Review Detail

Tracy Deebs is already established and popular young adult author - that is obvious when you start reading Doomed. Her writing style is easy to read and perfect for young adults, with heroes that are not too old for their age.

Pandora, heroine of Doomed, may seem like a rebel with her haircut and multiple piercings but she is just an ordinary girl. In fact, she is usual young adult novel heroine. Neglected by her successful mother. Long ago abandoned by her father. In school Pandora is a loner, except for one best friend. If you love usual tropes of ya novels, you have a lot of things to look forward to while reading this novel.
Although Doomed by Tracy Deebs is advertised as dystopian, I would more label it as post-apocalyptic novel. Pandora opens a website link that her father sent her and, unintentionally uploads a worm/virus to an internet. The next thing she knows - all infrastructures are collapsing: telephone, electricity, internet. The only thing that works is an online game that Pandora sometimes plays. And in this game a new notification is flashing "Total annihilation in 10 days". Pandora has to look for clues everywhere while she is chased by creatures from Greek mythology (in game) and government agents & rebel gangs (real life).
Fortunately for Pandora, she will have help of two handsome boys - Theo and Eli. One dark the other one blond - to satisfy every taste. Yes, love triangle lovers rejoice, there will be a lot of tension and drama and of course Pandora will not pick one of them until the last moment. Because, first they have to beat the game and save the world...

Summary for Doomed by Tracy Deebs reminded me of combination of Little Brother by Cory Doctorow & Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Both are my favorite young adult books, so my expectations for Doomed were set very high. I expected treats for gaming fans and some great fight-against-the-government & save-the-world moments.
Unfortunately, whole story felt rather shallow with a lot of illogical things that kept bugging me: Why Pandora leaves her best friend that she knew whole life (who has a father computer expert) and instead runs away with two boys who she met that morning? Why does she immediately assumes that government agents are against her and does not try to cooperate with them? How come all characters keep miraculously going although they sustain so much injuries trough this book? If I could ignore this questions, my enjoyment of this book would be far greater because it's a quick action-packed read, but sadly most of the times Pandora's actions were not logical to me and I could not understand her.