When I saw and heard about this book being a cross between Ready Player One and Black Mirror, I was all psyched to check it out, but it ended up being a little disappointing for me personally. It was too much of a dark apocalyptic type feel to it for me also.
This does have some good parts to it and I did like it some. It's about a girl, Mal with her friend, Jessa, and how they have to find work, do whatever they can to make ends meet to be able to buy the bare necessities for life like water. Part of how they come into hitting the jackpot where they get a bunch of money, supplies including a lot of water is because of their live streaming in the game and while they're doing this they discover through talking to some other people corruption in the game and with all the big businesses that are in charge, Stellaxis and Greenleaf. What they find is very disturbing, to say the least when they go looking into the corruption. The last half of the book is when it started to get a little more interesting and pick up, but I struggled to read and finish this book because it was not quite what I expected, there was a bit more of a bleak world, etc. and a lot more profanity than I usually like to read.
If you like dystopian reads or this author, you'll probably like it more than I did so make sure to put this on your list. Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for letting me read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Do you like dystopian fiction with a side of virtual reality? In her new book, Firebreak, Nicole Kornher-Stace writes about Mallory - a girl who spends her days trying to earn enough water credits to stay alive. Mal spends most of her time playing SecOps on BestLife trying to rack up enough kills to get on the boards. A random encounter with one of the game's super-soldiers sends her and her friend Jessa on a side quest - one that uncovers information that the corporate masters want to keep hidden. And now the survival of Mal and her bunkmates is in jeopardy."

Mal is a great character. She sucks at interactions with people but wants to do the right thing. There are many moments for her of "Why didn't I say that?' Aren't we all like that?

This is a bleak society that NKS gives us. People always hungry and thirsty. Living on top of each other. Having to work multiple odd jobs just to survive. And never knowing when a drone blast might bring your building down.

The story feels familiar if you've read any recent dystopian science-fiction at all. But the story is fast-paced. There are characters you can pull for. You'll want to keep turning pages to find out what happens.

An unexpected messy ending from NKS but it works. This is the first book I've read from NKS but the writing has a great flow.

FIREBREAK is a heart-pounding story of scarcity and danger in a place controlled by warring corporations. Mal is a young streamer trying to impress her viewers enough to make it through each day and avoid ending up in the company dehydration clinics, when .

Because major parts of the plot revolve around resource control and water scarcity, there’s a lot of discussion of water-insecurity and shortage. That was stressful to read but also deepened my immersion in the story. The way Mal’s thoughts did or did not revolve around this essential resource at any given moment matters to the story. The book involves an in-universe MMORPG (multiplayer online game that most people are either playing or watching when they’re not working), and at first I thought that the plot would focus on some objective in the game world, but a little ways in it reveals that the main stakes are bigger and more important than the game, while simultaneously retaining the game’s importance to the story. I loves the shift where technically the game doesn’t matter, but what the game belies means everything.

The world-building is really good, both for the game and the real world. They mutually reinforce each other both in terms of narrative events and the actual structure of life under the Corporation. The idea and reality of resource scarcity is constant, especially early but it never goes away and is very important to the plot.

My favorite character's very description is a spoiler so I can't talk about him much, but I loved the strange rapport between him a Mal, a kind of uneasy peace from someone losing everything and everyone he trusted (which was a short list to begin with).

The ending is emotionally devastating, coming together in a strange blend of bleak and hopeful. It perfectly cements this as the kind of book where I need everyone to read it so they know what it put me through. There's a sense of finality, inevitability, which suffuses the latter part of the story. Watching everything play out and hoping it won't quite end up as bad as it looks.

Firebreak has a very interesting premise: A hundred years from now, the government has sold off the USA to corporations- the monopoly of water and food production has led to two corporations that ultimately control the US. These two corporations are always at war, causing the people to suffer from massive food and water shortages.

Main characters Mal and Jessa work multiple jobs in order to make enough money to pay for water. They also work together to stream content in a game in order to gain money/in-game purchases/money from sponsors. It's through the game that they uncover corruption within the corporations.

I love my summary. It sounds AMAZING- dystopia at it's best because I can see this horrible future as something that could happen. My three-star rating reflects that I "liked" the book, but that I felt that it could have been so much more. Based on the afterward by the author, this was a passion project for her. An idea that she couldn't let go of. I also love that about this book- I can tell that a lot of effort and research was put into the circumstances of the story.

And YET. "Firebreak" falls short to me because of its predictability and pacing. The beginning felt slow for me, especially because I didn't feel very engaged with the gaming aspect of the story until much later in the story. This book is marketed as an adult book, but it feels like a YA book with bad language (I think that Mal could have used more than just "f---!" for every time a bad thing happened). I think that more could have been done with the ending.

This is a great "what-if" story to discuss and think about. I recommend it to readers that enjoy dystopian books, as well as to readers that enjoy thinking about what future online gaming will look like.

Thank you Netgalley and Gallery Books for an advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. "Firebreak" is set to be published on May 4th, 2021. Coming soon! :)

4.5 stars rounded up because...

Now that's what I call build-up. The beginning was a little slow, it felt like something we'd seen before and didn't really like (aka Ready Player One) and then we get plucked out of our cool video game and dropped into dystopian/corporate-owned/uber-capitalist hell.

Kornher-Stace brings up again and again the different tropes in other books: the plucky heroine who emerges from obscurity to lead a revolution and is, out of nowhere, a professional orator (which is very much not our MC Mal but it is Mal's friends Jessa and Keisha); the unstoppable super-soldier (also not remotely Mal, but 22 and 06); the villa giving a villain speech (which DOESN'T HAPPEN and I was so happy about that, honestly).

This book was just... You see the evil inherent in the way the media and the public gaze is presented. You see the imbalance of power between people (and companies) at all levels. You get to see small build-ups of real resistance. You get to see what happens when the fuse blows. And you see what real power is: the simple choices made to silence someone small with no consequence to the entity doing the silencing.

And the last... 40% was just... Non-stop.

Please excuse me while I go look up Kornher-Stace's other books and devour them.

Firebreak begins by dropping you into the action — Mal and Jessa are streaming and they've encountered the elusive 28 — and it's a little jarring. Honestly, I was slightly confused at first. I'm not a gamer, so the rules and characters were completely new. (Though it is a fictional game, so that's to be expected.) But then, early on, one of the characters launches into an amazing explanation of the world that completely fits into the story and didn't feel like info-dumping at all. I'm extremely impressed by how the author managed to reinforce her worldbuilding, while also furthering the plot and allowing us to get to know the characters better.

The "early reveal" is, yet again, incredibly well done. There's this slow realization and then fantastic "oh... what??" moment that we get to experience along with the characters, who are so relatable. From the start, I really loved Mal's personality. The author's writing forces you to immediately connect with the characters and plot, wishing the best for them and enraged by what they encounter along the way.

Featuring amazing ownvoices aroace rep, though it is never explicitly named, the book follows Mal and her many beautiful, platonic relationships with other fantastic characters. Jessa, her loyal friend 'till the end, is so amazingly passionate and fierce.

The game was so cool! I loved how there were scenes set in real-life as well as while Mal played the game. The little mechanisms and tools to play the game were very interesting, and these scenes certainly added to the story without being confusing.

Firebreak is absolutely stellar and I loved every minute of it. I can't wait to read more from this author!! I would recommend this book to everyone, especially lovers of sci-fi!

NF @65
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC.
This book had promise for me. It was like a Ready player one meets a Hunger Games like world. Those are two books I really like so I was excited to read it. While the plot was interesting there wasn't really anything that was pulling me and keeping me wanted to read. There was one part that was action packed and after that I just felt bored. It might be for some people but wasn't for me.
Also posted on netgalley

Firebreak was a fast-paced, laser-focused ride through an overdue revolution.

Mal and Jessa live in a hotel in the old town, working multiple jobs and waking up early for their daily water ration. They are small-time video game streamers who are trying to gain a following before their power curfew every night. When Mal catches sight of a Spec Ops operative and gets clear footage, they are contacted by a mysterious woman named B, and everything begins to change.

PROS:

I was drawn to this book because of the video game aspect and the union aspect. I hoped it would be similar to For The Win by Cory Doctorow, and was very satisfied in that regard, although I can also see the parallels to Ready Player One.

I really liked the characters, especially Mal. I found her struggles to be engaging on stream in order to make enough money to survive sadly relatable. For all the science fiction-y elements and all the flashy gadgets, the core of this book was all too realistic.

CONS:

The real world and the video game world were both well defined, but I was disappointed when the video game just stopped being a factor at the end, since it was so major at the start. I wanted to see it come back into play. If anything, I would say this is more a story about streaming than gaming, and more about class solidarity than either of those things.

A lot of the events that propelled the story forward felt more like coincidences than choices, about being in the right place at the right time instead of taking action to make a change. However, there were conscious choices to balance those out.

I received an advance e-copy of this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Really enjoyed this one. In the author notes, Kornher-Stace says she was initially worried about the book being too long - I’m so glad she and her editor allowed for the depth of world building in this story that they did. It was immersive, convincing, and utterly brilliant all-around. I will be checking out the author’s other work now!

Excellent ideas, not as excellent execution.

In the 2120s, the United States has been divided and sold off to corporations when the government could no longer afford to run it. Through a series of buyouts, what’s left of the country after climate disaster is now divided between two corporations who control all the water and food production. Customer-citizens live in the buildings left standing after the war between the two corporations and spend their meager earnings on purchasing water, food, and healthcare. Collecting your own water or growing your own food is punishable as an act of terror. The main character, Mal, spends most of her spare time playing a video game with her best friend Jessa, where she’s able to make extra money from sponsors. From there, things start getting confusing, but basically they uncover the corporations' secrets and try to break free of the company chains.

What I liked about this book:
Mal was a fun character and I appreciated her friendship with Jessa (although it was hard to pin down just how good of a friendship it was until about halfway through the book). The world building was good and I thought the ideas behind the novel were excellent.

What I disliked:
The majority of the storyline seemed to be random occurrences that Mal happened to find herself in. There was very little of the plot that was driven forward solely by her means, and sometimes it seemed like she was driving the plot forward but it would be fast-forwarded by something random, like the rain. It also read a little like a YA novel, but with a lot of swearing. The videogame aspect was interesting and well-written but it just dropped off three-quarters of the way through and basically didn’t get mentioned again. According to the blurb, I thought Mal and 22 would be together for most of the book but they were only actually together for the last 50 or so pages, which made it difficult for me to really be invested in their friendship or their outcome. The ending itself was really vague and I’m still unclear on who Mal was speaking to or what could have happened after it cut to black.

Someone who loves dystopian novels would probably enjoy this book.

Wow this was not what I expected at all, but I really loved it! In all honesty, I was concerned given the gaming elements and comparisons to Ready Player One, but this was much more a story about resistance and fighting against a repressive state.

Firebreak follows Mallory Parker, who like many of her neighbors, plays a virtual reality game to distract from the ongoing battles between the two corporate entities trying to take control of their city. In addition, Mal and her friend Jessa use the game to earn extra money to supplment the water and food rations controlled by the corporations. When Mal and Jessa have a new sponsor, however, they begin to learn secrets about the corporations that have major implications for their community and beyond.

This was really well executed. The world was believable – maybe a little too believable in that it feels like a near possibility – and I loved that the characters balanced the line of likable and realistically flawed. The book was such a pleasant surprise and I think it'll have broad appeal so I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a story about fighting against oppressive corporations with a slight gaming twist!

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC!!

In this dystopian novel, two large corporations have replaced the United States, and basic resources like water and electricity are heavily rationed. Mallory is just scraping by, earning meager tips streaming the wargame SecLife. But when she gets a mysterious request to investigate an in-game character, everything changes for Mal. As makes connections with the in-game characters, she learns that the secrets behind SecLife are far more sinister than she could have imagined.

I haven't read Ready Player One or many other books in this genre, so I picked this up to try something new. I liked Mal as a main character, especially her interactions with best friend Jessa. The social justice themes explored in the book were also a highlight. Ultimately, I had a little trouble with the gaming content - it didn't keep my interest as much as I would have liked. I did enjoy the reveal of the secrets behind SecLife. If you're interested in technothrillers, check this one out!

Thank you to Gallery Books/Saga Press for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's going to be super hard to explain why I gave this novel 4 stars without spoiling anything but I'm gonna try!

Let's start with some positives.

The worldbuilding was not incredibly unique, but I did enjoy it. Think "Ready Player One" but with more corporate control and twitch streamers. The most original part of this world is definitely the SpecOp agents and how their avatars are incorporated into the game everyone plays. This brings me to the next positive - the characters. I genuinely enjoyed everyone I met in this novel, particularly our MC, Mal. Why do I love her so much? She's neither likable nor unlikeable. Sometimes she's a strong badass who makes strategic decisions, and sometimes she's not. Basically, she's a real person. I also love 22 but I'm just gonna throw that out there and run because I don't trust that I won't spin into a spoiler-filled rant about him otherwise.

Now some negatives.

While I really enjoyed this novel, I don't think it's for everyone. If you are a reader who doesn't mind being dropped into a world and not getting every single question answered, cool. However, if you are a reader who does mind being dropped into a world and not getting every single question answered, this book might be a challenge. Also, I personally had a bit of trouble with the pacing. The premise was interesting from the jump, but it did take me until maybe the 33% mark before I felt like things really kicked into gear. From 50% forward, I was having a hard time putting it down. That said, I do think some readers might fall off in that first 1/3 when things are a bit slower.

This really captured my attention. Sometimes stories like this can get over the top and eyeroll worthy, but Firebreak managed to never cross in to that territory.

I'm not a huge gamer, but I really enjoyed this and was able to sink into the world. Also... no awkward / forced romantic plotlines?! YES. PLEASE.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Firebreak was an interesting book to dive into. I was definitely getting Ready Player One vibes from it but also something a bit different at the same time. Now while this had some interesting and mysterious parts to it, I'll admit that I was bored for most of this book. It just felt like not a lot was happening and I was missing information during certain situations and stuff. I also really wanted more background information about certain characters too.

In it, you will meet Mallory... who was okay. To me at least. In the beginning, I was honestly really excited to get to know her. She was an orphan and lives with eight others in a hotel room. They all work numerous jobs to save enough money to keep their room and other stuff to survive. One of her jobs was streaming a popular virtual reality war game.

This game along kept this a page turner for most of this book. It just happened to get boring to read about in certain parts. I feel like I kept getting bored because I wasn't connecting to the main character, Mal, at all. I did like some of the characters but I wasn't fully invested in them at the same time. Which disappoints me because I was really excited to dive into this book.

In the end, it was a quick book to devour but things started to become a bit predictable towards the end.

A future where two corporations control the whole world after governments have collapsed are in a stalemate over one of main cities that isn't under control of one of corporations.

Water rations and power curfews are away of life in the outskirts of this city. For the people living in "old town" like Mal, they live as packed in to existing buildings as they can. Mal lives in a room in a former hotel with 8 other people and is getting by with working multiple jobs and playing the fighting simulation game that the whole world plays.

One chance encounter with the "spec-ops" game character which is based on real life corporation operatives gives Mal and her friend an offer from a benefactor that sets in motion the unveiling of the operatives backgrounds and possibly the unraveling of the company.

-----

I really enjoyed the world setup and how someone who has lived such a struggle does when facing a new challenge that they have uncovered. I would love to see more of Mal and this world.

Wow. I have been in somewhat of a reading slump lately, and then I started this book. I burned through it in three days and could not stop thinking about it. "Firebreak" brings together the best parts of RP1 and a little bit of SAO without being too cliche or repetitive. Social justice, video game and real life action, vivid characters, anti-corporate attitudes...I was hooked! I love reading YA sci fi because the genre deals with realistic, somewhat heavy topics while staying optimistic and telling readers, "even small choices can make a big difference." This book doesn't get too dark or too heavy, it touches just enough that you feel connected. Exactly what I needed.

I was a big fan of Archivist Wasp, and it's a real pleasure to see how Nicole Kornher-Stace's writing has developed even since that time. This book is centered on a future where the nation-state has been replaced by the corporate-state of "customer-citizens." Mal lives in a town owned by a water company, that vigorously controls and rations the water supply (more available if you can pay for it, of course). They are in a state of constant war with the rival corporation state they share a mega-city with, an agricultural corporation. Mal's main escape (and possible source of income) is playing and streaming a Fortnite-like game, featuring versions of the corporate super-soldiers who are the heroes in the never-ending war. When she stumbles across a possible secret regarding their origins, she finds herself fighting for her life in non-virtual reality. The future setting is all too plausible, if you've ever read a single thing about company towns, or patented seeds, or bottled water companies buying up our aquifers right now, and the action and pacing keep the pages turning. Mal and her friends are fully-realized people, and it's particularly nice to see a real and nuanced portrayal of an asexual character...so often, when ace people even appear in a book, authors don't know how to characterize them aside from "they don't have sex," and any personality they can imagine for them is that of a child. All and all, a great achievement!

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley. I’ve been so excited for this book since I first saw it mentioned as upcoming that I actually learned how to get a NetGalley account to request it in the first place. I can’t tell you how far I was into the book when I started reading this morning, but it was certainly less than half. I couldn’t put it down all morning and finished it by afternoon, because I kept feeling like the story was moving towards different endings than I was expecting and I couldn’t tell what the rest of the book was going to be. Also, I was so attached to everyone and getting increasingly anxious about what was going to happen to them.

I definitely think this job does a better job at creating a corporate future that projects realistically from our own world than a lot of other dystopian futures I’ve read. Parts of this book hit much harder for feeling like something I would experience or witness at a protest today. Having the major societal issues being the privatization of water was particularly chilling, and well contrasted with the situation in other parts of the world. Also, I thought that the corporation would try to create a dummy version of Mal as a sell out to silence her but the way they did it was so creepy! The RESIST t-shirt.

Finally, I love the way that she writes her characters as pushed into a corner and feeling unqualified for the issues in front of them but going after what they care about anyway. The fact that Mal never loses the fact that she’s frightened or in pain or confused made her so much realer to me. And the fact that the people around her have to pool their resources and skills. The fact that not everyone agrees on what the best thing to do is when horrifying information is uncovered. The constant emphasis on the importance of friendship!! The aspec rep here is so wonderful.

Oh wait also, as a fan of the previous books in this universe, seeing 6 and 22 and how their history overlapped with Mal’s story was just great. I have a lot of feelings about it. I have a long list of books I’m committed to reading next, but I will be rereading the Archivist Wasp books AND preordering Firebreak, so that I can reread it in the future.

I received an ARC Kindle edition of this book from NetGalley.

Content Warning: Language - I know profanities bother some people based on reviews of other other books and this book has plenty of them. It does not bother me and had no bearing on my rating. As a PC gamer, I can tell you it is all you hear/read when connected with other gamers (in-game, conventions, etc). It comes with the territory.

I have been looking for a good page turner for a while now. Firebreak comes pretty darn close. I definitely had the "I can get one more chapter in" thing going on, but it was putdownable at times. I was slightly disappointed with the fast wrap up of the end, but overall I enjoyed the book very much. The book does open up the possibility of a Stellaxis/Greanleaf prequel or sequel (*wink wink nudge nudge*, please?).