Eh, 3.5 stars. That's also probably close to what my sons (15 and 12) would give it--and one of them thoroughly liked the Maze Runner series. I read the ebook version of this aloud to them. 
 Oh, how I wanted to love this book. When I first heard of it, I thought it was a perfect bedtime story for me to read to my boys. I'm a gamer, I met their father through an online PC gaming service in the early '90s, and they have basically been gamer kids their whole lives. Plus, both of them had read at least the Maze Runner, though this was my first Dashner title. 
 But I didn't love it. The premise is intriguing, at least. Three teens spend their time plugged into a virtual world. They met there, they became friends, and now they've been enlisted to stop an evil uber-gamer named Kaine from doing big nasty things in the VirtNet system. 
 I liked the characters well enough, and I liked the gaming situations alright too. But it never got a hold of me like I wanted it to, like Ready Player One, a far superior novel, did. Instead, I found myself nodding off while reading aloud every other night. The writing style didn't flow as well as I expected, and I wasn't as immersed in the story as I wanted to be. 
 Still, I gave it a decent score, but why? First, I never wanted to stop reading it--and that is always an option. Neither did the kids. The subject matter is right up our alley, and that helped a LOT. I truly wanted to find out what happened next. Also, (view spoiler)[ I was enthralled by the ending. Sure, some might find it cliche or obvious, but I became fully awake when I learned that Michael was not human. After that, I am willing to give the inevitable sequel a try. Well done ending, Dashner. You got me hooked in now. (hide spoiler)] 
 Heavy fans of either gaming or Dashner's work are the best candidates to like this story. Maybe give it a try!