The Game Is Life

This one has a very Hunger Games feel to it -- that is, there's lots of drama, angst, romance, and betrayal between a few 20-undersomethings.And of course, there is a game to win with only one winner; toss in a Hunger Games style romance between two protagonists and you have a potential made-for-the-movies script coming out of this series.Out of all the LITRPG's, The Game is Life perhaps the least 'game' orientated in that there are no state readouts, no dungeons to clear, no RPG game talk, or any of that.As the title states, the Game is Life.The premise is actually quite interesting (and it's by a non-Russian author for once). Gamers play a sort of realistic video game as the star of their own 'game show.' The characters progress from birth to death in the game, living their game life from birth to death.When they die, they wake back into the real world with a score. The real world, you see, is a pretty damn shitty place to live full of poor people who spend their time watching these 'gamers' play their life video games. The top ranking gamers can become rich celebrities while the failed ones wash out and are destined to a hard life living on the streets.If you want an easy entrance to the LITRPG genre but without all the game trappings that scare off most everyone who's not a hardcore gamer, read this one.