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Leaving Simplicity
Claire Carmichael
What if advertisements ruled the world? Taylor and Barrett maybe cousins, but they're from different worlds. Taylor lives in high-tech luxury, the daughter of top advertising specialists. Barrett was raised by his uncle in an ecocult called Simplicity. When his uncle dies, Barrett is whisked away to live with Taylor and her power parents. Barrett is deeply distressed by the "Chattering World." Here, invasive advertising screams out from improbable places- on the sides of cars, on the bathroom mirror, even on the shirts of his teachers. Taylor, on the other hand, loves it and wants her "farmie" cousin to embrace it, too. Barrett soon discovers that his aunt and uncle have a hidden agenda: there is a lotto gain from finding out the effects of advertising on an untouched mind. When Barrett's worst suspicions are confirmed, only Taylor, and the horrible secrets he discovers about her family, can expose the truth. To do so, she must turn her back on everything she's been raised to believe. Thrilling and thought-provoking, Leaving Simplicity takes readers into a wildly driven consumer society that seems only a heartbeat away from our own.
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