Release Date: January 2013
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 480
Source: eARC received through NetGalley – thanks!
Interest: YA Dystopia / Sci-fi / Fantasy
Buy the Book: IndieBound | Amazon | B&N
Beat the game. Save the world.
Pandora’s just your average teen, glued to her cell phone and laptop, surfing Facebook and e-mailing with her friends, until the day her long-lost father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring twelve photos of her as a child. Unable to contain her curiosity, Pandora enters the site, where she is prompted to play her favorite virtual-reality game, Zero Day. This unleashes a global computer virus that plunges the whole world into panic: suddenly, there is no Internet. No cell phones. No utilities, traffic lights, hospitals, law enforcement. Pandora teams up with handsome stepbrothers Eli and Theo to enter the virtual world of Zero Day. Simultaneously, she continues to follow the photographs from her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her father, her one key to saving the world as we know it. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike.
Rating: 2.75 / 5 Riceballs
Book Review:
This might sound strange, but as I was reading Doomed, there was a strange “niggling” feeling in the back of my mind. Along with some personal taste and character issues, it seemed like for me, little details made me bothered, bit-by-bit. It wasn’t that Doomed was necessarily a bad book, but there were some issues that made me enjoy the book a tad bit less.
For me, the characters were just… “okay”. They weren’t totally impressive or complex, but still likable enough. Pandora, for example, had her moments as a kick-ass heroine, but was sometimes naïve and a little too dependent on others. A good number of problems were actually solved by Theo or Eli, while Pandora tagged along. Meanwhile, Theo and Eli were the classic type of YA love interests – mysterious, strong, handsome, and smart, but somehow still willing to do A LOT for someone they had literally met. There’s also an eventual romance, which admittedly had me cringing a bit, since I felt like the romance progressed too quickly and held not much chemistry…
There were some plot holes that were very distracting to a detailed-oriented person like me :/ In the beginning of the book, the electricity and Internet didn’t work, and suddenly it became the apocalypse – people were ransacking supply and grocery stores, pulling out guns, etc. Except, for something that chaotic to happen, the world would have to become SO technology oriented, humans couldn’t survive without it. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the world was that way, so I was a bit confused. Pandora’s supposed tasks had obviously also required Theo’s hacking skills or knowledge, but also required Pandora’s knowledge of her childhood. It didn’t make sense to me that Pandora’s dad would send her out on a mission like this, if Pandora wouldn’t be able to complete it without external help.
Apart from those plot holes however, I did enjoy the general plot. It was quick-paced, full of action, and all in all, interesting! Admittedly, I do play a lot of video games, so I loved the virtual reality world in Pandora’s box. It was also interesting to see the connections between Pandora’s childhood and her current mystery and adventure. The author also puts an interesting spin with Greek mythology, while combining some of today’s world problems.
Overall, Doomed had some plot holes and character issues that I couldn’t quite ignore, but still had a quick-paced and exciting plot. Fans of Tracy Deebs’s previous works or romancey-dystopias might, however, enjoy this book!
For me, the characters were just… “okay”. They weren’t totally impressive or complex, but still likable enough. Pandora, for example, had her moments as a kick-ass heroine, but was sometimes naïve and a little too dependent on others. A good number of problems were actually solved by Theo or Eli, while Pandora tagged along. Meanwhile, Theo and Eli were the classic type of YA love interests – mysterious, strong, handsome, and smart, but somehow still willing to do A LOT for someone they had literally met. There’s also an eventual romance, which admittedly had me cringing a bit, since I felt like the romance progressed too quickly and held not much chemistry…
There were some plot holes that were very distracting to a detailed-oriented person like me :/ In the beginning of the book, the electricity and Internet didn’t work, and suddenly it became the apocalypse – people were ransacking supply and grocery stores, pulling out guns, etc. Except, for something that chaotic to happen, the world would have to become SO technology oriented, humans couldn’t survive without it. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the world was that way, so I was a bit confused. Pandora’s supposed tasks had obviously also required Theo’s hacking skills or knowledge, but also required Pandora’s knowledge of her childhood. It didn’t make sense to me that Pandora’s dad would send her out on a mission like this, if Pandora wouldn’t be able to complete it without external help.
Apart from those plot holes however, I did enjoy the general plot. It was quick-paced, full of action, and all in all, interesting! Admittedly, I do play a lot of video games, so I loved the virtual reality world in Pandora’s box. It was also interesting to see the connections between Pandora’s childhood and her current mystery and adventure. The author also puts an interesting spin with Greek mythology, while combining some of today’s world problems.
Overall, Doomed had some plot holes and character issues that I couldn’t quite ignore, but still had a quick-paced and exciting plot. Fans of Tracy Deebs’s previous works or romancey-dystopias might, however, enjoy this book!
