Pretty disappointing. I loved the premise but I thought it was pretty poorly executed. I really liked the references throughout the book. I'm sure a ton of them went over my head (especially the music) but I got a lot of the computer and game references. My main problem was that the entire thing was so stilted. It felt so stiff and inelegant. I didn't think any of the twists were very clever or the rest of the novel for that matter. 
 This idea of virtual reality playing the main stage of a story is amazingly great. But I really think Cline made huge mistakes. He didn't go into great technical detail and the parts he did supply were lacking or just plain faulty. I felt as though the technical universe that Cline set up was molded perfectly for the story that he wanted to tell and it just wasn't at all realistic. Don't even get me started on (view spoiler)[Og. He's pretty much all powerful but he will intervene to help 4 gunters just to uphold the "spirit" of the competition. (hide spoiler)] 
 I thought the power levels in and out of the VR were poorly handled. The consequences or lack of consequences for the protagonists' and antagonists' actions again seemed so unnatural. A lot of the book felt unnatural. As much as I love the topic, ideas, and theme of the book I thought it was disappointingly executed. 
 EDIT: Maybe I was expecting too much of this book and I just wasn't the intended audience. Sometimes I wonder if I missed metaphors, references, or even the message of a book but I felt as though this book shoved everything in my face. It was a lot of fast paced action, but I just wasn't invested enough to fall headlong into it. I can suspend my disbelief for a lot of things but I continually felt jarred out of the story Cline was trying to tell because of his description of the virtual reality. Also the entire thing felt like it shared a good amount of characteristics with cyberpunk (it is a bleak futuristic world that has an almost class-like division of the population and the story revolves around a tech-fueled caper) but it was also lacking a lot of the standard cyberpunk features. It felt like a cyberpunk lite style. I think I would have preferred if it was a true cyberpunk novel and fully committed to a more mature tone.