Unplugged
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Unplugged by Gordon Korman is a middle grade novel in the realistic fiction genre. Jett is the son of a billionaire tech mogul who has been sent by his father to spend several weeks at The Oasis of Mind and Body Wellness. The hardest part of this summer is that he must unplug. No phone, no computer, no tablet, no internet, and no meat.
Jett is known for being a spoiled brat and prankster who always gets his way. After a recent upset at the San Francisco Airport, Jett is sent by his father to unplug. Matt, an employee of Jett’s father, is his chaperone and must also partake in the Oasis’s policies. The story is told from the perspective of all the child characters - Jett, Grace, Tyrell, Brooklynne, and Brandon. Through this narrative structure, readers will get the inside story for all of the key characters, their motivations, a bit of their back story, etc. In this story Jett, is the newcomer with the bad attitude, Grace loves the Oasis and comes every summer with her mom, Tyrell attends multiple times in the summer because his parents are health nuts, Brooklynne also visits every summer, but she is keeping a secret from the rest of them, and lastly, Brandon is an up and coming football star there with his father who doesn’t like Jett at all and is determined to get back at him for some less than pleasant encounters at the center.
As they are at a wellness center, there is lots of talk about yoga, meditation, experiencing Awakening, and the vegetarian diet. If that is something parents do not want their children reading about, then this is a story you would want to pass on. The children and adults attend various sessions for all of the above. Later in the story, Tyrell and Jett eavesdrop on Tyrell’s father having a one-on-one meditation session with Ivory and uncover that Ivory cannot be trusted. Jett is working to solve the mystery of Ivory, but Tyrell is in denial of what he may have actually witnessed. Jett soon discovers that she has been hypnotizing people in order to get money out of them, which funds her business of illegal alligator farming at a nearby mansion.
The story is pretty clean and entertaining as preteens and teens have to live their summer without devices, learn to meet new people, try new activities and new food, as well as discover ways other than technology to entertain themselves.
While Jett doesn’t really change dramatically over the course of the story, he does discover that he is hungry for companionship - friends and a pet. He is determined to get a pet when he returns home and even has plans to return to the Oasis next summer - so long as his friends plan to be there. Meanwhile, more astute readers will have empathy for Jett as they discover that he is often alone due to his father’s thriving tech business and his mother’s charity work. A child with a way to connect to anyone and anything in the world, but who ultimately has zero connection to anything genuine. He does refer to his father as Vlad throughout most of the story, and while his father is portrayed as distant, there are nuggets of information that Vlad has taught Jett that is revealed as Jett relies on this information to help him in various situations.
Key mentions/ quotes:
Jett has a saying he repeats often - “Fertilizer, meet fan” (4).
The motto of the Oasis is “Be Whole.” There are a couple times where juvenile responses are given based on this; such as, “Don’t be a hole” (25).
After attending private meditations, some participants give the response that their “eyes are fully open for the first time” (35).
“I spend my whole life stressing out about what could happen and what might happen. And here’s this guy who not only doesn’t care; he acts like consequences are something that couldn’t apply to him in a million years” (47).
There is mention of the importance of breathing in meditation and the goal to empty the mind (59).
“There can be no inner peace without truth” (62).
Tyrell mentions hearing three young men scream curse words and he “pick[s] up a few new words and store[s] them away for future use during [his] next” fight with his sister (180).
“It’s impossible to be disappointed in a person when your opinion of him is already rock bottom” (186).
Overall, I personally enjoyed the story. I thought it was entertaining, and I could see young readers enjoying the story line and the adventure. The only thing cautionary is all of the yoga, meditation, and Awakening discussions, but I think as long as parents are aware, it will actually provide opportunities to discuss these topics and where it may or may not align with Biblical truth.
