Book Review: Deadly Pink by Vivian Vande Velde

Deadly Pink
Rasmussem Corportaion #3
Author: Vivian Vande Velde
Reading Level: YA
Genre: Science Fiction
Released: July 10th 2012
Review Source: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Available: Amazon

Summary: (from goodreads) Grace Pizzelli is the average one, nothing like her brilliant older sister, Emily, who works for Rasmussem, creators of the world’s best virtual reality games. The games aren’t real, though—or at least they weren’t. Now Emily has hidden herself inside a pink and sparkly game meant for little girls. No one knows why, or how to convince her to come back out, and the technology can’t keep her safe for much longer. Grace may consider herself average, but she’s the only one who can save Emily. So Grace enters the game, hoping to talk her sister out of virtual suicide before time runs out. Otherwise Emily will die—for real.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I began reading Deadly Pink. It seemed like an interesting enough story about a virtual reality game. Within the first few paragraphs, I couldn’t put it down. The story moved fairly quickly beginning with Grace being picked up early from school by her mother and the Rasmussem people. These people are the creators of virtual reality games that are the best of the best. In the games, you can smell, feel, taste, hear every detail as though you were actually living it. Grace’s sister, Emily, works for Rasmussen and manages to override the commands of a game where she escapes to purposefully.

All of a sudden, Grace is launched into the game by Rasmussem with the promise of it being safe. Her goal is to convince Emily to come back home to reality. The plot may sound a little strange, but it was something different. I found it was very nicely written and the imagery within Emily’s game is beautiful. You can picture all of the details so vividly, that it’s obvious why she chose this game in particular to escape to. It was a girly girl’s haven, complete with unicorns, butterflies and a gondola.

If you can appreciate a fast paced, light read then I’d definitely recommend Deadly Pink. The story will keep you turning pages late into the night, guessing what could possibly happen next. It kept me wondering how it would end through the very last pages.