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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | YA Fic Vande Velde, V. 2012 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... McMinnville Public Library | Vande Velde, V. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
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.
Author Notes
Vivian Vande Velde (born 1951, Rochester, New York) is an American author who writes books primarily aimed at children and young adults. She currently resides in Rochester, New York. Her novels and short story collections usually contain elements of horror, fantasy, and humor. Her book Never Trust a Dead Man (1999) received the 2000 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 6 Up-When Grace Pizzelli's older sister does not return to reality from a virtual video game, Grace is called upon by Rasmussem, the video-game company where Emily is interning, to enter the game and rescue her. She discovers that her sister is not trapped in the game, but rather she escaped into it after a serious falling-out with her friends in the real world. If she cannot convince Emily to come home soon, she may be lost forever. The plot is full of twists and turns-just as it seems as if Grace has convinced Emily to exit the game, another obstacle presents itself. The action mounts with the conclusion, which serves as a realistic cautionary tale against computer hacking. Vande Velde does a great job of developing Grace and Emily as authentic characters. Throughout the novel, the relationship between Emily, the sister who has everything, and Grace, the "levelheaded" one, evolves into "more one of longtime friends who have been through a lot" as they must depend on one another to survive. Grace's humor, wit, and sarcasm will be appreciated by teens. Readers who enjoy Deadly Pink should check out Vande Velde's other Rasmussem novels, User Unfriendly (1991) and Heir Apparent (2002, both Harcourt).-Nicole Knott, Watertown High School, CT (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Vande Velde again plays with characters caught in a virtual reality game in this overlong but satisfying novel. Fourteen-year-old Grace feels inferior to her pretty, popular, and smart sister, Emily, a college student interning at the Rassmusem Corporation, which is behind "total immersion, the next step beyond virtual reality" (the company's games also played a role in Vande Velde's Heir Apparent and User Unfriendly). When Emily refuses to come out of a game, leaving a cryptic note behind, Grace goes in to rescue her. Vande Velde provides a lot of setup as readers learn more about Emily's tragic story and "Land of the Golden Butterflies," a girly video game filled with sprites, sparkly clothes, dolphins, and unicorns. The plot accelerates when Grace discovers she and Emily are both trapped in the game, and she must figure out how to escape. Readers may tire of the endless mission, but they will find clever gaming details throughout and should appreciate Grace's growing understanding that she can be a hero both in the game and in real life. Ages 10-14. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Vande Velde again traps teenagers inside an authentically depicted arcade game--but here she works twists into the premise that are both amusing and crank up the danger. As in User Unfriendly (1991) and Heir Apparent (2002), the game, called "The Land of Golden Butterflies," is manufactured by the shadowy Rasmussem Corp. and is fully immersive, fed directly into the brain through electrodes. Into this game 14-year-old Grace Pizzelli's big sister Emily has gone; moreover, she has refused to come out and altered the code so she can't be forcibly ejected. As sessions that run longer than a few hours cause brain damage and death, the corporation desperately turns to Grace to follow Emily in and persuade her to leave. Reluctantly agreeing, Grace discovers to her disgust that, rather than offering the usual heroic-fantasy or science-fiction setting, this digital world has been colored in pinks and lavenders. It is stocked with (supposedly) benign magical creatures and hunky male servitors--in general, it seems designed to cater to 10-year-old would-be princesses. The idyll has gone sour, though, because thanks to Emily's fiddling, not only have the wish-granting sprites turned nasty, but the game's governing Artificial Intelligence has changed the Rules--disabling the "Quit" function and forcing both Grace and her already-failing sister to embark on a seemingly hopeless quest with their real lives at stake. Emily's motives turn out to be little more than a pretext, but the author delivers another clever, suspenseful drama in the digital domain. (Science fiction. 10-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
When 14-year-old Grace learns that her gorgeous, popular, brilliant, computer-geek sister has sequestered herself in a virtual reality game and refuses to come out, she is terrified. What could be so horrible that Emily cannot face reality? How can Grace convince her to return before her time runs out? Game-designer Emily has created a pink and frilly world, filled with sprites, tea parties, and fancy ball gowns, where all men are silent and subject to a woman's beck and call. Grace, spunky and often funny, gradually learns why her sister is understandably terrified of the real world. The plot's twists and turns, sometimes extreme and certainly frustrating, mimic the gaming culture, and while the serious subject of suicide appears almost as a throwaway topic, the computer ethics issues are treated realistically at the climax. All in all, Velde offers up a fun fantasy for the female gamer set, with echoes of the importance of being grounded in the real world in spite of the virtual world's seductive pull.--Bradburn, Frances Copyright 2010 Booklist