‘Because everything freezes, and the Manhattan streets dissolve before my eyes. I’m not really there’

This book is the perfect thriller for the artificial intelligence and virtual reality era. For Opal, a seventeen-year-old girl, code is life. She can build entire worlds from scratch. But most importantly, it’s those skills she uses to uncover the mystery behind her father’s disappearance. However, when she faces an unexpected catapult to freedom, her VR world becomes her viral reality, and deciphering the truth has just become harder.

This book is the most unorthodox combination of genres – high school drama collides with hacking, sci-fi, and coding. Opal is a relatable high school girl, yet so different.

I love the vivid imagination behind this world, the ideas behind WAVE (a platform which is most bizarre), the way worlds were designed. It did take me some time to get used to this world, but once I did, the real world felt really mundane but… safe too.

The clash between people who welcomed technology, virtual reality, and self-driving cars, as opposed to those who were reluctant to it, was extremely interesting.

It was a complete roller-coaster of a book, slowing down sometimes only to spring back up with the most unexpected things.

Does Opal find her missing dad? Do her friendships last? Does she go viral? Well, that the book cover says, but is that a pro or a con for her?

read-o-meter rating: 4/5

Age rating: 15+

Until next time… dear reader of my book diary:)