Part of Erebos
First published 2019
Someone installed an app on your phone. You did not do it. The program is called Erebos, and it already knows more about you than you told it. It runs on your phone, your laptop, every screen you touch. It picked you. Now it wants to play. The game does not ask for money. It asks for something real. Your job. Your degree. Your relationship. Every round raises the stakes, and walking away turns out to be harder than it sounds, because Erebos does not stay inside the screen. It follows its players into the physical world, issuing tasks, collecting debts, and watching to see who flinches. Ursula Poznanski's sequel to the cult hit Erebos drops a new generation of players into the same trap with one terrifying upgrade: the game has gone mobile. It is no longer confined to a single computer passed hand to hand. It is everywhere, and it chooses its users itself. The question at the center of the book is simple and deeply uncomfortable. How much of your real life are you willing to gamble for one more level?
Genres: science-fiction, dystopia, thriller, young-adult, psychological-thriller, 21st-century
Vibes: addictive, dark, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking, unsettling
Tropes: chosen-one, high-stakes-game, manipulation, no-escape
Period: 21st century
512 pages · Kindle Edition · Loewe
Content warnings: addiction, gaslighting