Arena by Holly Jennings

Arena by Holly Jennings
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**I received an ebook from First to Read (Penguin Books) in exchange for an honest review.**
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This book is not what I would consider my typical genre of reading. It is a more futuristic science/fantasy genre than urban fantasy, but the premise intrigued me. As the mother of two tweens who are deeply into the Minecraft/Terraria craze the VR aspect of the story struck a cord with me, and I consider myself a bit of a geek/nerd to boot so I really wanted to see if the story would stand up to the write-up. And,... it did!

This is the story of Kali Ling - a 20-year old woman who has only ever wanted to be a top-notch virtual gamer. She's worked, trained, studied, and... and acted, partied, and ignored reality to get where she is. And, just as she has a chance to make history her world starts to crumble. Kali learns that in order to be the leader she needs to be she must look back to trainings she had abandoned and center herself before she can help balance and effectively lead her team to victory.

This was obviously well-research and well written. It kept me invested throughout the story - even when I didn't agree with the actions of the primary characters. It can also be read as a statement regarding our culture and where it very well might lead if we aren't careful. In fact, I found it to be reminiscent of Animal Farm by George Orwell. I look forward to reading any sequels to this story.

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