Review: The Leveller by Julia Durango

My Rating: 4 Stars
Date Read: June 2015


Publication Date: June 23, 2015
Hardcover, 256 pages

Summary From Goodreads:

Nixy Bauer is a self-made Leveller. Her job? Dragging kids out of virtual reality and back to their parents in the real world. It’s normally easy cash, but Nixy’s latest mission is fraught with real danger, intrigue, and romance.

Nixy Bauer is used to her classmates being very, very unhappy to see her. After all, she’s a bounty hunter in a virtual reality gaming world. Kids in the MEEP, as they call it, play entirely with their minds, while their bodies languish in a sleeplike state on the couch. Irritated parents, looking to wrench their kids back to reality, hire Nixy to jump into the game and retrieve them.

But when the game’s billionaire developer loses track of his own son in the MEEP, Nixy is in for the biggest challenge of her bounty-hunting career. Wyn Salvador isn’t some lazy kid looking to escape his homework: Wyn does not want to be found. And he’s left behind a suicide note. Nixy takes the job but quickly discovers that Wyn’s not hiding—he’s being held inside the game against his will. But who is holding him captive, and why?

Nixy and Wyn attempt to fight their way out of a mind game unlike any they’ve encountered, and the battle brings them closer than either could have imagined. But when the whole world is virtual, how can Nixy possibly know if her feelings are real?

Gamers and action fans of all types will dive straight into the MEEP, thanks to Julia Durango’s cinematic storytelling. A touch of romance adds some heart to Nixy’s vivid, multidimensional journey through Wyn’s tricked-out virtual city, and constant twists keep readers flying through to the breathtaking end

My Review:

When I first read the summary and as I was starting this book I had this strange sense if deja vu, and then I realized why...

It reminded me of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Virtual World story arc... you remember, when the Big Bad 5 trapped Yugi, Seto, and the rest of the gang in a virtual world, only it turns out that Seto and Mokuba's crazy step brother was the master mind behind it all and they-- oh you have no idea what I'm talking about? Oops I let my inner geek show {more than usual} sorry, not sorry. It also kind of reminded me of Digimon Frontier, but I won't let myself get started on that one...

I'm not a gamer girl myself but I still enjoyed this story. I was able to follow along without any problems because there wasn't any jargon that left me scratching my head. It was a fairly straight forward story that wasn't overly complicated with a million twists that you have to keep track of.

I like the fact that Nixy {whose full name is Phoenix, which is totally awesome by the way} is a kick butt, no-nonsense kind of girl. Not to mention that the story had a horde of zombies and a crazy killer witch

There was a little bit of romance in this book, but it was not the focal point of the book, which I was okay with, But I do forsee the romance factor kicking up a little in the next book.

I'm really curious to see what happens next, especially after what is revealed to Nixy at the end of the book... I wonder what the Legionnaires have up their sleeves.