Review: Doomed, by Tracy Deebs

Hello readers! Today I have for you a review of Doomed, by Tracy Deebs. The title doesn’t sound desirable, but I can assure you that the content certainly is!

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Before we get started, I have recently added a “Goals for 2017” button on the menu of my blog with my blogging goals for the year. One of them is to do a review every month, so here is January’s. 🙂 I love reviewing books.

First, to help you get a feel for what it’s about, here is the summary found on the inside flap of Doomed.

“Pandora has always believed herself to be a pretty normal teen-glued to her cell phone and laptop and constantly surfing Facebook for the latest gossip. But when her long-lost father sends her a birthday greeting with a link to twelve childhood photographs, Pandora unwittingly releases a computer virus that shuts down the global power grid, instantly plunging the world into panic.

No Internet. No cell phones. No lights, traffic signals, 911, or first responders. Only Pandora’s Box, a virtual reality game created by Pandora’s father, remains up and running. Together with her neighbors, gorgeous stepbrothers Eli and Theo, Pandora realizes that her childhood memories are the key to cracking her father’s computer code in time to save the world from complete annihilation.”

There are two misleading bits of information in this summary that, had the cover not intrigued me so much, may have lead me to put this book back on the shelf.

The way Pandora is described in the first sentence makes her sound like a technology-obsessed, petty, gossiping teenager. But her character has depth and layers and is almost the opposite of that description!

As far as my understanding of the story goes, Pandora didn’t discover her father was the creator of Pandora’s Box until at least three quarters of the way through the book. I knew it the whole time because of the cover flap, but I don’t think she did. I’m not sure why that was mentioned in the summary if it wasn’t clarified at the beginning.

One last disclaimer before we continue- you don’t need to have any interest in video games to read this book. I, who can’t even pass the first level of Super Mario Brothers, I, who can’t figure out how to jump on Poptropica, was very interested in this book. 🙂

The first thing I want to “review,” so to speak, is the impact the loss of technology had on civilization. Honestly, the descriptions terrified me.

Within a couple of days without technology, people had gone wild. Everyday people who were once generally kind and polite went rampant. There were robberies everywhere, stores left in complete chaos, people running around with guns and killing drivers just so they could get to their gasoline. I started to think about if the end of the world were to come- would this happen to our society? Would people I know stoop to the levels that these book characters did?

That thought is more than a little scary. However, I thought the author did a fantastic job of portraying the end of the world. It must have been difficult to do, seeing as we have nothing to go off of. It required much imagination!

The author also did amazing at connecting all the technological puzzle pieces. The same worm (computer virus) that affected technology also affected the nuclear plants (I think that’s what they’re called). After ten days, the nuclear poison (I know that’s not what it’s called) would be released and everyone and everything would die.

I’m not tech savvy, at least not beyond iPhones, so I know I couldn’t have described the computer programmings and such at all. That was an impressive feat. 🙂

I enjoyed following Pandora, Eli, and Theo along on their journey. I found myself scared at some points- often reminding myself, “There’s still half the book left. They can’t die now.” I also found myself debating between a major question that is answered in the end- will she choose Eli or Theo? I would have preferred that there be no romance in this book, but I understand that it was sort of inevitable. I loved how each character had layers, like an onion. Their images from the outside were different from their true personalities. I like it when you still have curiosity about the character.

I have to warn you that there was some foul language frequently used in this book. (Probably a few times or less in each chapter.) Normally I wouldn’t review a book with bad words, but a) it’s nearly impossible to find a MG or YA book without them and b) this was just too good to pass up. Besides the language there was no inappropriate content. Also, if blood or injuries make you squeamish, consider yourself warned.

I am most definitely giving Doomed a five star rating! I enjoyed it immensely and was hooked the entire way through.

I highly recommend this book. Have you read Doomed? If so, do you agree with my rating? If not, do you want to read it now? What books have you read/are reading so far in 2017?

See you all next Monday!

-Olivia♥