Carol Snow's (Snap; Switch) provocative novel asks teens to consider various ways in which people escape from reality.
Freesia Summers lives a vacuous life. Every day she wakes to a new song by her favorite singer, her "shiny" mother brings coffee and whatever she wishes for breakfast, and her closet overflows with "vicious" outfits for her "perfect figure." But there's trouble in Paradise. And when Freesia gets a glimpse of the world outside it, she must decide if she can continue to drink the "fizzy water" and pretend Bubble World is real, or find out if anyone else suspects--as she does--that they're living inside "a multiplayer virtual reality program." Parents sign up their children thinking Bubble World is a superior educational experience; but teens need only ask the teachers of their "immersion classes" (focused on cultures and languages) to speak English and out come the "Korean tacos." Meanwhile, corporate entities push products and pharmaceutical companies test memory blockers on Bubble World's inhabitants. Freesia's observations of people at the mall on a "visit" back to her "real" family betray an undercurrent of truth that begins to lodge in readers' minds as well as Freesia's.
Will Freesia/Francine continue passively to accept the luxuries and superficialities of Bubble World, knowing that a real world exists beyond its shiny shallow artifice? Or will she risk the consequences of seeking the truth and lose all of her pretend privileges? There's food for thought behind the frothy concoctions of Bubble World. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness