I love books about alternate realities, especially in technology form. Elusion is about the app of the same name, which lets people explore any location on Earth or beyond from the comfort of anywhere. Regan's father was the inventor of this life-changing program, but he died five months ago and now things seem to be going wrong as the app and devices are getting ready to go mainstream. Regan is desperate to uncover the truth about her father's invention, but that leads her down a bumpy road paved in even more secrets.

I liked Elusion, but it's just so...average. It's light on the Sci-Fi elements until close to the end. Regan is a fine narrator, but she really has no personality to speak of. Josh is a fine love interest, nothing too special about him. The plot moved along at an okay pace, keeping my interest but also leaving me wanting it to get a move on. I don't know. It's good. I liked it. It just didn't go there. It also felt like the first half of a longer book rather than the first in a duology.

violetpeanut

Written on Feb 24, 2014

There were parts of this that I really liked. I loved the technology and the descriptions of it. I liked that there were some "adventure" aspects to the story. I liked that I never completely knew where things were going to go. I had an idea but never figured it all out.

But, there were more things that didn't really do it for me. The world-building is severely lacking. We know that the air is contaminated most of the time and they need masks to breathe outdoors, but it's never really explained how this came to be. I don't know that we even find out how far into the future this is (or maybe I just missed that). I had a lot of questions about the world in general and I think it could have been fleshed out a lot more.

I also never really connected with any of the characters. The main character doesn't seem to have a brain sometimes and some of her decisions regarding her relationships didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The two male characters, Patrick and Josh never really seemed three-dimensional to me. I didn't really hate any of the characters, but neither did I love them. I would have liked to have a stronger reaction to them, one way or the other.

Overall, this was a fun read and I would recommend it to fans of the genre but it didn't blow me away and would not me on any of my "must-read" lists.

jnikkir

Written on Jan 29, 2014

This review can also be found at my blog, There were books involved...

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Regan lives in a pretty screwed up world. It's the semi-near-future, and there are acid rains, and you can rarely go outside without an oxygen mask.

To escape from the stress of their world and everyday lives, most people in Regan's city have latched onto Elusion, a virtual reality where you can take a break from reality for an hour, from worries and stress and negativity, and go pretty much anywhere. Elusion is only available to a few select cities throughout the US, but Patrick (young prodigy, head of the company, partner of Regan's deceased father, and Regan's best friend) is pushing for a nation-wide release as the book opens. Unfortunately, venturing into Elusion isn't nearly as safe as its creators would like you to believe. When Regan meets one of Patrick's friends, Josh, who is convinced of its danger, Regan starts questioning Patrick's trustworthiness, his motives, and his friendship.

There's a lot to enjoy in Elusion, and overall I had really positive feelings toward it. I loved the idea of Elusion, the plot, and the main characters... but ultimately, there was one thing about this book that really annoyed me, and sort of spoiled my outlook on this series (yes, series) as a whole.

Elusion

Elusion (the program) is sort of wonderfully creepy. First, there's the opening scene where Regan is on a bus, and she's the only conscious person there. Everyone else is using Elusion. Creepy. Then as we learn more about Elusion, it's apparently a place that toys with your emotions: When you're in Elusion, there's no way you can feel stressed, or bad -- it's all happy floaty wonderfulness, lowered inhibitions, and heightened euphoria. That might sound great to a lot of people, but honestly... I really just find it creepy. I don't know. Maybe I'm weird.

The Main Character & Plot

I really liked Regan -- because she's wonderfully normal. She doesn't get great grades, she's not always super nice, and she just seemed like a really ordinary teenager. She wasn't boring or annoying, and I found her to be the sort of character who's just easy to read about. At first she's totally in denial that Elusion is anything but good, because her father developed it and she wanted to defend his memory. She believably comes around to realizing that it's actually hurting people (it's not instant, nor should it be, since she grew up around her father and Patrick, developing it and only experiencing the success of her father as he built this invention). But once she realizes something is wrong, she becomes dead-set on figuring out exactly what's going on.

The pacing of the book is great, too (until the end... I'll explain in a sec). I never found the story dragging, the excitement was kept up, and it was just really enjoyable. I wouldn't say it's necessarily edge-of-your-seat exciting, but it's good, and entertaining.

The... Love Triangle?

Oh, the dreaded love triangle. Except in this case, I actually thought it was handled really well. Regan and Patrick are best friends, and Patrick obviously wants to be more. But Regan really hasn't known anyone else like she's known Patrick (friends or otherwise), so her feelings for him are complicated. When she meets Josh, and they grow to be friends... and then maybe something more... she comes to some realizations about the differences between her feelings for Patrick and her feelings for Josh, and I really appreciated how this was handled.

The Ending (Or, Why This Book Ultimately Disappointed Me)

All of the above are things I really liked. However, I went into this book thinking it was a standalone. And judging by the ending, it is most definitely not.

As I was reading, the pacing was great, everything kept steadily amping up, questions were being answered, I was ready for a fantastic conclusion... and then the book just stopped. Practically in the middle of a scene. What?!

I understand books that end on cliffhangers, but Elusion just ended. And the more I think about it, the more annoyed I am about it, because up until the very. last. page, I was really enjoying it! It probably would've been a 3.5-star read; it's not omg amazing or terribly feels-inducing, but I found it to be super readable and quick and just fun, and it had great suspense and mystery. But I just... that ending?! There's no way there are enough questions left over after that, to warrant an entire second book. It might warrant a 20-page novella to wrap things up, but I highly doubt that's what we'll get. Why not just take the extra 20 pages and end it? Whyyyyyyyy??? It just annoys me so much.

In conclusion...

I really don't know about this one. Maybe, now that you know it's not a standalone, you can enjoy it more than I did, because I was drastically influenced by that Oh-look-it's-secretly-a-series! ending. Elusion really is entertaining, if a somewhat "light" read -- not light in the subject matter, exactly, but in the more adventure-y quality, and the pretty simple, if enjoyable, characters. And 3 stars isn't a bad rating; but unfortunately, thanks to the ending, I'm not sure I'll be picking up the sequel. =/

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There were books involved...

Ashley

Written on Nov 8, 2013

Nose Graze — Young Adult book reviews

What I liked

The tech!

I loved all the technology talk! It spoke to my inner nerd. There's a lot of talk about tablets, visors, gadgets, and other elusion equipment. We get a bit of programming talk as well. If you're not a tech nerd like me, don't worry because it doesn't completely dominate the story. But the tech speak does pop in and out at times and I looooved it!

The Escapes themselves (duh!)

I think this is a given, but the Escapes were awesome! They were so fun to imagine and read about. They're basically like virtual realities, which kind of brought back fond memories of Insignia by S.J. Kincaid.

The story: with evil corporations!

I have a thing for evil corporations in literature. I have no idea why, I just do. I like it when there's a big company, and cover-ups or evil high-up dudes.. and Elusion has all that! There are some potential problems with Elusion but the company insists there are none, but all kinds of sketchy shit is going on, and Regan is setting out to get to the bottom of it! This just totally hooked me in. I loved Regan's mission and how it was a "one girl against the big corporation" kind of thing.

What I didn't like

The pacing

The pacing of Elusion started out okay, but then it went downhill. The problem was, for 90% of the book we're told, "Something's going on!" "There's a conspiracy!" And as I said in the "evil corporations" part, I loved that! It was right up my alley. But then we're just strung along for the rest of the book with no answers until we get to the last 10%. Then we finally start getting answers.

I hate it when we don't get bits and pieces along the way. It makes me lose interest fast. I need like a little breadcrumb trail of information to keep me enticed, and Elusion didn't quite give me that. I did mostly enjoy the story and I liked all the tech and the Escapes. But around the 70% mark I started to get REALLY impatient. At that point I actually started skimming a little so I could hurry up and get to the big reveal.

The world building

The world building surrounding the CURRENT state of things was fine. I understood that there were environmental problems, people are addicted to Elusion, they use their weird card things for everything, etc. I felt like I got a good grasp on that.

What I had zero understanding of was the connection between 2013 and when the story takes place. Elusion is clearly set in the future, but there's a big gaping hole in between then and now. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?? I can make some assumptions (like we massively polluted the planet and destroyed the atmosphere), but that's all they are—assumptions. I had no clear cut idea of when Elusion took place or what happened between now and then. I hate that feeling of uncertainty. In dystopians I like being able to orient myself, but I couldn't do that here.

The romance

I didn't think the romance was horrible. It just wasn't amazing either. I almost feel like I shouldn't put it in this section, because I didn't explicitly dislike it. I just never fell in love with it.. and there's a difference!