Book Review: Rush - Eve Silver

Title: Rush
Author: Eve Silver
Pub Date: June 11th, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Page Count: 361

So what’s the game now? This, or the life I used to know?

When Miki Jones is pulled from her life, pulled through time and space into some kind of game — her carefully controlled life spirals into chaos.

In the game, she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to eliminate the Drau, terrifying and beautiful alien creatures. There are no practice runs, no training, and no way out. Miki has only the guidance of secretive but maddeningly attractive team leader Jackson Tate, who says the game isn’t really a game, that what Miki and her new teammates do now determines their survival, and the survival of every other person on this planet. She laughs. He doesn’t. And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying turn.

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This one was a strange one to review and the best part is that I mean this in a completely neutral way. Seriously. That's why it was so strange.
Usually, I feel one way or another with a book and that's how I am. It's pretty easy to review books when things are black and white. Rush, however, was not.

I really liked the idea of the game that wasn't just a game. It intrigued me because I'm not really a gamer and I like books that explore past what my extent of knowledge is. It's also something I haven't really seen before, except maybe, Spy Kids. (I'm sorry, I had to.) I also really liked a lot of little things like how if a gamer gets 1000 points, they get to leave. What I didn't really like was how it seemed like a great segway to bigger idea but was never really elaborated on.

That's a lot like how Rush was. Silver threw a bunch of exciting ideas and wrote them down but only really elaborated on half. By the end of the book, I was puzzled, unsatisfied but still want to read the next one. When I closed the cover, I thought to myself, is that it? While this story is full of plot building and unfolded secrets, I didn't feel like it really accomplished as much as it could have. I'm still so in the dark about so many things and maybe it's Silver's intention, but to me, it's kind of a waste.

I do really like Silver's writing. It was gorgeous and the dialogue was just so real to me. I think it really brought everything to life and because it's about a place outside our world, writing needs to have a balance between description and dialogue, which Eve Silver mastered.

Something else that I was really on the fence about were the characters. While I was definitely satisfied with the main characters, the rest were very blank to me. Because they're so mysterious, I never really got to connect with them until the ending and by then, it's kind of late. Also, I felt like the relationship between Miki and Jackson felt... weird. Like, I don't even know how to explain it.

So to sum up, it's definitely a great book and I would say start reading! But if I could do anything differently, I would binge read the whole series at once so I don't have this feeling of unsatisfaction that I have because I don't have the sequel, PUSH.

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Eve Silver lives with her gamer husband and sons, sometimes in Canada, but often in worlds she dreams up. She loves kayaking and sunshine, dogs and desserts, and books, lots and lots of books. Watch for the first book in Eve’s new teen series, THE GAME: RUSH, coming from Katherine Tegen Books, June 2013. She also writes books for adults.