A group of high schoolers, designated outsiders, are best friends, a group self-titled The Vindicators. When they are invited to play an online game called The God Game, seemingly run by an AI who believes itself to be God, it's a challenge they can't resist.

At first, everything seems fun and exciting, a virtual world imposed on their difficult real lives. But the stakes keep getting raised, the tasks keep getting harder, and soon their worlds seem to be colliding and falling apart.

Die in the Game, die in real life.

This book started out really interesting. The concept intrigued me right away, and the main characters seemed like people it was easy to relate to-trying to find themselves, to find meaning, to find their tribe. I was also drawn in right away by the idea of a twisted and surprising game working its way into real life in unexpected ways.

This book got so dark, so very very dark. I read a lot of books with storylines that can get intense and dark, but this book was on a whole other level that was just too much for me. I kept reading only because I was more than halfway through by the time it got so heavy, so I figured I should finish.

This book was definitely not for me. That doesn't mean other people won't really like it, but I couldn't handle the darkness and so couldn't enjoy the read.

I did not expect to be sucked into this book as much as I was! What a ride. The G.O.D. game if you play you are promised all your dreams come true but if you lose, you die. The catch is that this is a virtual reality game that merges the real lives of a group of techie high school kids with a game they have been drawn into as a group. The teens discover an internet game that is based on the input from all the religious texts out there as well as the philosophies of the World. This is then the AI version of GOD and answers as GOD would be expected to answer given these bases of knowledge. They decide to play as a group but the stakes are high. It becomes very reminiscent of "Ready Player One" or "Black Mirror" in the back and forth between the real and virtual worlds. The story highlights the highs and lows of each of the main characters lives and how these facts influence their decision making within the game.
An interesting aside is the occasional introspection of a character to reflect on subjects such as morality or what it really means to "be saved". I found these sections to be a nice addition to the rest of the story, adding depth to the group's story.
I was never bored. The story is compelling and weaves many different tales into a whole thread that leaves you truly invested.
Really well done and highly recommended.
#TheGodGame #Netgalley ##DannyTobey #StMartinsPress

This book was pretty good - I 'm not into video games or virtual reality type things - I think I would have enjoyed it more. Probably the target audience for this book is someone a bit younger than me. I do appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book.

When Charlie, a high school student, and his friends decide to accept an invitation only opportunity to play the God Game their lives change in ways no one foresaw. The rules of the game are simple, but the consequences are anything but. Even though this is a dark and often frightening narrative, it is totally engrossing. Fast paced and thought provoking, this is one memorable story. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book reminded me of Ready Player One. It’s a game, but it’s a game of life - the only way out is by dying. Everything happens in the cyberspace, and reality mixes with the game. The Vindicators is a group of teenagers that do things together - like coding or going to school. So when a new God game comes up they knew they had to play together.

I liked this but didn't love it. G.O.D. is a game and it has picked several teenagers to manipulate. It is run by underground hackers through their phones and high tech glasses. Things they can't see in the real world but they can see them through their phone screen or glasses. If they win they are rewarded if they lose then die.Charlie and his friends try to find a way out but they have been stuck into a web that you can't get out of.
Then some of them question what is real and what isn't and who is really their friends.
I received this from NetGalley for review.

This book was creepy and very atmospheric. However, I am not really a fan of the book. It was so unbelievable that I could not imagine most of it which pulled me out of the story constantly. I get that there is a sort of magical realism and science fiction within the book but the idea of parents was thrown out the window.

One of there reviewer had it right they said that the characters in this book are bad caricatures of all 1980's teen movies.

I would have DNF'd this if it wasn't an arc from netgalley.

I would give this a pass but clearly other like it some maybe you would like to give it a try. Reason some reviews as the synopsis is misleading to what you actually get.

I saw this on a few different people's to read lists for books coming out in early 2020 then it was on NetGalley for review and thought it sounded interesting so I requested it. A group of nerdy misfits who hang out in the basement Tech Lab at their school get involved in an on line game that turns into so much more. Pretty soon they realize they are being instructed to do things they are not comfortable with to gain Goldz and avoid getting Blacxx. The game seems to know where they are, what they are thinking, and what their problems and desires are.

In the beginning I enjoyed the high school kid plot, but as the book progressed, it got a little more difficult to think about an understand. It was much like parts of Blake Crouch's Recursion was for me. I just had to believe what he was writing because I really didn't understand it and it made my brain hurt to think about understanding. In the overall, I was able to just believe and read and it didn't really interfere with my enjoyment of the book.By the end, thought, I was ready to just read how it ended and figure out what in the world was happening.

2.5/5.0 Stars

‘A technological thriller with an all to believable premise, award-winning author Danny Tobey’s THE GOD GAME follows five teenagers obsessed with an online video-game that connects them to their worst impulses and most dangerous desires.’

THE GOD GAME is the first book that I have read by Danny Tobey and one I won't soon forget. Through the lens of the game, the teenage characters come face to face with real and virtual foes with a moral twist. In this way, the concept behind the creation of THE GOD GAME reminds me of one of my favorite Stephen King books, NEEDFUL THINGS, wherein the question presented to the characters and by extension, the reader is, ‘What would you be willing to do to get what you want or need?’

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Publishing Group, for loaning me an advance eBook of THE GOD GAME in exchange for an honest review.

I was intrigued by the premise of this book and enjoyed the technology and science behind it. However, it didn’t quite go as far as I thought it could and the action dragged a little in the middle. I would recommend this for those who like YA and gaming.
Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and the author Danny for a digital review copy. This book was published January 7, 2020.

Thank you in advance to St. Martin’s Press and Net galley for a complimentary Advanced Reader’s/Reading Copy (ARC). This is my honest, independent review of the book. I generally do not read science fiction for leisure, however, given the opportunity to read this novel in advance and the early description of the book, I was intrigued and compelled.

“The God Game” is a fast moving, exhilarating and suspenseful book, which takes you on, what feels like, a non-stop roller coaster ride. Where I feel it comes up short, is its lack of depth to character development and a surface level story.

The story does bring up important social issues, related to AI and social media and their contrast to biblical implications, which are relevant and important to the basis of the story.
Overall, the author made a decent attempt to convey, with a storyline, which could have developed on a more complex and in depth level, but in turn kept it as a superficial, enjoyable and entertaining read.

This incredible, convoluted, constantly unexpected, novel is addictive! Quite literally I couldn't turn aside: the story obsessed me! Despite my inexperience of Gaming, despite I'm far from my own YA era, I was totally absorbed from the first. Author Danny Tobey first involves us with the five protagonists, then as they are immediately enraptured with this brand-new online game, peels away all the mundane surfaces and reveals all the painful aspects of their lives: abuse, failure, psychological disorders, victimization by bullies, grief, suffering. Then begins the psychological control by the Game, simultaneously trapping its contestants and warping them in soul and psyche. THE GOD GAME is "stay-up-till-all-hours" absorbing and definitely a best thriller of 2020.

The nitty-gritty: An seemingly innocent game turns dark and deadly in Danny Tobey's latest sci-fi thriller.

The God Game is being heavily compared to Black Mirror by other reviewers, but because I’ve never watched that show, I can’t say how accurate the comparison is. But what I can tell you is that I had so much fun with this book! This isn’t Danny Tobey’s debut, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be his “break out” book. The God Game is a fast-paced, exciting and gasp-inducing story about a high-stakes computer game that starts innocently enough, but soon spirals out of control into a terrifying experience for the five high school seniors who find themselves in its clutches. The story also focuses on our obsession with social media and especially texting, and if you aren’t afraid of your smartphone yet, you may be by the end of this book.

The story centers around five high school geeks who call themselves the Vindicators and hang out together in the computer lab during their free time, playing video games and coding projects. Charlie is on track to get into his dream school, Harvard, if only he can focus enough to get through senior year. His best friend Vanhi, a brilliant coder, also dreams of going to Harvard, but she’s terrified that a D grade in a math class will ruin her chances. Kenny is a talented cellist and writes for the school paper, with aspirations to be a journalist. Alex is struggling in school and at home, where his strict Asian father beats him every time he fails a test. And Peter is the school golden boy, rich and popular and maybe too perfect.

One day, Peter introduces the others to something called The God Game. Peter explains that the game is “the first artificial intelligence bot claiming to inhabit the persona of God.” The game starts out as a text message from the AI, inviting them to join in. At first, the God Game is nothing more than a fun video game that they play in real life. When they look through the lens of their smartphones, the game reveals a hidden world with monsters, cracks in the walls, and creepy vines growing over everything. Soon the kids are getting text messages from “God” telling them to accept challenges and perform seemingly benign tasks. Completing these tasks rewards them with “Goldz,” but disobeying orders earns them “Blaxx.”

Little by little, the God AI starts to infiltrate their lives. Random text messages appear at all hours, forcing the five friends to make terrible decisions. Sometimes it threatens their friends and family members if they don’t follow directions, and other times it says they’ll be rewarded for completing tasks. The AI’s demands are getting riskier, and Charlie just wants out of the game for good. Peter tells him there’s no way out. But Charlie is determined to find a way, even if it means putting them all in danger.

The God Game was a thrill ride from start to finish! This was a surprisingly multi-layered and complex story, and I can tell from reading the author’s bio that he knows what he’s talking about—he’s an expert in the field of Artificial Intelligence, for example. Every character in this story has a secret, and every secret is threatened at some point during the game. These secrets are revealed as the author delves into the characters’ backstories. Charlie, Vanhi, Alex, Kenny and Peter all have interesting—and sometimes horrifying—things in their past that they’re dealing with. And I was pleasantly surprised to find some very interesting side characters in the story as well. Tim and Mary are in the popular crowd and are dating, but there’s a dark side to their relationship. Then there’s a teacher named Mr. Burklander who acts as a mentor for Charlie. I liked him a lot until we discover one of his secrets, and unfortunately he gets dragged into the game, even though he doesn’t know what’s going on. In fact, every character in the story becomes part of the game at some point, even the ones who aren’t officially playing.

And since we’re dealing mostly with high school kids, you get a good dose of bullying, jealousy and social media shenanigans. I have to admit the story was far darker than I was expecting, and even though I don’t usually include trigger warnings in my reviews, I’ll throw some in at the end.

There are plenty of moral issues to chew over in this story. How far would someone go to get into Harvard, for example? Vanhi is faced with a couple of awful choices which could determine her future, and I thought the author did a great job of showing how a smart, kind, level headed girl can turn desperate when faced with a decision that could affect the rest of her life. Tobey also warns us about the dark side of technology: spy bots, the dark web, cell phone hacking, cyber bullying and of course, the role artificial intelligence might have in our future. It was so creepy the way the God AI knew what everyone was doing, all the time, which isn’t too far off from what today’s technology is capable of. 

Which brings me to a couple of issues I had with the story. As the God AI’s demands start to spin out of control, I felt the action toward the end went way over the top and entered the realm of unbelievable. Some of the scenes are almost laughable, they’re so outrageous, and I had to stretch my abilities to suspend disbelief. The game itself is pretty cool. I loved that there’s a virtual reality that can only be seen when the players are wearing their glasses or looking through their phones. But the VR part of the story and the text messages from the God AI didn’t always mesh for me. It almost felt like two different games at times. Sometimes the action takes place in virtual reality, but other times the players are just responding to text messages and following directions. 

And this is just one of those super nitpicky things that I can’t stop thinking about: At one point, the kids “earn” some expensive VR glasses that reveal the world of the game. They spend the entire book wearing them everywhere, even during class, and NONE of the adults in the story ever wonder what they are and why the kids are wearing them. It drove me nuts!

But despite a couple of negatives, I have to admit I had a blast reading this book. Obviously from my rating you can see that these issues didn’t impact my enjoyment much at all. If you’re in the mood for a twisty, dark story that will make you think twice about using technology, then you absolutely can’t go wrong with this book.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Wow!! What a techno-thrill ride of a book!! This is the right way to kick off a new year, with an action-packed dark thriller!!

Charlie and his friends are high school seniors and consider themselves to be "outcasts" because they are the computer nerds who are always coding.. They make up a group that call themselves the "Vindicators." Outside of school, they each have to deal with loneliness, bullying, parental pressures and abuse.

So when they receive a text to play a video game called The God Game, the group jump at the chance. At first, they find it fun, earning Goldz for doing simple tasks.

But then the tasks become so intense they begin pitting against each other, and against themselves. They begin questioning their morals in their real-life world.

I liked this book because it kept me wanting to read more, even during my one-hour lunch breaks at work!!

A big thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for gifting me an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

#TheGodGame #SurviveTheGodGame

This is a TOTAL personal opinion!

The God Game just wasn't for me. I originally had it rated a three stars, but after stewing on this review I deducted a star.

YA is not my thing at all and this book is SOOOO YA. I felt like it is required to have a complicated group of kids. And of course they all have to be dealing with quintessential high school kid problems: complicated parents, drug dealing, bulling, being too smart, being gay et freaking ceetra.

It reminded me of One Of Us Is Lying.

I'm also not a gamer (my cousin is and I spent HOURS watching him play) so I could see the real world implications and at the same time I couldn't connect.

This was definitely a wild ride-eventually. After about 60% of the book, the plot picked up and I can see why everyone loved it.

So hello unpopular opinion! I finished it, but I kinda wish I didn't. I don't think I would recommend it unless YA and gaming is your thing.

Wow! This is one heck of an intense page turner that is equally creatively written.
One heck of a ride and I can see this being popular on the big screen.

Just a warning-you do have to completely let go of reality. Being sci-fi genre, most times that is usually the case. But with this one, it's a must or you will miss the intensity of some of the most crazy and intense scenes.

Highly recommend if you need to escape this world for a bit.

ARC provided by NetGalley

“The God Game” centers around a group of techy high school kids who get involved in a virtual reality game with severe consequences. This is more of a YA/fantasy read then a thriller, with all the high school cliches you can imagine included. Definitely not my genre, but I’m sure it would appeal to fans of YA and gamers. That being said, it has its moments. but I found it a little too cartoonish. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow - fast-paced, imaginative, creepy, and twisted tale that will have you putting tape over that laptop camera and looking twice at your cell phone and smart devices!

In the story, Charlie and his computer geek friends are pulled into a computer game with an AI that calls itself G.O.D. that soon intersects with the real world. Go along with the game and you get rewarded; resist, and you get Blaxx, which can result in injury or death, as they soon discover. The game plays with them/pits them against each other, testing loyalties, priorities and even their basic morals.

While the setting is Austin, this really could be anywhere, which adds to the chill. The characters are complex and flawed, most of them hiding a secret of some kind. Of all the flawed characters, the AI is the most confusing as it seems to have no moral dilemma about playing with anyone's lives - one of the bits that make it so terrifying, as it was built by feeding it every religion and philosophy that exists. And it thinks that it is GOD - neither benevolent or not.

“It's crowdsourcing morality, creating situations to see how players judge each other's choices."

The book moves at a hurtling pace until about 3/4 of the way through, where I found myself lost in the weeds with a part that crossed coding and philosophy. (Dear reader, I skimmed this part.) You will have to suspend disbelief a bit, as the AI seems to put together a plan in three-dimensions, as the group discovers that outside players are also involved in ways they cannot understand, as well as with the technology, which seems to be a bit too sentient and high level. The stakes continue to grow and the Charlie and the group are wound up tighter and tighter in the game; technology is used in horrible ways until it became hard to know

It's an ambitious book with a rather grim commentary on society and faith, yet I couldn't put down.

I'd recommend this to older YA readers as it contains some violence, blackmail, self-harm, drugs, and attempted suicide.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a digital ARC of the book.

I found this book to be like a YA Stephen King/Stranger Things/War Games kind of mash-up. There are some parts that are really good and compelling, and others that fell somewhat flat for me.
The premise is intriguing, an AI program called "The G.O.D. Game" approaches a group of high school seniors, asking for their allegiance in order to have "All of your dreams come true". Initially, I liked the way the story moved, between the various characters and their interactions with the technology and the ever-evolving and ever-more-intense requests the game gives them. This brought up some intriguing dilemmas about how far a person would go with doing things if no one but "god" knew about them.
But this is where the book kind of lost me, and maybe it was because there were too many characters, because there were quite a few times that I forgot who was who and what was happening with each of them. Or maybe it was because it started getting too weird for me, too much supernatural and not enough reality (Like in The Outsider where it went from being a straightforward mystery to being paranormal) As much as I like and can appreciate science fiction and some fantasy, there are limits to my tolerance for blaming everything on the supernatural, I find it to be a much easier way out of a mystery than actually figuring out who or what is behind an occurrence.
Along with that, I couldn't figure out what the author was going for with the time period. Some parts of this seemed very 80s (thus the War Games reference) yet supposedly it is set in 2016. The teens didn't seem like real teens from the 21st century, and the college admissions process reflected this as well (always my quibble these days since it has changed SO much since the 80s and 90s).
The book is overall entertaining, but I can't say that I really understood the overarching point or what exactly happened in the end.
That all said, it's a book worth reading because it brings up some deep feelings of dread and some very thought-provoking ideas about technology and just how far we are willing to go to let technology "help" our lives. The author has great promise and I look forward to seeing what he does in the future.

First, the good. The concept was really interesting and I loved the description of the game. You could really visualize what the characters were seeing when they were "playing the game." I love the idea of superimposing a video game on reality so that they were still playing the game when they were at school.. I cared about the characters and wanted to see what happened to them. Where the book lost me was that I felt that it mocked many of the tenants of religion, particularly Christianity and the Christian God. If you're not religious, and you enjoy science-fiction books, this is definitely for you. It's well-written and exciting and definitely held my attention all the way through. But if you're religious, you might want to steer clear of this one because it definitely doesn't portray religion in a positive light.