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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
slow-paced
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This surprisingly was a book that drew me in from the start and I inhaled it. There are some definite similarities to "Ready Player One" with the virtual reality world and it's dystopian set up where you spend so much time inside this VR game and try to save money. But also - there's quite a bit of outside plot going on that was very intriguing.
I am so glad to have seen the blurb from the author confirming that Mal is aro & ace! And only made the story and her choices make so much sense.
Very happy to have stumbled upon this one - having no expectations, I was thoroughly entertained. Entertained probably isn't the right word for describing this plot. It's bleak and frustrating.
I am so glad to have seen the blurb from the author confirming that Mal is aro & ace! And only made the story and her choices make so much sense.
Very happy to have stumbled upon this one - having no expectations, I was thoroughly entertained. Entertained probably isn't the right word for describing this plot. It's bleak and frustrating.
I am rather conflicted on how to feel about this book.
Because honestly, it was boring for a lot of the book. I mean, yeah I get it, videogames are super fun and all, but when the entire first 50% of your book is basically just people playing video games? It doesn't interest me. I was also pretty confused about the SpecOps at first, because I didn't understand were they in the game, or not in the game, how were they dead if they were in the game, etc. It took a while to flesh that out. And a note about me not enjoying the video game part: I don't play video games. However, I have read books about video games and enjoyed the part with the games immensely so I honestly don't think it was just because I don't play video games.
But the last part? The last part was AWESOME. From when Mal met 06 and 22 and on, I was totally hooked, it was super interesting and I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I really enjoyed the rally and riot parts of it, it was just super cool to see so many people coming together to fight authority, and Mal's thoughts about what would happen in the future (like, she was basically thinking that they'd all go back under control of some other organization soon enough) were interesting because I feel like in YA books we don't often get those looking to the future thoughts.
Also? Mal was aroace (implied in-book (never stated outright) and confirmed by author) AND she had a platonic crush. It was really cool to see the platonic crush because it was literally my first time seeing this, possibly the first book to have this, and it just felt good. I could totally understand where Mal was coming from here, I'm wondering if a lot of people will be confused about what the heck her crush is about or how she has a crush and yet not romantically, etc. but I totally understood it. I honestly couldn't tell you if I've had a platonic crush or not, I just really don't know, but I was like, 'oh yeah, I totally understand how you're feeling,' and it just felt so good to have that kind of rep.
I wish that we could have learned more about Mal's roomates. We know a fair amount about Jessa, who is her friend and her partner in-game, though I actually wish we could have gotten more close-friend scenes between them, too (though maybe that's not the type of relationship that they had). The rest of her roomates, I mean we knew their names but honestly not much else. I get that it's hard to come up with personalities for that many people, and make them big parts of the story, but I still wanted more than what I got.
Overall, I did enjoy this book despite its slowness at the beginning and it was amazing to read an aroace character with a platonic crush!
Because honestly, it was boring for a lot of the book. I mean, yeah I get it, videogames are super fun and all, but when the entire first 50% of your book is basically just people playing video games? It doesn't interest me. I was also pretty confused about the SpecOps at first, because I didn't understand were they in the game, or not in the game, how were they dead if they were in the game, etc. It took a while to flesh that out. And a note about me not enjoying the video game part: I don't play video games. However, I have read books about video games and enjoyed the part with the games immensely so I honestly don't think it was just because I don't play video games.
But the last part? The last part was AWESOME. From when Mal met 06 and 22 and on, I was totally hooked, it was super interesting and I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I really enjoyed the rally and riot parts of it, it was just super cool to see so many people coming together to fight authority, and Mal's thoughts about what would happen in the future (like, she was basically thinking that they'd all go back under control of some other organization soon enough) were interesting because I feel like in YA books we don't often get those looking to the future thoughts.
Also? Mal was aroace (implied in-book (never stated outright) and confirmed by author) AND she had a platonic crush. It was really cool to see the platonic crush because it was literally my first time seeing this, possibly the first book to have this, and it just felt good. I could totally understand where Mal was coming from here, I'm wondering if a lot of people will be confused about what the heck her crush is about or how she has a crush and yet not romantically, etc. but I totally understood it. I honestly couldn't tell you if I've had a platonic crush or not, I just really don't know, but I was like, 'oh yeah, I totally understand how you're feeling,' and it just felt so good to have that kind of rep.
I wish that we could have learned more about Mal's roomates. We know a fair amount about Jessa, who is her friend and her partner in-game, though I actually wish we could have gotten more close-friend scenes between them, too (though maybe that's not the type of relationship that they had). The rest of her roomates, I mean we knew their names but honestly not much else. I get that it's hard to come up with personalities for that many people, and make them big parts of the story, but I still wanted more than what I got.
Overall, I did enjoy this book despite its slowness at the beginning and it was amazing to read an aroace character with a platonic crush!
dystopian and depressing, fast and tense and so cool. one of my favourite books ever. it's scary how close to our reality this looks.
Qué manía tienen algunos autores de emplear en el primer capítulo términos que no han definido, casi me pierde en las primeras páginas, porque no me aclaraba con qué estaba pasando. Afortunadamente, existe Internet y leí un poquito sobre el libro, lo suficientemente para centrarme y que no se me quitaran las ganas, porque luego el libro está bastante bien, es un poco Ready Player One, pero más antimultinacionales anticapitalista. En el segundo capítulo, de cualquier forma, da todas las explicaciones que no ha querido ofrecer en el primero.
La premisa es sencilla, EEUU está dividido en dos partes, en cada una de ellas manda, no un gobierno, sino una empresa. Una controla el agua, la cantidad a la que se puede acceder gratis apenas basta como agua de beber y el resto se vende a precios prohibitivos, mientras que en la otra parte, la otra empresa controla los cultivos. Ambas zonas están continuamente en guerra. Recoger agua de lluvia es delito en un bando, tratar de cultivar cualquier cosa en el otro, lo es. Aparte, hay un juego de realidad virtual muy popular y es posible ganar bastante dinero (o agua) si haces streaming de tus partidas y tienes muchos seguidores.
La premisa es sencilla, EEUU está dividido en dos partes, en cada una de ellas manda, no un gobierno, sino una empresa. Una controla el agua, la cantidad a la que se puede acceder gratis apenas basta como agua de beber y el resto se vende a precios prohibitivos, mientras que en la otra parte, la otra empresa controla los cultivos. Ambas zonas están continuamente en guerra. Recoger agua de lluvia es delito en un bando, tratar de cultivar cualquier cosa en el otro, lo es. Aparte, hay un juego de realidad virtual muy popular y es posible ganar bastante dinero (o agua) si haces streaming de tus partidas y tienes muchos seguidores.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
To be honest, I think this would have worked much better as a short story, especially with how it ended just as things could have started to get interesting. It was incredibly frustrating how dense the main characters were, and how it took AGES for them to figure anything out, or start to believe the things that were right in front of their faces. A few times, even after I thought it had been made clear that they were finally convinced of things, they'd still be going "oh, I mean, if that's actually true," or "wow, I guess they were right!" Like, come on. They don't need to be geniuses, but it would have been nice if they weren't idiots.
Also, this doesn't appear to be marketed as Young Adult, but it certainly READS like Young Adult. Which was not what I was looking for.
In all, the author had some nice ideas, but they weren't executed well at all. Definitely reads as a clumsy Anti-capitalism 101.
Also, this doesn't appear to be marketed as Young Adult, but it certainly READS like Young Adult. Which was not what I was looking for.
In all, the author had some nice ideas, but they weren't executed well at all. Definitely reads as a clumsy Anti-capitalism 101.
Found this one randomly on libby, was not disappointed.
If you like video games and anticapatlist war stories this is for you
If you like video games and anticapatlist war stories this is for you
emotional
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated