The Elroom

"The Elroom" by Jerry Sohl is a science fiction story set in the 1950s that looks at what could happen when technology gets so good it's hard to tell what's real. It's about a boy named Timmy whose life changes a lot because he has access to extremely immersive virtual experiences. The story follows Timmy down a troubling path as he begins to lose his grip on reality, spending more time in the virtual world than in the real one. Timmy's mom, Mrs. Briggs, gets worried as Timmy's school tells her he is too involved in a virtual world. The story's tension rises when a family vacation, designed to bring Timmy back to reality, goes wrong as Timmy confuses the two worlds. The book is all about the risks involved when technology blurs the line between what’s real and what's not.