It’s spoiler-free review time!
My first read of 2020 is a thriller that is not to be missed. Keep reading to get the scoop.
From the Publisher:
You are invited!
COme inside and play with G.O.D.
Bring your friends!
It;’s fun!
But remember the rules. Win and ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE.™ Lose, you die!
With those words, Charlie and his friends enter the G.O.D. Game, a video game run by underground hackers and controlled by a mysterious AI that believes it’s God. Through their phone-screens and high-tech glasses, the teens’ realities blur with a virtual world of creeping vines, smoldering torches, runes, glyphs, gods, and mythical creatures. When they accomplish a mission, the game rewards them with expensive tech, revenge on high-school tormentors, and cash flowing from ATMs. Slaying a hydra and drawing a bloody pentagram as payment to a Greek god seem harmless at first. Fun even.
But then the threatening messages start. Worship me. Obey me. Complete a mission, however cruel, or the game reveals their secrets and crushes their dreams. Tasks that seemed harmless at first take on deadly consequences. Mysterious packages show up at their homes. Shadowy figures start following them, appearing around corners, attacking them in parking garages. Who else is playing this game, and how far will they go to win?
And what of the game’s first promise: win, win big, lose, you die? Dying in a virtual world doesn’t really mean death in real life—does it?
As Charlie and his friends try to find a way out of the game, they realize they’ve been manipulated into a bigger web they can’t escape: an AI that learned its cruelty from watching us.
God is always watching, and He says when the game is done.
My Thoughts:
This book follows a group of outsider-type teens that call themselves The Vindicators, as well as a few of their classmates, as the group plays an AR (Augmented Reality) game run by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) bot that calls itself G.O.D.
The tasks they are given to play the game start off innocent and harmless enough (though still illegal) until they become more and more dangerous. The Vindicators are forced to continue playing out of fear that harm will come to them or those that they care about.
It’s really a surprise to me that I enjoyed it so much. It is written in my second least favorite style, omniscient POV, but it almost makes the most sense that way. After all, God sees, hears, and knows all, right? The short chapters are extremely short. Like, one or two pages sometimes. It is a little bit annoying, especially when the next chapter continues with the same scene and character that you were just in, but it does work to entice you to keep reading. Just one more chapter. It’s only three pages long…
Though the main characters are in high school, I would not consider this to be YA fiction. It is a techno-thriller that contains language and violence most suitable for older teens and adults.
The story is compelling and moves at a fast pace in the first act, probably intentional to suck the reader in. It does slow in the second half of the second act, though not to a snail’s pace. It is just enough to step back and really get into the story and the motivations of each of the characters.
While the computer lingo is plentiful, it is easy enough to understand from context for those that aren’t gamers or programmers. Many have compared to book to Ready Player One. I think that’s a bit of a stretch. The storyline is closer to a movie called Nerve with Emma Roberts and Dave Franco. Simply a good romp that asks the question, “How far would you go?”
