It’s not every day you get a friend request from a dead girl.
I_am_Kronos is a thrilling blend of gaming, sci-fi, and supernatural romance.
Keven Meyers, gamer and classic underachiever on the fringe of cool, gets a friend request from Sierra Sands, recently deceased and haunting his video games. Sierra is stuck in the Nexus, the center where all the universes and realities collide. She desperately needs Keven’s help to stop Silas, another lost soul using his diabolical understanding of the world between the worlds to prey on gamers.
Rachel DeFriez, award-winning author of 7 Seconds and the chilling zombie romance trilogy, Grey Matters, brings us a spine-tingling supernatural thriller that delves into the metaphysical world of the multi-verse.
French prof, mom, horror & romance writer--how's that work? Bird & kitty lover--how's that work? Coffee, tea, & fairy garden enthusiast ♡
Don't miss her award-winning tales 7 SECONDS and RAVENS AND LAVENDER. Rachel is also the author of the award-winning, chilling zombie romance series WALKING GREY: Book 1 GREY MATTERS, Book 2 GREY KNIGHTS and Book 3 GREY DAZE and the YA horror gamer/ghost story I AM KRONOS
Wish I could rate this book as more than 5 stars. Brilliant.
I_AM_KRONOS is a spectacular novel combining aspects of the lives of a group of teens and their lives and interplay with the background of a murder mystery and a discussion of what perhaps comes next. This book had everything, and fit that everything together perfectly.
Gaming references that will suck you in and make you want to pull out those games you dominated years ago - and yes, all of them, from Halo and Assasin's Creed to PokeMon on your old DS - were perfectly placed and fleshed out to pull the reader completely into the lives of the characters.
Deeper discussion adressing the concepts of why we are here or what comes next are addressed, and plausibly rounded out without feeling super pushy or super PC.
All while showing the reader the normal life and times of a great group of kids and all of the connections they share - through parents and siblings, through friends and lovers, through school, sports teams, social circles, social media - through life.
Warning: Do not pick up this book if you have things to do for the next day or two. That said, I can't wait to pass this book on to my friends.
** I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads **
There were two me's while reading this book.One thatliked the book, the other not so much. I spent most of the book trying to figure out why I both liked and didn't like it. Then about 30 pages or so from the end I realized why. This is a school book. I wasn't reading this book because I enjoyed it. I was reading this book because I enjoyed analyzing it. It was the part of me that likes analyzing works and then writing essays on them that liked this story. The part of me that was reading for the story for enjoyment was much less entertained by it.
I came across this book because goodreads was like hey because you read Ready Player One (RPO) you might like: and this was one of the options. And I like the summary when I read it. Boy must help girl trapped in video game. It was the vague description of the book when I added it to my TBR list. Flash forward two years later when I actually impulse buy the book on a late night binge of ebook shopping. It's not at all what I expected.
My first problem comes with how this book tries to incorporate video games. There is nothing inheritantly special about the use of video games in this story. You can replace the FPS games that are played with an email and virus. Or the DS with a iPod or even cell phone. Though it does get points for not following the total immersion gaming of RPO, SAO, and Log Horizon.
My second problem is our villain, Silas. For as terrified of Silas as the characters are, he's hardly present. Though this was only a problem for part of me that wanted entertainment. The part of me that wanted to write an essay about this book thinks Silas makes a great devil parallel. Just the thought of him can goad the heroes into action.
Then there was the nexus, where I almost called it quits with the whole book. It's not even that the nexus is bad, it how Keven is changed by it. Though again, analytic me was ready to get down with the how experience leads to enlightenment as well as just the meaning of the nexus itself.
I love ghost stories, I love video games stories. This should have been a story that I connected with. But, the stronger reality won, and in it I found a story that would have given me a few interesting writing prompts if I was still in school. I_am_Kronos tries to be too much in too little space. I love what this book could have been though. If only. But, then, I guess Keven asks himself the same question, doesn't he? In the end, we can only accept what is. And carry a little bit of what could have been with us.
This is a YA book which stars Keven who is very into playing video games. Then one day, a dead teenage girl sends him a Facebook friend request and starts appearing in some of his gaming sessions begging for his help. He ends up getting sucked into a strange afterlife world which is called Nexus where souls can reside. Sierra, the dead girl, enlists his help to defeat another soul in Nexus that is destroying other souls there and is plotting terror in the real world too. Keven learns a lot about himself, Sierra, the concept of reality, and life in general while in Nexus. He discovers that there are a lot of versions of reality that can be visited by going through what Sierra calls doors. Okay, so I have to admit this whole concept of the doors I did not entirely understand. There are two doors typically that are twins of each other, but it seems sometimes you have to be dead to go through them and sometimes not. Plus I don't really get why Sierra couldn't go through some of them on her own. But nevertheless, it's an interesting concept. Since Sierra's soul is essentially energy, she (and the evil guy) can get into electronic equipment. The bad guy attacks people in their games and manages to cause real-life injuries (this I also didn't really understand how that could happen). It is a fast paced novel, and I like the Keven character. He also finds himself in a romantic triangle between his best friend, Lexy, and another popular girl at school, Hannah. And then he finds himself in another romantic triangle between Lexy and Sierra. Ah the troubles of a teenage boy! It was cute to see him struggle with these things.
I won this copy in one of the Goodreads giveaways.
The beginning of the book should be able to pull the reader in quite easy. A mixer of horror, games, and light romance. Not to mention the idea of us having many parallel lives that make us stronger and the people around us that do that to.
Keven after returning from the nexus gets the ability to sense the connection to the people around him and a certain type of doors (so says Sierra).
As for the main villain in the book Silas. He good at twisting the truth and feeding lies to people to either join him (be swallowed up and use their energy) or get them to kill for him, like in the beginning of the book.
The main part of the books was stop Sillas, help Sierra go through a door, and tell Lexy how he really feels.
P.S. - Don’t forget to send the main character some get well cards and flowers. He is going to need them.
It’s not everyday you get a friend request from the dead girl haunting your video games. I AM KRONOS is a chilling supernatural thriller with a metaphysical twist that combines sci-fi with gaming. The prologue “prelude to a ghost story” is a little intense. If you’re squeamish, you should only read the last paragraph. After that, just hold on for the ride.
I thought this book was really great, and I absolutely LOVED the horror and fright of the beginning. However, it does get a bit... well, for lack of a better word, sappy. I thought it was good, but it was a bit too philosophical for me. Other than that, though, I really enjoyed it. 4/5 stars!