This book is a love story, but not in the way you’d expect. It’s a love letter to games and how they connect us. There’s no doubt this book was inventive and compelling, but it was also a bit trite, and pretentious. The concept was very cool, and I was INVESTED, finishing the book in 2 days. I understand why everyone has been talking about this book, but it’s not without its flaws.

The main characters were poorly developed, and the pacing felt off leading to a story that felt too long. The gaming element was cool, if at times a bit niche, but I was very much intrigued. The thing i struggled with the most was the characters, and how one-dimensional, and undeveloped they felt. Every instance of emotional poignancy, conflict, or character development felt forced, hollow, or trite. We don’t really get anything from these characters, then dive into a small story that’s meant to deliver an emotional arc and devastate us with the hidden depths of our characters, but unfortunately it usually felt a bit “too little, too late”, It felt maudlin and melodramatic, a bit soapy at times with how the story seemed to try to force our hand as readers, to have a devastating emotional reaction. I won’t lie, I did cry, especially at the NPC chapter, but that was the exception, not the rule. For the most part, these people were awful to each other, which is fine, but we were expected to believe so much of them, which was hard to invest in. They were primarily hollow and one-note characters. Their supposed “rich inner lives” were supposed to humanize them, and perhaps make them more sympathetic, but the peeks into their inner thoughts and monologues were narrative devices that told readers exactly why we should be rooting for these people, without trusting the readers to get there themselves. 

All in all, this was compelling and interesting, but left me feeling it’s lack of depth, more than celebrating what i liked about it.

I received a reading copy of this book from the publisher, in exchange for my honest feedback.