A video game with deadly consequences comes to life.Darkitect is an online role-playing game that allows players to design their own levels. Chinese American 15-year-old Marina Chan met Dread, Rock, and Syl while playing. As an intern with Apocalypta Games, the company behind Darkitect, Dread arranges a tour of the Seattle headquarters for his friends. Marina is nervous to meet them offline for the first time-it doesn't help that she's reticent about her past and is secretly on the run. But who is she hiding from? Apocalypta CEO Ethan Wainwright leads the tour, and the group discusses the possible identity of Cíxǐ, a mysterious Darkitect player who's been having the four friends beta-test her latest levels. But the tour ends on a shocking note when Wainwright is shot, and the friends are plunged into a ruthless game: If they don't play, they'll be charged with his murder. Brief, interspersed vignettes beginning 10 years earlier satisfyingly converge as they offer insight into a deranged, torturous relationship between a mother and daughter. More than a by-the-numbers thriller, this layered debut has propulsive momentum with effective cliffhangers and twists threaded throughout. Through a graceful depiction of Marina's survival on the streets, Yu offers a reminder to be compassionate toward unhoused people.Cleverly designed gameplay blended with strong pacing. (Thriller. 14-18)

Gr 9 Up— Four friends who play an online game are pulled into a devious plot by a nefarious avatar who threatens to destroy their lives if they don't play along. Night (Marina), Dread (Andrew), Rock (Rajesh), and Syl (Tamyra)—most of the book uses nicknames based on their game usernames—are touring the Seattle headquarters of Apocalypta, creators of the Darkitect multiplayer online role-playing game, when the company's founder, Ethan, is murdered. Alone in the building, they find envelopes in his pocket that detail what will happen if they don't play new levels of Darkitect—levels that require them to complete real-life tasks, including break-ins, research, and interviews with people connected to Ethan. The tight narrative is told from 15-year-old Marina's point-of-view with flashbacks to her childhood with a mother who isolated and abused her (some of which is harrowing); following a period of being unhoused, she now sleeps in the back office of the restaurant where she works. With hacking and breaking into office buildings, some suspension of disbelief is required, but readers won't mind because it's a page-turning thrill ride as Yu slowly reveals who the mysterious, all-knowing game-maker C&7;x is and what she wants with the group—particularly Marina. Marina is Chinese American, Dread has pale skin, Syl has dark skin, and Rock is British Indian; there is gay and trans representation. VERDICT Unputdownable. Readers of thrillers, such as Kathryn Foxfield's Tag, You're Dead, will enjoy this debut, as will video game aficionados.— Amanda Mastrull