experiences another glitch. She is almost caught when the teacher asks her why she is not responding to her page. Gathering her things, she reports to the room where an older man waits for her. She knows her gig is up when the man informs her that he is there to check her Link. He is starting the test when the green-eyed boy comes into the room. After subduing the man, he flees into the hidden tunnels with Zoe. Climbing up a long flight of stairs, Zoe and Adrien come to a door that leads to the surface. Adrien is about to open the door when Zoe panics. All of her live she has been told that the world above ground is too toxic for humans. Adrien tells her that it is all a lie and most of the Community government buildings are above ground. When Adrien mentions the Resistance is comprised of people with gifts like hers, he lets her know that is able to see the future and that is how he was able to locate her. Zoe is still terrified and wants to turn herself in. Adrien lets her know that painful experimentation not deactivation will be her life.
With time running out, Zoe realizes what her options really are. She could go back to the Community to face deactivation or head to the surface with the possibility of dying in the toxic environment. “Or just maybe, having a chance to escape.” Zoe decides to go with Adrien.
Can Adrien be trusted? What is really on the surface? Why has the Community lied about everything and kept its citizens numb through the Link? Who exactly is the resistance and what is their purpose? How man y others have special gifts like Zoe and Adrien? What happens when Zoe has to assimilate herself back into the Community? Who notices that Zoe is glitching and what does she do when they reveal their gift? And what happens when Zoe remains disconnected from the Link and begins to not only experience human emotions for the first time but finds herself in the midst of a love triangle?

Book two in the Glitch trilogy, Override is due out February 19, 2013.

Visit Heather Anastasiu's website.