It's just another day in Boston for Mitch, Luke, Alyssa, and Stephanie. They're four college-aged friends who like to play the popular online game Bloodfeast MMO together. But when they log in to the game, none of their characters are where they'd last saved them and Mitch's character has two new items - a mysterious orb and a scroll.
Before the friends can figure out why, they're blinded by a bright flash of light. When their vision finally returns, they're shocked to find that they're now inside the game in their characters' bodies. But the friends are even more surprised when they learn that their characters somehow left the game and are now in their bodies back in Boston.
Trapped in the fantastic world of Bloodfeast, the friends embark on a quest to try and get back to their reality. In this world filled with magic, shifters, and monsters, they face one challenge after the next as they look for a way home.
Meanwhile, the Bloodfeast characters try to find their way around modern-day Boston. With no magic or shifting abilities, the characters have a hard time adjusting to life in 21st century America.
WARNING: This book contains extreme violence, sexual situations, bad language, worse language, vandalism, drinking, blood and gore, gore and blood, bloody gore (but don't worry - no gory blood), six of the seven deadly sins, animals that shouldn't exist, mildly disturbing behavior, seriously disturbing behavior, destruction of property, multiple decapitations, and a crazy lady who just might have all the answers.
My Opinion: 187 pages, $3.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
A bit over priced at $3.99, this a decent kindle unlimited read. It takes the Freaky Friday concept and applies it to an MMO. Four friends find themselves trapped the bodies of their game characters while those suddenly self aware characters are in their bodies in Boston.
There are two stories here. One, the four friends search for a way to get back into their real bodies while killing monsters, talking to wacky NPCs, bantering. This part of the story is decent. The action isn’t great but if the humor lands with you, you should enjoy it. There’s a lot of insider gamer jokes, puns, and just silly humor. There is also a lot of filler here as the group travels around. I feel like if the story in game could have been a bit tighter and focused and I would have enjoyed it more. Instead it wanders in places.
The second story is about how the game characters, now in the modern world, deal with a suddenly more advanced society and all the tech stuff involved with that. There’s plenty of Stranger in a Strange land stuff. This part of the story is relatively small part of the novel. Unfortunately, the four brave adventurer’s stay in the apartments they find themselves in instead of exploring the larger world. I feel like there’s a missed opportunity to explore different social structures and lots of missed joke opportunities.
Overall, this was decently entertaining. Not everyone is going to like the jokes and several of the characters are complete jerks but it worked well enough for me.
Score: 7 out of 10
Inside Out (Bloodfeast Book 1)