The main characters hack into a virtual reality role-playing game. The narrator is a teen boy whose mom is in the game also. Utilizes aspects of dungeons & dragons, but is less PC than most books of the era. I understand a sequel, released 12 years later, is much better.

This book is one of the early examples of LitRPG, where characters enter (or are trapped in) an MMO, and that's probably how it ended up on my reading list. It is also the first Vivian Vande Velde I have read, and was apparently written for the young adult market. I will at least read the later book, to see what some of the hype is about.