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Playing Dead: A Young Adult Cyberpunk Novel
They don't want to play the game. They want to destroy it, and she won't let them.Wow. Just, wow. This book has a few rough edges stylistically, but the story is gripping, the characters so real they practically leap off the page. —Amazon ReviewJenaiya is a typical teenager, plodding along as she tries to find her place in the chaotic world of high school. Her only source of real joy is her favorite game, 'Age of Z,' and that all changes when another player calls her an awful, racist name for no good reason at all.Convinced it's a one-time insult, she goes back to her favorite game again. Only, something's changed.She fashions herself a cyberpunk hero—at least online—but she's up against a new kind of danger when her favorite game gets flooded with vile, ruthles new players.Can Jenaiya muster the courage to face her personal demons and be victorious, or will 'Age of Z' be torn apart by the new players?Playing Dead is a young adult novel for fans of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One and Marie Lu's Warcross series. It's not quite a litrpg in the vein of Aleron Kong—there's no leveling system—but it's close enough if you squint.I'm not a gamer, but the marriage between the world of A of Z and the reality-based storyline created an intriguing story that moved fast and spurred many memories of the battles of being a teenager. —Amazon Review Wow. Just Wow. —Amazon Review
282 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 7, 2017
19 people are currently reading
24 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 12, 2019
This is a book about a video game about zombies. In my opinion zombies are so over and there hasn’t been an interesting video game in twenty years. I didn’t realize from the blurb that the video game coverage was such a huge portion of the story, probably 75%.
Add to that the clunky writing:
Actual sentence: “In a wasteland you'd assume it was the creatures out in the world trying to kill you that kept you going, but the other people in the world were more dangerous than all the other hazards combined.”
And: “...but there could be a guy with a fresh glock just hungry enough to kill a teenager for her can opener.”
A ‘fresh glock’, is that a pastry? You mean a new Glock semi automatic pistol? I’ve never heard a gun referred to as ‘fresh’ and Glock is a brand name. And does the guy want to eat the can opener or the girl? Top that off with more than a few missing and mis-typed words. The book needs an editor.
Eventually the subject came around to bullying in school. That kept me interested for awhile. I hate bullies and the fact that schools just don’t want to solve this problem makes me livid. At the 25% point there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel when Jenaiya meets Rory and maybe the dogs (nerds) will have their day as the pair enacts revenge on their school bullies unique ways.
It was a good effort but I wish the author would have concentrated more on the Jenaiya / Rory aspect of standing up to the bullies and less on the video game. I would suppose this might appeal to YA gamers, but then again do teenage gamers actually read anything?
Add to that the clunky writing:
Actual sentence: “In a wasteland you'd assume it was the creatures out in the world trying to kill you that kept you going, but the other people in the world were more dangerous than all the other hazards combined.”
And: “...but there could be a guy with a fresh glock just hungry enough to kill a teenager for her can opener.”
A ‘fresh glock’, is that a pastry? You mean a new Glock semi automatic pistol? I’ve never heard a gun referred to as ‘fresh’ and Glock is a brand name. And does the guy want to eat the can opener or the girl? Top that off with more than a few missing and mis-typed words. The book needs an editor.
Eventually the subject came around to bullying in school. That kept me interested for awhile. I hate bullies and the fact that schools just don’t want to solve this problem makes me livid. At the 25% point there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel when Jenaiya meets Rory and maybe the dogs (nerds) will have their day as the pair enacts revenge on their school bullies unique ways.
It was a good effort but I wish the author would have concentrated more on the Jenaiya / Rory aspect of standing up to the bullies and less on the video game. I would suppose this might appeal to YA gamers, but then again do teenage gamers actually read anything?
Displaying 1 of 1 review