Sara and Joe have been besties forever - Joe is kind-hearted to a fault and Sara can rely on him for anything， even if she might not be totally honest about her feelings。 All of which gets tested when they’re thrown into a bunch of sadistic challenges and games by an unseen force。 And if you thought online popularity polls were stupid， well， these challenges will take out more than your social life if you place last in them。。。Okay， so， I am going to preface this review really quickly。 If you， li Sara and Joe have been besties forever - Joe is kind-hearted to a fault and Sara can rely on him for anything， even if she might not be totally honest about her feelings。 All of which gets tested when they’re thrown into a bunch of sadistic challenges and games by an unseen force。 And if you thought online popularity polls were stupid， well， these challenges will take out more than your social life if you place last in them。。。Okay， so， I am going to preface this review really quickly。 If you， like myself， are a fan of the Zero Escape series of video games that are focused on a series of elaborate death challenges played out amongst a bunch of strangers while featuring complicated trust issues， do not bother reading more。 Just go and grab this and enjoy yourself。Now， is this a great story？ Eh， I don’t necessarily think so。 There’s something a bit wobbly about it， but most of the characters are good and the challenges are fun， although the author’s not presenting them in necessarily the best way possible。Notably， I felt that the way the second challenge got sorted was indeed very clever， but the way it was laid out and put into action just didn’t quite sit right with me。 The book is sometimes very good at portraying the stakes （you can’t say it doesn’t bookend the volume doing this）， but the moment-to-moment drama is a whole other matter。I mean these sorts of stories are absolutely preposterous （though the way Sara ends up involved is a wonderfully creepy little fake-out） and hinge on what I would charitably term ‘baloney science’ and everybody doing exactly what they need to do at the exact moment they should be doing it。 Which， for me， is kind of where the entertainment value lies。As such， it’s fine if you don’t take it seriously。 It has some fun fake-outs and ‘ooh can I trust these people’ moments and the bond between Joe and Sara appears to be so tight that they， at least， can rely on one another （though that’s a good way to pull the rug out in the end - I’ll die laughing if this series turns out to be Joe’s elaborate attempt to get Sara to date him）。The characters are okay。 Some of them are interesting enough and there’s an implied link between the group that has yet to come up。 It also helps that the art’s quite vivid and gives them all a very distinct look。Of course， there’s such a thing as being TOO distinct and the one poor traumatized girl who appears to wear a pail on her head as part of her costume is so dumb looking it drives me kind of crazy - nothing about that is believable。 The master of ceremonies that appears is also unique looking， but in that very bizarre ‘did somebody think this through’ anime sort of way。Still， once the games get started next time out I think we’ll see the sparks fly。 In addition to the very fun second game， the first involves a solution so incredibly insane that I’m here to see where it might go next （as I say， there’s a LOT of ‘incredibly insane’ in this book）。3 stars。 It’s a classic death game told competently， but not expertly。 You can already see that this is going to go to some places and I am a sucker for these sorts of wacky-problems-with-far-fetched-solutions-and-mind-games sort of stories。 I just hope the minute to minute writing can rise to the level of its premise。 。。。more