I liked this one but - maybe I'm too soft - it was a little too violent and gruesome for me to love. Maybe if this was marketed as an adult novel I would have been more prepared, but I thought it was YA and so was not expecting the violence and rape. It's not super detailed or gory or anything, but still felt like a lot.
That aside, it was interesting. Darrow starts as a character you are really rooting for, but at some point I started wondering if he was becoming one of the bads. I'll be interested in seeing his character arc through the rest of series. He was also a little unbelievable as a sixteen to eighteen year old or whatever - especially since he's basically perfect at every task - but he's a mess in the head so I'll give it a pass.
I honestly was not too interested in a lot of the game, which made up a huge chunk of the book, but the set up and conclusion were great.