This was such a great read! The main character had me rooting for him right away. I just wish the author had put more into the ending and didn’t quickly wrap everything up in the last few pages. There were many characters that weren’t even mentioned, so you have no idea what happened to them. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

His bosses are faceless patrons that are eager for him to kill. Marcus Rhodes, a lonely, young streamer on Twitch, plays Warfield 3 as his alternative identity, Hexagone. He wants to be able to subsist, pay off his mortgage, and play video games at the same time. The few viewers and subscribers that he has just aren’t cutting the bills and he does not want to return to working for corporate America. What makes Marcus an interesting character and streamer is that he can use his “Shingles” to fully immerse himself into the game, in the way that he can actually see, taste, and smell his surroundings in-game. After an injury and fluke lands him in prison in the game, he has no hope for his future as a video game streamer. A glimmer of hope appears in a new game called Thermal Core, where he may have the chance to win $1 million dollars. After software updates, in-person interviews, facial expressions recorded, and a van outside his home full-time, he is ready to play Thermal Core. 8 streamers total on 2 teams of 4 for 3 days, does he have the chance to win a million dollars or will he fall flat?

This book had a great plot with intriguing characters. I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author.

I had the opportunity to review read Permadeath by Miguel H. Villarreal. This book was released the 2nd of December.

I really wanted to read this one after I've read the description, it just wheeled me in. I enjoy reading thrillers, this being a bit different than what I normally read since it revolves around a game and a streaming community.

We're following Marcus in this story, a guy with way to much debt trying to climb the streaming ladder so he can live of the donations fans make. I have to say, the beginning threw me off a bit.. About a fifth of the book is about Marcus and his problems, him trying to reel in people for his streams and him online gaming / streaming and paying an obscene amount of money to get one on one sessions to learn how to get more viewers in stream.

After getting chosen to advance play a game with 7 other streamers the story really takes of. You only get to die once in game, so.. Permadeath. You don't get a second chance and parachute back in game. In fact, you die? The software will be deleted like it has never been there.

After the first to deaths in game, things get interesting.. The "losers" keep on streaming, but something about those streams seems off. Are they really streaming still? Is there a glitch? Is it AI?
Finding out people are really being eliminated in real life if they lose the game, Marcus runs.. He and another streamer will both be getting to the bottom of this.. But, will they survive? What will happen along the way? Find out!

This was decently entertaining. A little too gamelit for me and some of it felt a little YA. I loved the concept of the story though