Deadly Pink

Vande Velde, Vivian. Deadly Pink.
10 July 2012

Rasmussen virtual reality games are back , (User Unfriendly (1991), Heir Apparent (2004)) and this time Grace's sister Emily, an intern for the company, has put herself into a game and is refusing to come out. She has disabled all of the safety features, and if they can't get her out of the game, she will die. The world into which Emily has thrust herself is a pink and sparkly children's game, and when Grace goes in, she runs into all sorts of problems. Emily has created a fantasy world for herself where everything is easy, but she has angered the creatures in the game. Even when the two try to fix the rules in order to get Emily out, the game still turns against her and will not let her leave because she has cheated. To make matters worse, Grace finds that the reason Emily has chosen to attempt suicide by stranding herself in the game is based in her actions in the real world, so those problems have to be worked through as well. 
Strengths: This stands alone quite well, and there are so few books that deal with video games. I have the second book (in pretty bad condition) in my library, but oddly, not the first. May have to look into this, as a series would be great.
Weaknesses: I think I would have preferred it is Emily had gotten herself trapped in the game just because of her greed, not because she was afraid of the repercussions of something she did in the real world. The suicide by video game angle was rather disturbing and takes this a bit out of the interest range of younger readers, who would enjoy the rest of the story.