Book Review by Aarene Storms: Otherworld

Otherworld
by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller

Simon is a poor-little-rich-boy whose only friend, Kat, is now ignoring him. In an effort to win her back, Simon sends Kat a virtual reality headset so they can reunite in the game "Otherworld," if not in real life.

Things go terribly wrong, and now Kat is in a coma, permanently jacked in to Otherworld... unless Simon can save her.

I wanted this to be as action-packed and imaginative as Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, but it isn't.

The characters are two-dimensional, the suspense is hard to believe, and the bad guys are cartoonish at best.

Some details in the virtual reality world are original, and perhaps book #2 will lean more heavily on those? Let me know, because I probably won't read it-- but readers who loved RP1 will definitely want to try this book, even if they don't finish it.

Minimal cussing, virtual bloodshed, and talk of a virtual orgy in the basement, but very little skin on the page. The audiobook is competently read by the author. For readers 14 to adult.


The events may not have happened; still, the story is true.  --R. Silvern

Aarene Storms, youth services librarian
Richmond Beach and Lake Forest Park Libraries, KCLS