SPRAY

A group of British teens join a shooter alternate-reality game (ARG) in which assassins pursue their prey with super-soaker water guns. Edge’s story twists between five to six major characters, including Green, an information-technology university student, Han, a 15-year-old girl bent on victory, and Mac, a 17-year-old boy who works in a burger bar. The author obviously knows the ins and outs of alternate-reality gaming, and he pens fast-paced action sequences that should have readers pounding through the more exciting portions of the novel. However, he also introduces and pursues too many side characters, which, although truthful to the ARG experience, distracts from the work’s central arc. What’s more, the novel’s authentic-feeling, ARG-based framework may excite readers at first, but it eventually loses momentum as page after page builds upon one character’s pursuit by another and the resulting soaking. Also important to note is that readers may be taken aback by the lack of any real consequences other than said soaking. What results is a fast-paced, one-trick pony of an action novel. (Thriller. 12 & up)