Regan's life has been crazy since her father died unexpectedly. Her mother is barely functional and her best friend, Patrick, has taken over her father's job developing the virtual reality program, Elusion. The Escapes offered by Elusion have been a great success in the Detroit market and may soon be available nationwide, but Regan can't Escape anymore. Forgetting her feelings for even one short hour just makes it that much harder to return to real life without her Dad. When some Elusion skeptics start to posit that the program might be harmful or addictive, Regan snaps to its defense. Her father would have never created something dangerous. But when people, mostly teens, start experiencing strange health complications and lengthy comas that seem to be connected to Elusion, Regan starts to wonder if she has been misled by the people she loves the most.
Why It's Worth Reading:
Well, for me, I needed no more convincing that the fact that this book is set in dystopian Detroit. It's always more interesting to read about a setting that is familiar, and the concept of what the city would look like in a broken-down future is fascinating to ponder. If that's not enough, the concept here is definitely unique. I certainly haven't read every YA dystopian novel in the world, but I've read my fair share, and this one was different. The idea of a virtual reality program that offers an escape from the regular world, that interacts with brain chemistry & neurological function, that could potentially become addictive, is tremendously interesting to me, especially when one draws comparisons between our existing very absorbing and somewhat addictive handheld devices. Yet all of the adventure, the mystery, the conspiracy that one hopes for in a dystopian novel are still here. It's a perfect blend of the genre that you already know with a new twist to keep things interesting. What else can we ask for?
Book Details:
ISBN: 9780062122414
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Publication Date: March 18,2014
Source: LIBRES (I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.)
Do We Own a Copy?: Definitely!