I really liked this book. It was easy to read and engaging. The world was interesting and the end-of-the-world scenario hit uncomfortably close to home. The action moved along nicely, and the pacing of mystery and reveal kept me interested throughout the book. Tyler's plight of being tasked with saving the world in time to ask his girl to Homecoming grounded the otherwise gruesome nature of the crisis in a reminder that the target is a young adult audience. I liked Tyler as a character quite a lot. He felt very relatable and he was easy to empathize with.
A video game app goes online and the world comes crashing to an end. In an instant, the entire population of the world is transformed into either a predator - or their prey. Everyone who plays the game, that is. As a non-player, Tyler has to navigate this semi-surreal sort-of post-apocalyptic landscape. We get a road trip. We get a glimpse at post-Zero Hour society. It's a bit dizzying in a world where not that long ago, people were getting into serious accidents because they couldn't stop playing Pokemon Go!
Underlying the change is a mystery and a lurking moral question. What caused the change? Have people been changed into something new, or just become what they always were to begin with? If this is something that has been done to them, are they still responsible for the moral implications of their actions? The reader comes to all of these questions long before Tyler does, and Tyler himself spends basically no time wrestling with them. The focus of the story is on the action, not on the implications.
By the time the mystery is fully revealed, Tyler has been through some heavy emotional changes and some questions about morality and humanity have been raised. I wanted the reveal to carry more spiritual weight, either by being supernatural in nature or by being personalized to the characters. The subject of the moral implications of peoples' actions is asked but not answered. The author simply leaves the reader to work through the moral implications of the situation on their own.
Overall, I was quite happy with the story, and it makes me want to read other stories by the same author. It was a satisfying read from an author whose style is engaging and approachable. This story was easy to read, enjoyable throughout, and had a satisfying conclusion.
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