Burn Down, Rise Up

"Started off with promise but didn't quite hold my attention. The story's rules felt inconsistent, making it a bit of a challenge to follow. I had high expectations, but pushing through was necessary to reach the end. It seemed like the plot prioritized convenience over consistency. However, there was a noticeable effort to infuse community and emotions into the storyline. But don’t let that stop you from reading! It wasn’t the worst book I’ve read and certainly was interesting at times. "

"This book had a lot of potential and I think a lot of the things the author was aiming to do were admirable, but overall it did not work for me.<br/><br/>The game and the characters who disappear playing it are surprisingly unimportant to the plot - the rules are broken all the time and it never really seems to matter that much. Sometimes they didn't even seem to notice: Raquel never managed to follow the flip a coin three times rule and that never even comes up. Some tricks don't work until they do, or only work when it's convenient for the plot, and some solutions felt pretty far fetched. The romance felt a bit rushed and silly (Raquel can't even explain what she likes about her) considering everything else going on, and the love triangle plotlines all felt pointless. Most of the characters didn't really have much personality in that they were all very similar to each other, so it was hard to get that invested in them.<br/><br/>The basic storyline idea and what the author is trying to communicate about the importance of community organizing are good, unfortunately I just didn't feel that they were very well executed."