Customer Reviews

Invitation to the Game

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book was very interesting, because of its ideas on where our world is heading. In the year 2154, the government controls everything. They decide what you do and where you live. Most people, found themselves unemployed and restricted to a designated area (DA). Now, nine unemployed young adults, right out of a government school, must work together to survive their DA. At first, they have trouble getting along and finding things to do. Then they stumble on something that will change their lives, "The Game." They're not sure what to make of it at first, but that it's a simulated paradise where they are to look for clues or answers to the game so they can receive the prize of their desire. But what do they truly desire? I gave this book four stars because it was a little slow, but mostly it was very fascinating science fiction story on the future.

I first picked up Invitation to the Game by Monica Hughes during my 1997 bicycle trip from Montreal to Toronto. A local museum was having a fund raising used book street sale, and I picked this book up for [a song]. It took me until now to actually pick it up and read it.

While the book is quite fitting for early-teen readers, I might have been stretching it a bit at the age of 29, as I found the book quite predictable. On several occasions I wanted to grab hold of the characters and shake some sense in them. "What are you thinking? Are you dense or what?" Since I could not do this, I just had to suffer my way through twenty more pages before the characters caught up with the obvious.

That being said, I did not realize the end of the book from the beginning, but only through the last 3 chapters. And apart from the last chapter, which was too sweet for my dentist to approve, the conclusion was quite refreshing for a children's book.

I read this book for the first time about 8 years ago. I think I've probably read it four or five times since. It was great then and now. I really enjoyed the futuristic plot, as well as the great character interactions. It makes you think, it keeps you reading, it keeps you coming back. Highly reccomended.

This book is a 1st person book, which I appreciate. It is really nice at the beginning, when 8 kids that joined the ranks of the unemployed decide to live together in a former warehouse. They scrounge for materials and make their living quarters pretty nice and cozy. They decide to try to meet some friends and see if there are any other people like them out there, so they go out at night. They get in trouble twice, and blow a lot of money, too. They build electric security systems and all sorts of cool things to keep them safe. However, with nothing but an old-fashioned book library, they soon get bored. Then, they get invited to The Game. They go into a room and lay down on couches and are transported somewhere else, only to be brought back when one of them is in a life-threatening situation. Then, one day, they find themselves somewhere else, and the story's freakiness level goes way up! It was a good book, but very freaky.

Invitation to the Game was a great book, it kept me interested and it didn't make me bored. The author discribed the characters, the scene, the mood, everything very well. I didn't want to put it down, even though at times it could be kinda confusing by not telling you who was talking and bringing up points from earlier on in the book. The book is about a group of people who just graduated from Government School and are starting out a new life on their own, trying to get jobs. The problem is that the book is based in 2154 and so on, when most of the jobs are taken by robots. The friends discover something called The Game and spend almost all of their time trying to figure out what The Game is and how to get to it, what to do when they get there, and what the point of the whole thing is. They go through many problems but stick together to work through it. The book is very good and I would recommend it to anyone.

This is the first time I have thought about "Invitation" since I read it, almost seven years ago. I remember that I read it for a schoolwide reading-awareness fair. My middle school held the fair each year, and everybody was required to read two books over the course of a month. Each grade (7th and 8th) had a seperate list of books they could choose from, all of which were supplied by the library. Teachers and librarians recommended that we pick a book from the appropriate grade's list, though doing so was not recquired. "Invitation" was on the 8th grade list, but I remember thinking to myself how I just HAD to read that one.

In short, I did read the book, and it left me breathless. I don't think I have ever finished a book in a quicker time. We had 2 weeks to finish and take the "proof" quiz, and I think I must have done both before the first was out.

Now, 7 years later I am 20 and find myself typing this review on my computer in a little room of Phillips Hall, Michigan State University. I'm in my second year, and am starting my first novel. It was kind of strange, really. As I sat here at my desk citing a story line in my head, the thought of "Invitation" suddenly occured, and without any sort of pre-meditated planning on thinking about it. It just happened.

It took a few moments, but I soon realized what had happened. The book I am planning has a small trace of commonality with "Invitation", and the thoughts of my own soon-to-be novel triggered the memory of it. I found this occurence to be utterly amazing, since I had never remembered anything before without first thinking about it. "Invitation" must have really left a lasting impression on me, even if it took me seven years to realize it.

It's a funny thing - how something as simple as a collection of words can stay with somebody so long and come back to them when they least expect it. As a person who is new to novel-writing, I hope that my books will have the same effect in the years to come.

It is the year 2154. Robots have taken over all the work. Now many new graduates are without work and are being sent to a Designated Area (DA) in a city to spend the rest of their life doing nothing, only barely living off the government for the bare necessities: food and shelter. Lisse and seven friends are in this predicament, and suffering from boredom. Then they hear about a 'game' for the unemployed. Some say it is like a treasure hunt , with a treasure if you win.
Then suddenly a mysterious envelope appears in their warehouse home: it is an invitation to The Game.
They soon discover that The Game is a magical world, untouche by humans or robots. It is new and unused: everyone's dream come true.
The only problem is, no one really knows what The Game is. Is it just a scheme to control the unemployed? Or is it deeper than that?

I am a college student with a major in elementary education and have taken many children's literature courses. For my Language Arts class, we had to read this novel. At first, I was not too excited about reading it, since I knew right away that it was a science fiction novel, which is a genre that I do not particularly like. However, this book changed my mind. Hughes is an excellent writer who keeps readers in suspense throughout the novel. I felt as if I was Lisse, the main character who was desperately trying to find answers to "the game." There are so many ways that this book can be taught. It can easily be taught with books like The Giver and Z for Zachariah, which are similar science fiction novels appropriate for junior high students. I would definitely recommend any teacher to use this in his/her class as well as strongly urge anyone to read it. I'm looking foward to reading other novels by Hughes.

This book was an accidental purchase at a third grade book fair back in the early 1990s. Now, as a senior English major whose focus is more on literary theory than young adult literature, "Invitation to the Game" should seem lacking. However, as a lover of young adult literature who first read this novel in the third grade, and as someone whose paperback copy is falling apart from frequent re-reading, "Invitation to the Game" is an endlessly appealing novel. The influences from Orwell's "1984" and other dystopian works are not very subtle for the trained reader, but for the child who uses this novel for her introduction into dystopian themes and futuristic science-fiction, it does the trick. I have often found (and still find) that the story is so engaging that I can pick up at any point in the book and read with pleasure. Hughes' plot devices also allow room for plot additions from the imagination by allowing the immediate perspective of "Lisse," the narrator, and each time I read it, I wish there was more story to read. The target audience for this book is elementary-aged children, and in this respect, "Invitation to the Game" introduces difficult themes while allowing the reader of any age to fill in her own present understanding, and without telling too much to, too soon for the young audience. Additionally, Hughes is indeed very skilled in her descriptions and her characterization of "Lisse." For adult readers, this novel encourages one to break away from the cynicism that could cause one to immediately dismiss this as mediocre literature, and to appreciate a beautiful story for its own sake; it is truly the novel for the reader with escapist tendencies. With such an approach in mind, I highly recommend "Invitation to the Game," which has been for thirteen years my favorite piece of literature.

I first read this book in sixth or seventh grade (I am a sophomore now), and the love I feel for it hasn't diminished a bit. This really is one of those books that your eyes just skid over in a bookstore, the gaudy cover and awkward title and all that. That's what I first thought when I saw it in the bookstore. But something about it urged me to get it, and I'm so glad I did. This is a realistic and chilling view of the future, with an end that surprises and gratifies you in every way. "Invitation to the Game" is a cautionary book everyone should read.