Rush (The Game #1) Review

Rush (The Game #1)
by Eve Silver
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Format: ARC from Around the World ARC Tours in exchange for my honest review.  I do not get to keep the books.
Midnight Minute: Miki is enlisted to play a game, with very real life and death consequences.
Expected Publication: 06.11.13
From Goodreads:

So what’s the game now? This, or the life I used to know?

When Miki Jones is pulled from her life, pulled through time and space into some kind of game—her carefully controlled life spirals into chaos. In the game, she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to eliminate the Drau, terrifying and beautiful alien creatures. There are no practice runs, no training, and no way out. Miki has only the guidance of secretive but maddeningly attractive team leader Jackson Tate, who says the game isn’t really a game, that what Miki and her new teammates do now determines their survival, and the survival of every other person on this planet. She laughs. He doesn’t. And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying turn.

Midnight Thoughts:

~ I absolutely love the concept of this book.  It's like Tron meets Starship Troopers meets YA.  
~ But I had a hard time with some of the characters.  It took me almost half the book to really connect with Miki and Jackson.  
~ Miki starts off the book hearing voices, which we know from Harry Potter, is not normal for muggles or witches.
~ The voice she hears actually gets her to save someone, instead of killing someone, so that's new.  
~ So, Miki saves a kid and takes a truck to the body, wakes up in a weird, forest-y setting and is told that she's been recruited for a game.  
~ Miki already knows one of the game players, her old friend and classmate Luka.  There's also a mysteriously hot guy who wears sunglasses.
~ Seriously, Jackson wears sunglasses all the time.  I am not going to make a Corey Hart reference, because I think I've referenced him more times on this blog than is healthy.  But I know immediately that he wears glasses to hide his special eyes.
~ Miki also has special eyes.  Sorry, normal eye colored people, you're lives are destined to be mediocre.  On the bright side, you don't have to battle aliens!
~ Everyone is all cryptic about the game and it's stakes.  Which I find mildly annoying.  Most video games come with some kind of manual!
~ Miki finds out that she's on borrowed time.  As long as she plays the game and doesn't die in it, she gets to stay alive in the real world too.  So the book deals with time travel as well as Scientologist like aliens. 
~ Miki somehow survives the first part of the game despite the fact that she's given very limited information on how to battle the aliens.  This is partly because even though Jackson is a lone wolf bad boy, he can't help but break all his cool boy rules for Miki. 
~ Back in the real world, Miki is struggling with a suddenly bitchy best friend, her widowed father and confusion and mind effery that is the Game.  She keeps getting pulled from her real life to play a game that quite frankly isn't any fun. 
~ Part of the reason that I had some issues connecting with the characters is that we're told things but not shown them.  We're told what a great friend Carly has been to Miki, but she's incredibly wenchy 97% of the time. We're told that Jackson is this loner danger boy, but he immediately treats Miki differently.  
~ The aliens are all scary and less Alf and Mork from Ork-ish. The other-world building history that Silver creates is interesting.  
~ Jackson eventually tells Miki that their missions in the games not only effect whether they live or die, but all of humanity.  And you thought studying the SAT's were tough on teenagers!
~ One of the best aspects of the book for me was Miki's complicated relationship with her father.  Her mother died of cancer, and her dad quit smoking but took up drinking.  He's not quite at alcoholic levels, but it's a problem.  Still, there's a lot of love there, and he felt like a real person and not the usual absent parent that is the bane of most YA. 
~ Miki does a lot of victory dances, for doing things like resetting the computer modem or using a search engine.  I think it's important to celebrate our selfness. 
~ I thought the book was going to be more of a love triangle, because I really liked Luka from the start, but it didn't really happen like that.  Which is kind of refreshing.  But I still want to know more about Luka. 
~ It turns out the Drau (the bad aliens) steal girls, eat their brains and turn them into mindless clones. In otherwords, MTV uses the Drau army clones to cast their reality TV shows. 
~  After awhile, Jackson grew on me.  Plus he reads.  And he and Miki are kind of steamy together. 
~ Miki also grew on me, because I realized how tightly wound she is, and it's hard not to feel for her in this impossible situation dealing with these things she can't control.  
~ Jackson pulls the "I'm no good for you, baby" card, and Miki actually calls him on all the mixed signals he gives her.  I loved that!
~ The ending surprised me, and I think it sets up the next book nicely.  I'm not sure it's a series I'll continue with... but Eve Silver will be at BEA and I'm sure if I meet her I'll like her, and then I'll want to read the rest of the series. ;)

Timeless Characters:

Miki- health nut, our heroine is all kick ass and in control.
Jackson- he wears his sunglasses at night, and day, and bedtime, and Sundays.
Luka- cutie patootie
Richelle- fellow gamer chick, very cool 
Tyrone- gamer dude, brings the humor
Carly- Miki's bestie
Deepti, Sarah and Kelley- Miki's other friends
The Drau- bad ass aliens, best not look them in the eye!
Maylene- girl that Miki tutors
Lizzie- the girl Miki dreams about
Kendra and Lien- gamers

Midnight Moment:

Definitely when Jackson takes off his sunglasses, and also when his past his revealed.

Stop The Clock:

While this wasn't my favorite book, I think there's an audience for it.  I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, and I probably would have found the gaming aspect better without aliens.  But, aliens are the new zombies, right?


Eve Silver — Website |Eve Silver

Rush (The Game #1) gets a Midnight Book Rating of: