Review: The God Game by Danny Tobey (Spoiler-Free)

~ Thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for sending me an early copy of this book. Release date: January 7, 2020 ~ I'm truly at a loss for words. This book has every element that a book needs and delivers on them flawlessly. From the moment I read the first page, I was hooked. Despite what you might think based on how many books I read, I'm actually not typically able to read for long periods of time. I'm someone who consistently reads in little bits, usually an hour being the longest consecutive amount of time in a day. Only books that are truly captivating or addicting allow me to read for longer than this at once. The God Game was one of those books. I love books about games, and I love stories about AI (for example, Illuminae, or Black Mirror), so naturally, I hoped that I would enjoy this book. What I wasn't expecting was to be so totally blown away. Danny Tobey manages to write fleshed out characters while simultaneously driving the plot at a thrilling pace. He packs moments of despair in the spaces between the terror and desperation. I can honestly say that there wasn't one character that I didn't understand, and that is the beauty of The God Game. How could there be one version of morality when everyone experiences a situation differently? There is so much commentary within the highly entertaining, but still horrifying, pages of this book. I don't know how Tobey managed it all. There is legitimately so much I have to say about this book that I think I'd be unable to explain it. I don't even know how to start discussing the ending, so I think I'm just gonna say that you need to experience it for yourself (in the context of the whole book, of course). If you're in need for books to read in 2020, I beg of you, give this one a try. You will not regret it.

Song I was reminded of while reading: Broken Machine