** This review may contain spoilers **

In this fantastical, post-apocalyptical story, hydrologists are now able to inscribe the consciousness of anyone rich enough to afford it into one single drop of water.

The rich and wealthy have begun uploading their minds into self-contained virtual realities, know as Aquariums. Within these Aquariums, you can achieve anything your heart desires. However, the Government now wants to gain control of this technology and terrorism has caused widespread destruction. Due to this, the Aquariums are failing and every inscribed mind has leaked into the water cycle causing utter chaos.

Each drop of untreated water puts everyone's lives in danger, however, if you are caught and imprisoned by the soldiers you will be sold into slavery. Three years after the fall of civilisation street-gangs rule the world. Cami and, her younger sister, Alby struggle to survive. Cami will do anything to protect Alby however, they are caught by hydrologists in their attempt to flee the city and make it to the country to live in peace. They are then thrown into a very different kind of danger.

This book has some great, unique concepts that I had never come across prior- the fact you can upload your consciousness into a kind of water-based memory storage tank. The first half of this novel begins as any normal post-apocalyptic tale would start, however, we then enter a gaming world full of role-playing. This book definitely would appeal to multiple people with multiple tastes, you have RPG and post-apocalyptic all wrapped into one little package hut Pavesic makes it work!

This book was easy to read and enjoyable even as someone who is not big of post-apocalyptic novels or gaming. I found it easy to understand exactly what was going on and it was not so far-fetched as to be unbelievable. It is fast-paced fantasy read from start to finish.

First of all, I found the whole premise to be extremely strange, so of course, I HAD to read it. I love the dystopian genre, and a lot of the problem I run into is a lot of them are boring and follow the same storyline. This one is so different it's amazing. I cannot recommend this enough. It's sci-fi, it's dystopian, and it fresh. A definite must read that I plan on reading again!

This book almost lost me in the opening chapters.
The main character seemed as lifeless as the ruined world she was rushing through.
And then... she entered the game and I was hooked. I don't even play that kind of computer game, but the story was as addicting as I imagine a real MMORPG to be. Each level up, each new character, each new threat drew me in. I wish I could read the next book already!!!

Starter Zone by Chris Pavesic has 240 pages and was published in 2017 by Amazon Digital Services LLC.

Thank you to Netgalley, Amazon Digital Services LLC and Chris Pavesic for the ARC I received in return for an honest review.

Starter Zone is the story of two young girls in a dystopian future in which souls have been "inscripted" onto water droplets.  When the aquariums are damaged, these inscripted players are mixed into the water cycle and clean, pure water becomes a scarce commodity.  Cami and Alby only have each other for support as they struggle to survive in a world where a single drop of water can be life-threatening.

What I liked:

This book is so incredibly unique.  The plot is the most original concept I have read in a while.  

The writing is fluid and draws you in.  This is book is absolutely a page turner.  It is an easy read and I finished it very quickly.

The way this novel is written, it is almost like two distinct stories in one.  It is extremely interesting and entertaining.  I would definitely read the next book in this series.

What I didn't like:

The cover.  I had this book on my TBR for a while.  Every time I looked for a new book, I would skip over this one because the cover did not appeal to me.

I wish it had been a little longer.  Specific scenes in the book were wrapped up but there were still a lot of unanswered questions.  From the author's standpoint, I can see why she stopped where she did.  It makes sense.  This leaves the reader wanting more and therefore willing to buy the next installment in the series.

Recommended for fans of sci-fi and dystopian literature.

Good book, no punctuation or grammatical errors noticed. Given the start I had thought that was not going to be LITRPG, but rather another youth dystopian wannabe, but very happy to have been proven wrong. Levels, stats and race training are all there. MC does become OP eventuality but not in an unbelievable way.