I mentioned in my reason for reading this book, that it is my husband's favorite. He's asked me to read it several times. In fact, I found out from my brother that it's his favorite too. SO I didn't feel as though I could refuse reading this. First off, if you don't know anything about 80's culture and/or video games then you need to do some homework before reading this. If you do know that stuff, then you'll thoroughly enjoy the references in this book.
I'll be honest, it took 7 chapters before I really was interested in this book. I'm not sure I would have kept reading because the first couple of chapters are a little slow and have a lot of foul language. I kept wincing while reading. My husband promised me that it wasn't as bad once the story really started, so I kept reading, for the sake of my husband. He was right though, once the story started I was totally immersed. I loved that there was enough description so you could picture what was going on, but not too much so you'd forget what you were reading. The 80's references were a lot of fun and it made me want to watch some old movies again. There were some names that I didn't know how to pronounce and luckily my husband had listened to the audiobook (which was narrated by Will Wheaton and apparently it's really fun to listen to) so I would just ask him how to say some of the names.
The book is basically a race and it's a fast read, with the exception of two parts. I started to get a little bored and irritated when the main character was "dating" another character. I don't feel it contributed much to the story, but it makes sense of why it was written in there. The next part I was upset at was mostly because the author had you believing that the whole thing was over and then after about 10 pages he reveals what's going on and it basically blows your mind. All was forgiven then. The whole concept of the book is that it's in the future and society basically all lives in a virtual reality while ignoring the real lives round them. It's totally sad and I really hope we never get to a future like that. The whole book I would think about how bleak this all seemed and wanted a hopeful ending. I don't want to give anything away, but I can say that it was ended exactly the way it should have been.
I definitely suggest this book to anyone who loves video games. You'll feel like you're reading a video game and it's a fun experience. If you like riddles or races, you'll enjoy it too. Or if you just love the 80's then you'll love to read all of the references. I will say this book has a lot of foul language and some inappropriate material, which I just skipped over. It would probably be rated T for teens if it were an actual video game. I can say I am excited for the movie and I'd probably read this again in the future.
What did you think?
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