Strange Exit by Parker Peevyhouse

Reality is not what it seems in this strange, sort of post apocalyptic novel.

Lane has spent a long time trying to free people from a virtual sim. Real life isn't much better; they're trapped on a damaged and failing space ship in orbit around a devastated Earth. Until everyone is out of the sim, the ship won't let them leave, but where are they going, and how can she persuade people to leave what seems like paradise to enter Hell?

A strange read, this one. I love the concept, but the writing leaves something to be desired. The locations are described beautifully, I could really picture them, but the characters aren't described at all and the backstory is sketchy. At the end, when revelations are piling on, I couldn't really follow what was happening; partly because the POV character was in shock and not processing properly, and partly because it just wasn't clear. And, like a lot of reviewers, I'm curious what happened to Taran? He just vanished!

It's a fascinating concept, but I'm afraid the story just doesn't live up to it.

Seventeen-year-old Lake spends her days searching a strange, post-apocalyptic landscape for people who have forgotten one very important thing: this isn’t reality. Everyone she meets is a passenger aboard a ship that’s been orbiting Earth since a nuclear event. The simulation that was supposed to prepare them all for life after the apocalypse has trapped their minds in a shared virtual reality and their bodies in stasis chambers.

No one can get off the ship until all of the passengers are out of the sim, and no one can get out of the sim unless they believe it's a simulation. It's up to Lake to help them remember.

When Lake reveals the truth to a fellow passenger, seventeen-year-old Taren, he joins her mission to find everyone, persuade them that they’ve forgotten reality, and wake them up. But time’s running out before the simulation completely deconstructs, and soon Taren’s deciding who’s worth saving and who must be sacrificed for the greater good. Now, Lake has no choice but to pit herself against Taren in a race to find the secret heart of the sim, where something waits that will either save them or destroy them all.