Published By: Bloomsbury Aust
Released : Available Now
Details: Paperback from publisher for honest review, 470 Pages
RATING: 4.5 FAST PACED STARS!
Blurb: Goodreads
Beat the game. Save the world.
Pandora's an average teen, glued to her cell phone and laptop, until the day her long-lost father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring photos of her as a child. Curious, Pandora enters the site, unwittingly unleashing a global computer virus that plunges the whole world into panic: suddenly, there's no Internet. No cell phones. No traffic lights, hospitals or law enforcement. Only Pandora's Box, a virtual-reality game created by Pandora's father, remains up and running. Together with her neighbors, gorgeous stepbrothers Eli and Theo, Pandora must follow the photographs from her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her father—and rescue the world. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike.
BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:
I totally dug this fast paced, YA ride. Seriously, from start to finish this book was almost made to be a movie with all the non stop things going on. It would be pretty cool up on the big screen.
This was a story that really made me stop and think about the impact of technology and what would happen if a lone person could actually do what the villain of this story did. Statement or not, this was a pretty powerful thing and the impact it had on society.
It wasn’t just a matter of , boo hoo we can’t use the internet. What am I going to do if I can’t facebook somebody.
No. This villain took down everything. The whole grid.
Electricity. No fridges, cash registers, ATM’s for money. Nobody uses manual bank books anymore.
We plug into everything!!
Just imagine.
Money becomes , useless.
Back to trading for goods.
Traffic lights stuck on green equals car accidents, death.
Hospitals, all their equipment needs electricity, medical results come through from phones, emails.
I wouldn't be blogging. Gahhhh!!
Petrol stations stop working once the batteries in them die. No petrol.
Looting.
Fights.
People start to form a hierarchy. Look out, here comes a dystopian world.
What percentage of people in the world are peaceful, friendly, non life threatening?
What percentage turn to fear as a weapon and use it?
What percentage of people are looking for trouble and will grab a gun and shoot you before shaking your hand and helping you?
Jails use electricity too.
Within four days the world was falling to pieces.
Very believable.
Tracy made me really think deeply about how much technology and internet we now rely on , not just for play, but for serious day to day stuff.
Nuclear plants, need cooling systems, if they aren’t working...
BOOM!!
Within four days the world was falling to pieces.
Very believable.
Tracy made me really think deeply about how much technology and internet we now rely on , not just for play, but for serious day to day stuff.
Nuclear plants, need cooling systems, if they aren’t working...
BOOM!!
Airplanes in the air need computer systems up and running.
OO that one makes me queasy.
There is a very real message within the pages of this book, which is quite frightening.
We have forgotten how to live off the land.
Google is our source of knowledge. We don’t learn things from memory like we used to years gone by.
Skills have been lost.
I think I should be hanging with the Amish. They have it going on in this day and age.
We panic when we can’t control our day.
There is a very real message within the pages of this book, which is quite frightening.
We have forgotten how to live off the land.
Google is our source of knowledge. We don’t learn things from memory like we used to years gone by.
Skills have been lost.
I think I should be hanging with the Amish. They have it going on in this day and age.
We panic when we can’t control our day.
Go back a hundred years, we lived the simple life, it worked.
We don't know how to do that, anymore. Our brains can't wrap around that life.
We want computers, electricity, communication at the touch of a button and the internet to get us through a day.
When that is taken from us.
That is when shiz goes down.
Pandora turns seventeen. She is home alone, her mother working in Alaska. She knew her mum wouldn’t remember her birthday, she hoped she would, but the day was starting off... just like any other.
Until...
An email arrives in her inbox that starts a countdown that could end the world in ten days.
Pandora likes to play Pandora’s Box, a game that has people around the world engrossed in.
I’ve got short, spiky red hair with violet streaks in the front. Plus, I’ve got muddy brown eyes and I’m also close to six feet tall, a height that doesn’t exactly scream cute, cuddly, and in need of protection.
Little do they know that once Pandora unwrapped her gift, the safety of the world was going to be riding on her shoulders and the two hunky neighbors who decided to come along for the ride.
Total Annihilation in ten days.
Even the game, Jumanji didn’t have this much riding on getting to the end of a game and winning.
Enter Theo and his stepbrother Eli.
Theo is all dark and broody and gorgeous, despite dressing like a total prep. Piercing blue eyes partially covered by his shaggy black hair, superbroad shoulders beneath a navy striped button-down dress shirt, and a really good face complete with strong jaw, full lips, and razor-sharp cheek bones. Plus he’s smart enough to be in all AP classes.
Eli, on the other hand, is a total charmer. Bright green eyes, carefully styled nlond hair, his own set of broad shoulders, and a killer smile that he uses to great advantage.
Shiz starts going down from the start. The alphabetical feds are trying to nab Pandora. ( FBI etc..)
Theo to the rescue.
Stuff the laws, these seventeen year old kids have a world to save.
“How many laws do you think we’ve broken since this thing began?” I ask.
“Seventeen. I’ve been counting.”
I thought this was a very clever idea. I don’t want to think too hard about the technology required to pull off some of the stuff the villain of the story pulled off with getting the kids avatars into the computer game and what not... but it is fiction. So just go with it.
Theo is the man of this story. This kid is like Daryl from the Walking Dead. You just want him on your side.
Pandora was lucky enough to have the lads move in down the road as her neighbor and they decided they were up for an adventure they won’t forget in a hurry.
Theo is a jack of all trades, boy genius, plane builder, hacker, did I mention he was uber gorgeous, he has a photographic memory, he is his own GPS system, and he is just totally the dude you want on your side.
He can just be a bit of a cranky pants when he wants to be.
Looks like our luck is taking a major upswing, though I guess that has more to do with Theo than any goodwill from the universe.
Eli is a really great character, but as we read more, we see his flaws compared to his stepbrother.
Hey, there’s no room for two genius’s , plane builders, etc, but he can fight, and he is good looking.
Code words needed to be found to move up levels, coordinates needed to be found inside the game to move the chess pieces ( being them ) around the States.
I liked that when we were in the game with the characters, the pages were grey, then when we were back racing across the States, it was normal page color.
There was action, bullets were flying, hands were being held, time was of the essence, they were car jacking, taking on bikers... the list goes on.
Plus. Greek mythology. I would have been no use to this lot. Theo was a wealth of knowledge on Greek mythology.
Awesome movie making stuff.
Theo was doing an awful lot of , white-knuckled-steering-wheel-clutching.
Seriously. He did a lot of that.
I think Pandora behaved like any seventeen year old average girl. She wasn’t a trained girl scout, an army reserve or had any special training in anything. She was just an average girl. I can understand her teary moments, because she is essentially the cause of the timer starting. She has a lot riding on her shoulders. There is family history.
She isn’t one of Bruce Willis’s characters, who would take this all in his stride and crack a few jokes along the way to saving the world. She is a kid who has shit parents.
But, she does have Theo and Eli.
And that, my friends, makes all the difference.
“Bad asses?” he asks, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Seriously?”
“Would you rather I say you have a superhero complex?”
“Jesus, what is with you people today? Savior, superhero, bad ass. I’m just me.”
“And I’m just me. Not a damsel in distress, not a princess waiting for you to slay my dragons.”
That is when shiz goes down.
Pandora turns seventeen. She is home alone, her mother working in Alaska. She knew her mum wouldn’t remember her birthday, she hoped she would, but the day was starting off... just like any other.
Until...
An email arrives in her inbox that starts a countdown that could end the world in ten days.
Pandora likes to play Pandora’s Box, a game that has people around the world engrossed in.
I’ve got short, spiky red hair with violet streaks in the front. Plus, I’ve got muddy brown eyes and I’m also close to six feet tall, a height that doesn’t exactly scream cute, cuddly, and in need of protection.
Little do they know that once Pandora unwrapped her gift, the safety of the world was going to be riding on her shoulders and the two hunky neighbors who decided to come along for the ride.
Total Annihilation in ten days.
Even the game, Jumanji didn’t have this much riding on getting to the end of a game and winning.
Enter Theo and his stepbrother Eli.
Theo is all dark and broody and gorgeous, despite dressing like a total prep. Piercing blue eyes partially covered by his shaggy black hair, superbroad shoulders beneath a navy striped button-down dress shirt, and a really good face complete with strong jaw, full lips, and razor-sharp cheek bones. Plus he’s smart enough to be in all AP classes.
Eli, on the other hand, is a total charmer. Bright green eyes, carefully styled nlond hair, his own set of broad shoulders, and a killer smile that he uses to great advantage.
Shiz starts going down from the start. The alphabetical feds are trying to nab Pandora. ( FBI etc..)
Theo to the rescue.
Stuff the laws, these seventeen year old kids have a world to save.
“How many laws do you think we’ve broken since this thing began?” I ask.
“Seventeen. I’ve been counting.”
I thought this was a very clever idea. I don’t want to think too hard about the technology required to pull off some of the stuff the villain of the story pulled off with getting the kids avatars into the computer game and what not... but it is fiction. So just go with it.
Theo is the man of this story. This kid is like Daryl from the Walking Dead. You just want him on your side.
Pandora was lucky enough to have the lads move in down the road as her neighbor and they decided they were up for an adventure they won’t forget in a hurry.
Theo is a jack of all trades, boy genius, plane builder, hacker, did I mention he was uber gorgeous, he has a photographic memory, he is his own GPS system, and he is just totally the dude you want on your side.
He can just be a bit of a cranky pants when he wants to be.
Looks like our luck is taking a major upswing, though I guess that has more to do with Theo than any goodwill from the universe.
Eli is a really great character, but as we read more, we see his flaws compared to his stepbrother.
Hey, there’s no room for two genius’s , plane builders, etc, but he can fight, and he is good looking.
Code words needed to be found to move up levels, coordinates needed to be found inside the game to move the chess pieces ( being them ) around the States.
I liked that when we were in the game with the characters, the pages were grey, then when we were back racing across the States, it was normal page color.
There was action, bullets were flying, hands were being held, time was of the essence, they were car jacking, taking on bikers... the list goes on.
Plus. Greek mythology. I would have been no use to this lot. Theo was a wealth of knowledge on Greek mythology.
Awesome movie making stuff.
Theo was doing an awful lot of , white-knuckled-steering-wheel-clutching.
Seriously. He did a lot of that.
I think Pandora behaved like any seventeen year old average girl. She wasn’t a trained girl scout, an army reserve or had any special training in anything. She was just an average girl. I can understand her teary moments, because she is essentially the cause of the timer starting. She has a lot riding on her shoulders. There is family history.
She isn’t one of Bruce Willis’s characters, who would take this all in his stride and crack a few jokes along the way to saving the world. She is a kid who has shit parents.
But, she does have Theo and Eli.
And that, my friends, makes all the difference.
“Bad asses?” he asks, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Seriously?”
“Would you rather I say you have a superhero complex?”
“Jesus, what is with you people today? Savior, superhero, bad ass. I’m just me.”
“And I’m just me. Not a damsel in distress, not a princess waiting for you to slay my dragons.”
If this is a stand alone book, which I feel it is, I can't help wanting an Epilogue at the end of it. It's a big statement for one book. You will understand when you read the book and get to the end.
But hey, that's also how some movies end. They just ...End.
If you like a fast paced ride. Grab Doomed. I highly recommend it.
Michelle
The idea makes me think of the TV show but it's also really intriguing. The idea about the photos is really original and I confess I'm curious to understand everything. Thanks for the discovery!
ReplyDeleteThis was a fast read :D I liked it!
DeleteGlad to hear how much you liked this! Great review Mich :) Theo definitely won me over from get go. Great book and ended well. Sometimes series can be too much--I was nice to read such a fast paced book that also concluded well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rachel. I still thought it was a big statement for ONE book, but hey, that is ok. :D
DeleteWow! This does sound really exciting. I've been curious about Dweebs and I think this one will make a great intro. Awesome review!
ReplyDeleteI think you will enjoy it Brandee :D
Delete