Book about a young man with a cat sidekick

Question

The details are very vague in my mind but I'm looking for the name of a book I read probably 7-10 years ago. It is about a young man/teenager that lived in a technologically advanced society where everyone had telepathic or holographic animal familiars. His was a cat.

They all lived in a cave or mountain or somewhere that seemed very primitive relative to the level of technology they had attained. The culture is very controlled, and I think he rebels against this somehow. For some reason, the boy has to leave the city and is hunted. There is a female that he meets who leaves with him or that he meets after he has left.

Answer 1

Found it! It's called Metagame by Sam Landstrom. I'll reread it now to find out just how inaccurate my description was.

Life is a game, literally. Winners earn immortality, while losers are condemned to aging and death. D_Light, a gifted player, knows this all too well and he’s willing to do anything to win—even kill. It is no wonder then that when given the chance to enter a MetaGame—an exclusive, high-stakes, anything goes contest—he’s quick to jump at the opportunity. The MetaGame starts out well enough for D_Light, the first quest being to hunt down a dangerous fugitive, but through his own ambition, the tables turn and D_Light finds himself the renegade. Now, D_Light pits himself against his world to find the truth behind “The Game” and must decide between winning it and saving what’s left of his humanity.

This book blends emerging political and cultural trends, such as gaming culture, globalization, and the ever-increasing hegemony of corporations, with technological trends, such as genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Oh, and if that is not enough, there's even some romance