One Word Kill, by Mark Lawrence

Genre: Science Fiction
Themes: Late 80's, D&D, Friendship, Time Travel
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

I liked enough about ​One Word Kill that it gets a high 3. I didn’t hate it at all—there is a lot of cool stuff going on, and the story has promise. But I didn't love it, and with a description like "Ready Player One meets Stranger Things," I really wanted to love it. The writing is good, the characters interesting and believable.

​But it lacked energy, for some reason. It never went beneath the surface, really, so we don’t have much reason to actually CARE about Nick and his friends or what happens to them. So, while we might be interested in the story, we’re not necessarily invested in it. And it’s annoying, because I really liked what the author was setting up.

So, the question is, is it worth reading on to book #2 (Limited Wish, out May 28th , 2019—which, I might add, comes with a testimony from George R.R. Martin himself!)? Do we get a deeper dive into more meaningful and impactful territory later in the series? Maybe... and I think it’s probably worth finding out. The premise is cool enough to make me want more, and I know that sometimes these trilogies need more than one book to really get off the ground and running. But not until after I read a few or fifteen books in between. 

What other books did One Word Kill remind me of? When You Reach Me, by Rebecca Stead. And yes, there's definitely a Stranger Things​ element going on with the group of kids playing D&D, but it doesn't go beyond that. 

This book is totally acceptable and would most likely be very enjoyable to a YA audience.

Favorite quotes:

People think you need to be big to be scary. They see boxers, big muscles, long arms, huge guys, and think that’s what matters on the streets. What matters in real life, though, is how far you’re prepared to go and how quickly.

Pain can stay the same while you change around it. 

Of all the worlds, and all the universes, he walks into mine.

All of us have a shell, a skin between us and the world that we have to break each time we speak to it.

Because ugliness multiplies, and hurt spills over into hurt, and sometimes good things are just a feel for evil’s fire.