I love watching her actions effect the world around her. She is motivated by one thing and one thing only: To stay alive in the game so that she can stay alive in the real world. She’s forced to experience the same series of events over and over, make decisions on how to interact with those around her and who to ally herself with, and find herself killed in sinister, bizarre, and treacherous ways. Every time Janine (as she’s called in the game) dies, she awakens in a sheep field, covered in feces, with her foster mother calling her name. The setting is unique in that it’s repetitive. Stine Choose Your Own Adventure book reader, and forever daydreamer. It appeals to me, also, as a part-time gamer, former R.L. It’s so visually appealing to me in a way that many books are not, managing to paint these vivid images in my head and bringing to mind the most exquisite sets I can imagine. I genuinely love this story and the characters. That maybe I glamourized it in my head or was in the right frame of mind when I read it, but that it’s not that good. Until a group of activists breaks into the arcade and trashes the equipment, making it impossible for staff to safely remove her from the game before completion and leaving her in a fight for her life: Beat the game soon if you want to survive.Įvery time I pick up this book, I’m terrified that I’m not going to love it as much as I have in the past. Forced to face off against three half siblings and the queen, peasant unrest, barbarian attacks, and a very choose-your-own-adventure style gaming experience, Giannine knows she’s in for a challenging game. Giannine settles on a game entitled Heir Apparent and is promptly cast into the role of shepherd’s daughter who discovers, after the death of the king, that her parents are only her foster parents, she is the secret bastard child of the king and his former mistress, and she must return to the palace to claim her rightful place as heir to the throne. The novel is set in a futuristic society not far outside the realms of our own reality in which public busses speak and can be spoken to (but aren’t very intelligent) and arcades house immersive virtual reality games. Heir Apparent follows 14-year-old Giannine Bellisario as she ventures to an arcade for her birthday. It’s everything I want, ties in so beautifully with some of my most excitingly dramatic fantasies, and I JUST WANT IT TO BE MADE INTO A MOVIE SOSOSOSOSO BAD! Even now, at the geriatric old age of 24, I still absolutely adore this story.

I read it for the first time when I was in middle school and I’ve read it several times since. I really don’t think you guys understand how much I mean it when I say: This is seriously one of my favorite books of all time.

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde