Review of: Erebos By Ursula Poznanski

Thanks to Netgalley and Annick Press for letting me review an e-arc of this great book!

Title: Erebos

Author: Ursula Poznanski

Published by: Annick Press

Released: February 1, 2012

Summary: Nick Dunmore has discovered an addicting game that knows him and watches him. The game has been going around his school in secret. Players are handed the game in secret and have to promise not to tell anyone about it. Nick finally gets his own copy and he's instantly hooked. Real life has been put on the back burner and the game takes up all of his waking hours. Then the game starts to get weird, it gives Nick tasks that must be completed in the real world and when Nick fails to complete a task, he's kicked out. Now Nick must find out the real purpose of the game, the meaning of the Messenger's tasks, and stop it all before it's too late.

Be careful, the game Erebos is watching and if you break the rules then being kicked out if the least of your worries.

My Thoughts: This book was so good! It took me about 20 pages to get into it, but by then I was hooked. The game Erebos sort of resembles World of Warcraft or Runescape. Even as a non-gamer person, the fictional game of Erebos was still incredibly addicting. The descriptions of the game were incredibly vivid, it causes the reader to feel like they're actually in the game. It was just an awesome awesome book.

I really liked the two distinct characters of real world Nick and Erebos world Sarius. It was very skillfully done. Knowing that Nick was really Sarius, but there was still a separation between the two.
I also liked the feel of this book. It was like a mystery/thriller/action adventure novel playing in the cyber world.
The creepiness of the game was also very well done. Having these real world tasks that Nick has to do and how they keep getting more and more questionable and dangerous was very good. Also the character of the Messenger, and everytime he appeared you knew it was not good.
The only weird aspect of the book was that it was originally written in German but then translated into English. I guess I was expecting it to be set in Germany so having the setting be in London and having the place of London be so important came as a little bit of a shock.
Overall Erebos is a great book. It's an incredibly addicting thrill ride of a book. It questions the addictiveness of this game, how it takes over these character's lives and through their decisions, shows what kind of people they really are. 
Erebos will hook readers in and have them turning pages until the big finale. I've never read a book where the world of a game was captured so perfectly and so vividly. Erebos is a great read and definitely not a waste of time. I highly recommend this book!

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4.3/5

Utterly engrossing and addicting. Game On!