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Arena by Holly Jennings


This was a solid sci-fi story, perfect for the YA audience that likes some gaming in their books. It's not all fighting to the death in a virtual arena though, I'd have been fine if it had, and much of the characters time is spent dealing with their love lives. The Arena is a game called RAGE that's pretty much the most popular thing in the world. Kali Ling is one of the top players in the world but because she is a female in a mans world it's been a bit tougher for her to gain the recognition she deserves. She also gets stereotyped as the "Asian Gamer Chick" by her other players. All of this has driven her get better and better and she, like other gamers, revels in the high she gets from being in the virtual world. When a drug appears that can mirror this high and her teammate bites the dust the story gets going and explores themes such as addiction, corruption, sexism and many others. It's not fancy but Jennings does a good job of creating a believable gaming world and if it was not so love dovey, including a few pretty raunchy scenes, I'd have liked it more.

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