I just finished Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller. Literally just finished it and I thought it was phenomenal. Honestly, I was a little skeptical at first. I mean, I love Jason Segel as an actor. I’ve also heard amazing things about his children’s books. So, it wasn’t the storytelling I was worried about. It’s just whenever I read fantasy books most of the time I get bored. I love video games, heck I could play them all day if I was able to. But reading about some kid in a video game just doesn’t...catch my interest. But then I read the synopsis of this book, and instantly wanted it. I received it as a Christmas gift from my brother in law and couldn’t wait to start reading it. I actually read a couple of chapters while I was reading another book, which I’ve done before, but most of the time I end up not reading one book to finish the other one. All I wanted to do was finish this book.
So yes, this is about a kid in a video game, but it’s SO much more than that. Simon, our main character, witnesses his best friend, Kat, become badly injured in an accident. One that the doctors say she won’t wake up from and instead of just laying around like a vegetable, video game inventors made “The White City” which is a part of their video game, “Otherworld”, where you can do anything. She becomes part of their project but as Simon is visiting her she wakes up screaming. Simon tries to tell the doctors that something is wrong, but no one will believe him. So, it’s Simon who needs to save his best friend from whatever is happening, and it’s obviously not all rainbows and sunshine like the doctors say it would be.
There were a lot of parts in the book that reminded me of the Hunger Games. Different parts of lands that Simon traveled to had different obstacles for that land specifically. There was a land of greed, etc. But, to get Simon out alive, he had to figure out what that land was all about and outsmart the system.
I really enjoyed this book and I seriously can’t wait until the fall when the second book comes out!