okaypel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
missberlyreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
lemonflower's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Injury/injury detail, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Suicide
Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Grief, Cursing, Death of parent, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Murder, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Miscarriage, Cancer, Misogyny, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Alcohol, Blood, Cultural appropriation, and Racism
felicityclaire's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
shittysapien's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
thenewsgal's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sh_ng's review against another edition
i had literally never heard of this book until i saw that i was the “best fiction book of the year” voted on by goodreads users. then i attended a speculative fiction workshop hosted by aaww and like 80% or more of the attendees were raving about this book and multiple of them said it made them cry. oh well i guess i’m not immune to the hype train!!!! however i would definitely not categorize this as spec fic so i dont rly know why it was brought up during the workshop. i guess bc its all about video games.
i’m not a gamer at all but being extremely online lets u absorb a lot by osmosis so i feeel like i was pretty well equipped to engage w those parts of the book. i do rly like h*mestuck (which is not a game but very much About Video Games) and undertale esp how both of those works engage with the idea of death and having infinite lives/restarts and the consequence of re-dos, death and killing. dov’s relationship with sadie made me feel ill but i liked it when he said he hated shooters even though i can sympathize with having a virtual outlet to express negative emotions. the games that they make over the course of the book are not shooters at all and have very different underlying philosophies and show how games can make for extremely compelling story telling.
i’m a pisces so i also really empathize with the idea of losing yourself in a world that is more “perfect” or utopian than our world, or even a fictional world that is objectively worse than ours but enjoying the escapism of it. i mean that is literally my whole life like being on tumblr and engaging with ur fave characters and fictional worlds as if they are real lol. and reading/writing fanfiction about them. this book was more literal about it as in sam and sadie are building these fictional worlds, literally, using code and stuff. i mean i just watched the world cup for the first time a couple of weeks ago and was avidly following the games with my bf to the point that i was sucked into reading abt the origin stories and histories of all the diff players and teams (the “lore” and “characters” lmao). that’s how susceptible i am to engrossing myself into A World
the book definitely felt like it is in the lineage of the books “a little life” and “normal people”. i could not stop myself from comparing this to those books. also a little bit of “the life cycle of software objects” by ted chiang. i would be truly shocked if the author either hadn’t read or hadn’t deliberately used those books as inspiration for this one. the avoidant and secretive nature of sam and sadie’s personalities, the weakness of sams constitution wrt how he can’t tell sadie he loves her, i mean come on! the on and off, codependent nature of their relationship and how they’re clearly “meant to be” in a friendship and somewhat romantic way. and also sam’s ruined leg and how its a source of pain, denial, and self-hatred for him his whole life. idk if sam and sadie’s relationship compelled me in the same way that connell and mariannes did in normal people.
i freaking loved marx’s character though even though he’s such a mary sue lol. just like here u go a gift of a character who’s hot, rich, kind, loving, and smart! is he cheekily named marx bc he loves to share his love w other ppl?????
other thoughts are that americans are really into the self-made origin mythos of companies like apple and goole and facebook and i couldn’t tell if i liked this depiction of that or not. i was def hoping it wouldnt be one of those fucking circlejerky books of ppl who went to harvard who r brilliant writing about ppl who went to harvard who r brilliant or whatever but it wasn’t like that at all. like i know that this actually happens in real life, esp in video games, and esp at schools where ppl hav a combo of huge ego and lots of self-determination so i can’t say it’s “unrealistic” for some students to just form a company and develop a highly successful video game by themselves but i was like ok lol…. but also i guess i went to a school where ppl would just be like look i produced this whole album by myself. look at this show i choreographed. look at this short film i made. look at the clothes i designed and come to my fahsion show. so yea
i’m not a gamer at all but being extremely online lets u absorb a lot by osmosis so i feeel like i was pretty well equipped to engage w those parts of the book. i do rly like h*mestuck (which is not a game but very much About Video Games) and undertale esp how both of those works engage with the idea of death and having infinite lives/restarts and the consequence of re-dos, death and killing. dov’s relationship with sadie made me feel ill but i liked it when he said he hated shooters even though i can sympathize with having a virtual outlet to express negative emotions. the games that they make over the course of the book are not shooters at all and have very different underlying philosophies and show how games can make for extremely compelling story telling.
i’m a pisces so i also really empathize with the idea of losing yourself in a world that is more “perfect” or utopian than our world, or even a fictional world that is objectively worse than ours but enjoying the escapism of it. i mean that is literally my whole life like being on tumblr and engaging with ur fave characters and fictional worlds as if they are real lol. and reading/writing fanfiction about them. this book was more literal about it as in sam and sadie are building these fictional worlds, literally, using code and stuff. i mean i just watched the world cup for the first time a couple of weeks ago and was avidly following the games with my bf to the point that i was sucked into reading abt the origin stories and histories of all the diff players and teams (the “lore” and “characters” lmao). that’s how susceptible i am to engrossing myself into A World
the book definitely felt like it is in the lineage of the books “a little life” and “normal people”. i could not stop myself from comparing this to those books. also a little bit of “the life cycle of software objects” by ted chiang. i would be truly shocked if the author either hadn’t read or hadn’t deliberately used those books as inspiration for this one. the avoidant and secretive nature of sam and sadie’s personalities, the weakness of sams constitution wrt how he can’t tell sadie he loves her, i mean come on! the on and off, codependent nature of their relationship and how they’re clearly “meant to be” in a friendship and somewhat romantic way. and also sam’s ruined leg and how its a source of pain, denial, and self-hatred for him his whole life. idk if sam and sadie’s relationship compelled me in the same way that connell and mariannes did in normal people.
i freaking loved marx’s character though even though he’s such a mary sue lol. just like here u go a gift of a character who’s hot, rich, kind, loving, and smart! is he cheekily named marx bc he loves to share his love w other ppl?????
other thoughts are that americans are really into the self-made origin mythos of companies like apple and goole and facebook and i couldn’t tell if i liked this depiction of that or not. i was def hoping it wouldnt be one of those fucking circlejerky books of ppl who went to harvard who r brilliant writing about ppl who went to harvard who r brilliant or whatever but it wasn’t like that at all. like i know that this actually happens in real life, esp in video games, and esp at schools where ppl hav a combo of huge ego and lots of self-determination so i can’t say it’s “unrealistic” for some students to just form a company and develop a highly successful video game by themselves but i was like ok lol…. but also i guess i went to a school where ppl would just be like look i produced this whole album by myself. look at this show i choreographed. look at this short film i made. look at the clothes i designed and come to my fahsion show. so yea
_darbi_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
thebiblioblend's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0