So Yesterday

De: Scott Westerfeld

Narrado por: Scott Brick

We are all around you.
You don’t think about us much, because we are invisible. Well, not exactly invisible. A lot of us have hair dyed in four colors, or wear five-inch platform sneakers, or carry enough metal in our skin that it’s a hassle getting on an airplane. Quite visible, actually, come to think of it.
But we don’t wear signs saying what we are. After all, if you knew what we were up to, we couldn’t work our magic. We have to observe carefully, and push and prompt you in ways you don’t notice. Like good teachers, we let you think you’ve discovered the truth on your own.
And you need us. Someone has to guide you, to mold you, to make sure that today turns into yesterday on schedule. Because frankly, without us to monitor the situation, who knows what would get crammed down your throats?
It’s not like you can just start making your own decisions, after all.

Ever wonder who was the first kid to keep a wallet on a big chunky chain, or wear way-too-big-pants on purpose? What about the mythical first guy who wore his baseball cap backwards? These are the Innovators, the people at the peak of the cool pyramid.
Seventeen-year-old Hunter Braque is a Trend setter, on the second level of the pyramid. His job: find the newest, coolest thing for the retail market. His MO: observe, don’t get involved. But from the moment he meets Innovator Jen James, he can’t help getting involved in a big way.
Part love story, part mystery, part stinging satire, Scott Westerfeld’s spellbinding new novel will make you question everything you’ve ever believed about how to be cool.©2004 Scott D. Westerfeld; (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Totally Cool

So Yesterday is so different from all of the books I've ever read that it's great. It's totally new! Hunter is a 17-year-old 'cool hunter', a person who looks for new things in 'cool' to sell to the big corporations. One of the best things in this book is that there's no product placement, with the exception of Google, and the author lets you know what he's talking about by describing the product in a way that anyone with any knowledge at all of popular culture will recognize. Also, he integrates interesting facts into the book without making it boring or drawn out, and they all have some relivence to the plot. I listened to this book twice, and on the second time I still couldn't put it down. You feel that you really know the characters by the end. Even though the plot has a lot of strange events, it'd hard to remember that someone made it up!

What a surprise. This was great.

What made the experience of listening to So Yesterday the most enjoyable?

After reading the Uglies series, I thought I might give this one a try. It was well paced, fun, and thought provoking. If u are on the fence, give this book a listen.

Great for the whole family!

Our family listens to audiobooks while on road trips. It is challenging to find books the whole family can listen to. (there are no "ratings" on book/audiobooks - something I would like to see) Anyways, we all loved this book: 12yo,17yo,#2 48yos. Scott Brick is excellent as a reader with just the right amount of sarcism. The book is very funny and the plot entertaining. It was fun figuring out the companies that were being referred to and the facts presented were interesting.

Westerfeld still my fave YA. I guess you can't...

...hit them all out of the park. Good writing, cool characters, interesting concept, but weak on development. I'll still try out anything he offers though.

Excellent

This book is extremely well suited to audibooks with its first-person story telling, side notes, and sarcasm. Whiles the reader's voice is a bit too mature for the teenage character, it is a well-paced voice that is easy to listen to. This book was a good choice for a roadtrip with my fashionista friend.