At the beginning of Deadly Pink, the main character, Grace, is pulled out of her high school class by her mother and told that her sister, Emily, has purposely put herself into a virtual reality game and doesn't want to ever come back out. Grace is to go into the game and talk her sister into leaving the game to save her life. As interesting as this idea is, by the middle of the book, the story changes. Emily and Grace are fighting to escape the game by outsmarting dragons and sprites. As the story goes on, it becomes more and more unbelievable from Emily's dramatic change in personality to the ridiculous actions of characters both in and out of the game. It seemed as though the author had a great idea but didn't know where to go with it. Unfortunate since this story could have been so much better. ( )

Don't like my review, instead, read and like Patricia's, here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/371936510. She opines my reaction, but more eloquently than I could. I can only say that I'm being one star more generous because I did have fun with the book. I'm also giving it to my teen son, but he has v. high standards for what he'll read, so I don't really know how much he'll like it. ( )

At the beginning of Deadly Pink, the main character, Grace, is pulled out of her high school class by her mother and told that her sister, Emily, has purposely put herself into a virtual reality game and doesn't want to ever come back out. Grace is to go into the game and talk her sister into leaving the game to save her life. As interesting as this idea is, by the middle of the book, the story changes. Emily and Grace are fighting to escape the game by outsmarting dragons and sprites. As the story goes on, it becomes more and more unbelievable from Emily's dramatic change in personality to the ridiculous actions of characters both in and out of the game. It seemed as though the author had a great idea but didn't know where to go with it. Unfortunate since this story could have been so much better. ( )

I liked the first part of the book much better than the last. Emily chose an interesting way to kill herself, and Grace's growing frustration at trying to even get Emily to talk to her, much less exit the game worked well. But once Grace did pin Emily down, the story went flat. Okay, a lot of this comes from being an adult reading a middle-school level book, but while I was willing to believe all sorts of things in the context of the game, what eventually happened to the characters in the real world wasn't believable.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I just wasn't buying that a "good girl" like Emily would've hacked her friend's SAT scores, nor was it easy to believe that a 17-year-old who probably wasn't practicing breaking into secured systems would manage it so easily. At least the ending mentions in passing that Emily probably did severely limit her future options, and I suppose it isn't something her 14-year-old sister would fully grasp. But no mention is made that the computer intelligence in the Land of Golden Butterflies game understood that it was killing Emily, and was willing to do so. Seems like something Grace or Emily would mention to Rasmussem, to prevent the game from deciding to kill a child at some point in the future. ( )

Just so you know, DEADLY PINK is a fun book for Tweens and Middle-graders who read at this level. It's also a good choice for adults that like kid-lit because the author doesn't talk down to the reader. Intelligent and funny, it was a quick book that did actually have a message that was poignant and yet not in-your-face at all. ( )