Review: Doomed by Tracy Deebs

Doomed By Tracy Deebs
Release Date: January 8th, 2013 by Walker Childrens
Details: 480 pages, hardcover
Genre: Young Adult > Dystopia
Source: NetGalley (Thank you NetGalley & Walker Childrens!)
Find it: Amazon || Goodreads
Summary:

Beat the game. Save the world.

Pandora’s just your average teen, glued to her cell phone and laptop, surfing Facebook and e-mailing with her friends, until the day her long-lost father sends her a link to a mysterious site featuring twelve photos of her as a child. Unable to contain her curiosity, Pandora enters the site, where she is prompted to play her favorite virtual-reality game, Zero Day. This unleashes a global computer virus that plunges the whole world into panic: suddenly, there is no Internet. No cell phones. No utilities, traffic lights, hospitals, law enforcement. Pandora teams up with handsome stepbrothers Eli and Theo to enter the virtual world of Zero Day. Simultaneously, she continues to follow the photographs from her childhood in an attempt to beat the game and track down her father, her one key to saving the world as we know it. Part The Matrix, part retelling of the Pandora myth, Doomed has something for gaming fans, dystopian fans, and romance fans alike.

Let's talk about the cover, since everyone else is. I kinda like this new one, I think it's a little more interesting than the previous one even though the previous one did give off that video game feel to it.

Doomed is about Pandora. It's her birthday and her mother is absent because she's at work and she can't even remember her own daughters birthday (which is messed up and kinda strange). Her dad left years ago and she's pretty much by herself. Until she checks her email after an upsetting phone call with her mother and finds an email from her dad. That's when things start to get a little interesting.

You don't get much of a background when it comes to Pandora and her life. You see her at school for just that afternoon and then you jump into what the book is all about. I found it strange that her name is Pandora and she plays a game called Pandora's Box (at least I think that's what it was called). You're quickly introduced to Eli and Theo who ironically live next door. I honestly couldn't tell them apart (or maybe I didn't care enough to pay attention), it seemed like the author took one complex person and split that person in half.

I was under the impression that Pandora and her friends get sucked into the game or something but that isn't what happens. They're basically still in the real world but need to play the game in order to fix things in the real world but need the real world to pick up clues to get to the next place in the game. See how that works? Half way through the book I was lost. The situations weren't that believable; I mean if the internet went down yes that would screw things up like being able to pay with a credit card or not being able to watch TV... but besides connecting to a server for credit card purchases does a cash register not count change like a big calculator? So I don't see how the diner scene made sense unless everyone there was trying to pay with credit. Also, I think the fact that Theo and Eli were so skilled at life sort of assisted in the plot not being believable  I mean they broke her out from being held captive by the FBI in her own house. How the hell?! 

I didn't find myself caring about the clues Pandora's dad left her. I couldn't find myself caring about Pandora and her friends either. It was just all so weird! Also the ending was totally unsatisfying, I didn't feel that they reached an actual conclusion to the situation. Also what was with the random Greek Mythology thrown in?

Considering how uncaptivated I was by it, I'm surprised I finished it. While the book did have some interesting situations as far as what if we didn't have the internet and a few thrown in facts about the Earth and stuff from one of the boys, I can't really say I enjoyed this read. And it's always sad to say that. But just because it didn't work out for me doesn't mean it won't work out for you! (: