Bluescreen (Mirador Book 1) - Dan Wells

Publisher Summary:

"Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. That connection is a djinni—a smart device implanted right in a person’s head. In a world where virtually everyone is online twenty-four hours a day, this connection is like oxygen—and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it. Marisa Carneseca is one of those people. She might spend her days in Mirador, but she lives on the net—going to school, playing games, hanging out, or doing things of more questionable legality with her friends Sahara and Anja. And it’s Anja who first gets her hands on Bluescreen—a virtual drug that plugs right into a person’s djinni and delivers a massive, nonchemical, completely safe high. But in this city, when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is, and Mari and her friends soon find themselves in the middle of a conspiracy that is much bigger than they ever suspected."

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My Review

Rating: 8/10

Bluescreen was a really new read for me, especially because the other "video game" dystopian novels I have read were not so in-and-out of the video game world. It centers around Marisa Carneseca, a girl living in the poorer part of LA in the year 2050, and I like the way the novel has been set up. I'm looking forward to finding out how the plot is developed over the course of the series.

While it hasn't been the first book about video games that I've read, it was definitely the first that had such a heavy technological aspect to it. In fact, the book focused more on the djinni than on the video games, which I found was really cool. I also liked how, in most cases, Marisa was a pretty capable main character.

The pacing of the novel was good, and most of the book had evenly spaced out events. There was no feeling of a more boring part of the book or one with too much excitement going on. While there definitely were action packed scenes, the major events of the book were spaced out enough to be memorable across the series. The third person POV greatly helped improve the character development and stopped the book from being cheesy. Overall the plot twists were well done, but they could have used a little bit more foreshadowing. The cliffhanger keeps readers wanting more, and while the book has the potential to have been a standalone, I'm glad it was written as series.

The writing of the book was quite fluid and consistent, and while there were points of confusion, it was overall well done. The main character could have been a bit more developed, but overall there was good detail and balance between every character. All the characters were nicely written, and none of them were insufferable in a bad way. The plot was interesting and engaging, and the book was quite a page turner. I haven't read many books that have taken on a similar plot to this one, so it was quite intriguing. There was some formation of romance, but it was quickly cut out, so I kind of felt like the book could have been good without it as well. The author tried to combine different cultures from around the world, but it may not have given off the desired effect. Other than these few points, the plot line was really interesting. Marisa had a personal connection to her problem, and Wells did a great job expanding on how it affected all of society.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book! It was a breath of fresh air for me, very different than the other video-game based books that I have read, especially with its incorporation of the real life element. For those who are more inclined to the technology side of dystopian fiction, this book is definitely recommended.