"What does it mean to be saved? Is it a version of yourself from years ago, perfectly preserved, so that you can return to it one day, unblemished, no matter what insults have happened since? No matter the mistakes and errors and blows and sins?
Or is it the opposite: overwriting all past versions of yourself, so that everything before has been wiped away, leaving only the newest, latest version to go forward and sin no more?
Or is the simplest explanation true: that there is no such thing as salvation? Only a series of files, disjointed, slices of time that - when strung together - give the approximation of life. The way a flip-book gives the illusion of motion."

After experimenting with an AI that was programmed to believe it was God, a group of friends who call themselves The Vindicators find themselves drawn into a game. While it starts off simple enough, they are asked to to darker and darker things until they are in too deep and can't escape. Not that they always want to. Some of the rewards for their loyalty are rather enticing. Especially since leaving the game means death.

This book felt familiar. But I don't know to which book. I've looked over my reading tracker from the past few years (even searching for words in the remark I remember making. But I couldn't find it.). I'll edit this to add it if I ever remember.

I enjoyed the characters in this book and seeing their corruption. It's definitely believable as it all builds up slowly. This does mean that the book drags a bit at times, especially given its length. The game is incredibly creepy and disturbing. The lines between the virtual reality of the game and the reality of life quickly get blurred, and we find our characters questioning who is playing and who can they trust. They even start doubting each other as no one really knows what the game wants or what it is trying to achieve. ( )

Teenagers play with things they don't understand and no one is happy.

The characters were relatively realistic teenagers (impulsive, annoying, selfish) and made one stupid decision after another. Everyone had some level of trauma (or barring that, some pretty high pressure laid on them) and everyone placed their own gain above others'.

Conceptually, there were things I liked about the book, and the game, and the way the story was structured. Some of it didn't really feel consistent. (For example, the point of view shifts.) The carrying force that kept me reading was the need to know how it would all end up, and I'm so disappointed that the author felt the need to tack on Chapter 102. So. Fucking. Dumb.

Alas, you can't always have great books, sometimes you have to make do with mediocre. ( )

Solid Yet Could Have Been Transcendental. If you've seen the 2016 movie Nerve, you have a pretty good idea what you're getting into here. The two are very similar in overall concept, though ultimately both use the common concept to speak to different issues. With this particular book, you get more into The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase's mantra - everyone has a price - even as the book tries in spits and spurts to discuss much weightier metaphysical topics. Hell, the book name drops Aquinas and Lewis and uses Thoth, Christ, Freud, and Heaphestus as characters! And while all of these add some interesting wrinkles to the overall tale, ultimately this book suffers from the same fate as Marcus Sakey's Afterlife. By this I mean that, as I said in the title, it is a solid action/ scifi book that could have been transcendental with a bit more care. Very much recommended. ( )

Wow - fast-paced, imaginative, creepy, and twisted tale that will have you putting tape over that laptop camera and looking twice at your cell phone and smart devices!

In the story, Charlie and his computer geek friends are pulled into a computer game with an AI that calls itself G.O.D. that soon intersects with the real world. Go along with the game and you get rewarded; resist, and you get Blaxx, which can result in injury or death, as they soon discover. The game plays with them/pits them against each other, testing loyalties, priorities and even their basic morals.

While the setting is Austin, this really could be anywhere, which adds to the chill. The characters are complex and flawed, most of them hiding a secret of some kind. Of all the flawed characters, the AI is the most confusing as it seems to have no moral dilemma about playing with anyone's lives - one of the bits that make it so terrifying, as it was built by feeding it every religion and philosophy that exists. And it thinks that it is GOD - neither benevolent or not.

“It's crowdsourcing morality, creating situations to see how players judge each other's choices."

The book moves at a hurtling pace until about 3/4 of the way through, where I found myself lost in the weeds with a part that crossed coding and philosophy. (Dear reader, I skimmed this part.) You will have to suspend disbelief a bit, as the AI seems to put together a plan in three-dimensions, as the group discovers that outside players are also involved in ways they cannot understand, as well as with the technology, which seems to be a bit too sentient and high level. The stakes continue to grow and the Charlie and the group are wound up tighter and tighter in the game; technology is used in horrible ways until it became hard to know

It's an ambitious book with a rather grim commentary on society and faith, yet I couldn't put down.

I'd recommend this to older YA readers as it contains some violence, blackmail, self-harm, drugs, and attempted suicide.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital ARC of the book. ( )

This book is amazing, it really draws you in and captivates you and it makes you want to read it more. I love thrillers and this one is epic.
It comes out January 7, 2020 so if you want a good book to read I definitely recommend this one! ( )