Sofia Mendoza injures her sister (after accidentally-on-purpose tripping her), so her father sends her to Forestjaw to reflect on her behavior. Things get off to a weird start: Monarch, Forestjaw\u2019s leader and seemingly only real adult, greets the campers (or \u201ccandidates,\u201d as she calls them) with a terrifying mechanical vulture on her shoulder before confiscating their electronics and fitting them with mysterious pieces of wearable technology called rankles. The camp\u2019s connections to the popular Sandbox online gaming world quickly become apparent, and Sofia\u2019s excitement grows when she finds out they\u2019ll all be participating in a game that involves ranking and elimination. She\u2019s the best Sandbox player around and quite certain she\u2019ll come out on top. When the first candidate is eliminated, carried off by one of Monarch\u2019s vultures, the stakes ratchet up, and vicious Sofia is determined to do absolutely anything it takes to win. Readers searching for redemption will not find it here; the complications of Sofia\u2019s abrasive personality and serially selfish decision-making build through a fast-paced, tightly written, high-action tale. Arroyo\u2019s well-timed grayscale illustrations add depth, and Sandbox\u2019s similarity to Roblox will make this creepy, witty techno-horror series opener a popular pick among kids. Names cue diversity among the cast. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sofia Mendoza injures her sister (after accidentally-on-purpose tripping her), so her father sends her to Forestjaw to reflect on her behavior. Things get off to a weird start: Monarch, Forestjaw\u2019s leader and seemingly only real adult, greets the campers (or \u201ccandidates,\u201d as she calls them) with a terrifying mechanical vulture on her shoulder before confiscating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}