Don’t Die Dave is a fast-paced, non-stop action adventure that takes place mostly inside a video game.
The main character, a former teacher called (you guessed it), Dave, is a patient in an American hospital suffering from colon cancer. He has racked up over $6million in hospital bills, which he cannot pay, and the billing department has decided to add him as a non-player character (NPC) called a Living Legend to a monetized, role-playing video game. If he can garner enough likes, encourage new players, and get featured in videos made by other players, he can earn points, which will go towards paying his medical bills. If he does not play by the rules, his body will be tortured in real life by the antagonist, evil accountant, Mr O’Cavity. If he loses his three lives in the game, his life support will be terminated in real life. Dave has to learn what angles to play and who best to ally himself with in order to survive in a shoot ‘em up style game full of teenagers who just want to blow him up.
What an evil fate for a group of tragically dying and/or comatose medical patients!! The premise of Don’t Die Dave reads like a terrifying foreshadowing of the state of medical insurance in the USA, as debts spiral and extortionate bills only get higher. This lends the story a dystopian feel in the vein of The Hunger Games and gives a sense of dramatic irony to the reader. The paying players are unaware and must never find out that the Living Legends are real people who actually die when they lose three lives at the hands of the players – all in the name of (mostly) teenage entertainment!
Fairly early on in the book, Dave gains a wonderful penguin companion named Pepper, who was my favourite thing about this book. Pepper is a character from a kids’ Maths game who somehow finds herself inside this terrifying game. She is a kind, inspirational and optimistic breath of fresh air in a world full of dog-eat-dog violence. How she got into the game in the first place is never explained, and even the developers don’t seem to understand it. Thank goodness she did, though, as having her on his side saves Dave over and over again!
So what did I dislike about the game that made me give it 4/5 rather than a full 5 stars?
I am not a player of video games and found a lot of the jargon difficult to get my head around, such that I wasn’t sure exactly what was happening a lot of the time. It didn’t really matter, though, as the concept remained the same throughout the book: survive the battles, outsmart the rich players who could buy the best weapons, armour, spells, etc., and keep alive in the boss battles by using teamwork. Then repeat.
There were a lot of comedic references to 1980s TV shows and movies, such as MacGyver, The A-Team, The Goonies and others, which may go over the heads of younger readers. Having grown up in England, I haven’t seen many of these and therefore missed many of the references. I think the book is probably aimed at an American readership. There was an English character who really annoyed me. He was a caricatured child version of The Artful Dodger or Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins. I’ve certainly never heard any real teen from London talking in Cockney rhyming slang nowadays!
The reading experience was similar to watching other people playing a video game. I didn’t feel immersed in the world of the story and therefore felt somewhat like an outsider. However, I know plenty of people love watching others play games, so that is probably just my take.
There were parts of the narrative that tugged on my emotions. Particularly around a character named Hank, who is only eight years old in real life and in a coma after a car crash. Even he felt a little bit of a caricature, though. At one point, he asks Dave, “Are you having a stroke?” I don’t think many eight-year-olds would know what a stroke is. This line of dialogue might have been better coming from an older character.
Having said all of that, the fact that I am clearly not in any way the target audience for this book and still enjoyed it and was invested enough to find parts of it gripping and other parts heartwrenching speaks volumes about A.R. Witham’s wonderful storytelling abilities.
If you grew up in 1980s America, you will probably love revisiting all the pop culture references. If you enjoy video gaming or TTRPGs with teams made up of diverse, crazy characters who work well together to stay alive, you probably are the target audience and will undoubtedly find this book a thrill ride of an experience!!
I received an ARC from the author – thank you, Andy. My review is honest, and my opinions are my own.
Author: Sue
