Vande Velde, Vivian. Deadly Pink.

Vande Velde, Vivian.  Deadly Pink.  Houghton Mifflin/ Harcourt Brace    276p  $16.99  978-0-547-73850-5  2012    jr/sr   VG      Fantasy   

Vivian Vande Velde is well-known for her successful teen fantasy novels.  Deadly Pink takes place in a virtual reality game.  Grace Pizelli must enter the virtual world of the reality game to retrieve her suicidal sister Emily, before the game becomes reality. 

Initially, Grace’s task appears straightforward.  Put on the V-R gear, enter the game, knock some sense into Emily’s head, exit the game, re-unite with Emily in “real” life.  The whole experience should only take moments.  Instead, Grace must enter into the spirit of the game and defeat characters, outwit the programming, and so on (including a dragon!).  As pink and girly as the fantasy world initially appears, readers are always aware that suicide is an integral theme of this story.

The topic of suicide is addressed appropriately, and repercussions of suicide are discussed.  Suicide is not presented as an acceptable choice in this book.  Still, it is soon apparent that Emily has kept the dark side of her personality well-hidden behind a happy, upbeat facade.  Even though Grace is Emily’s younger sister, she handles a challenging situation with surprising maturity and strength.

While this is an entertaining read, it lacks Vande Velde’s trademark whimsy and clever dialogue.  The most memorable element of this story is exposed mid-novel, in the loving relationship that the sisters share.  Readers who enjoy the novel will be pleased that there are several others by this author that also feature Rasmussen virtual-reality games (User Unfriendly and Heir Apparent), both of which are more polished and entertaining novels than Deadly Pink.

Mystery–Fiction, Sisters-Fiction                        --Hilary Welliver