This book was a chaotic, hilarious, and also sometimes disturbing ride.  Overall it felt like ‘what if The Hunger Games was a comedy in a more end of the world setting?’  That’s a very strange sentence but this book was really awesome!😂  It made me laugh a ton, way more than you’d think a book with this serious of a setting would.  I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked this up, but it wasn’t at all like that - it was way better.  

The characters in Dinniman’s story absolutely sparkle - his writing style is engaging, direct, and descriptive without being laboriously so.  Carl was a great, and more complex character than I gave him credit for in the first third of the book.  Princess Donut is absolutely hysterical and loveable all at once - I adore her.  The way Dinniman writes makes even the secondary and tertiary characters really stand out.  I loved all the details, I LOVE Mordecai and Brandon. 

I was gutted when Yolanda died.  And who THE FUCK is Agatha?!  Are we having some Agatha All Along flashbacks??? 

For a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously, I really can’t overstate how well done it is - the plotting is cleverly done, and every character introduced retains a mysterious air of ‘will they be importing later?’ - overall just LOVED this book!  An adventure full of laughs and also simultaneously some moments that make you consider what it means to be a human being.  

The pop cultural references are fucking hilarious and spot on - when the AI tells Carl that ‘The ghost of Steve Irwin smiles down upon you’ I laughed so hard - I grew up watching Crocodile Hunter and Animal Planet and that was just such a niche, fantastic throwback.  

For my fellow sensitive readers, definitely be aware that while this is played as a comedy, the setting is inherently disturbing, and it’s important to go in recognizing that.  The first boss battle in particular was tough for me.  I was listening to the book while eating lunch on my work break, and had to put my food away while that scene finished because it made me nauseated and disturbed.  
I am aware that was *the point* - to illustrate how fucked up the corporations and powers that be are for creating this ‘game’ and subjecting people to it.  
That’s by far the worst moment of the first book to me - but this is a violent story, so definitely read when you’re in a good headspace for that sort of thing.  

A great book that I will enjoy finishing the series of, and no doubt revisit.