Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - Ready Player One

Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

6 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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

HOLY SHIT. Well gooddamm. So this is probably one of the best books I have ever read (well listened too but same difference). Wade Watts is a socially awkward poor 18 year old boy living in the year 2045. In this not so distant future, a immersive reality video game has taken over most of the planet. The Oasis was invented by James Haliday and Oggden Morrow. When Haliday died, his will revealed that he will leave all of his fortune and the entire Oasis game in the hands of the player who can find the egg he hid. Wade, and most of the Oasis population, has been searching for the first key for 5 years and when he accidentally stumbles upon the answer everything changes. This is a beautiful tale of love, friendship, perseverance, and ambition along with the message that reality is better than even the best recreations. I definitely thought this would be a boy book, based on the movie (which I have seen and can safely say this is almost nothing like it), but it pleasantly surprised me with how entertaining and emotionally deep Cline goes. This is a fantastic read/listen and I will be rereading this soon.

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caitlaird's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Before I get into this I should state I did actually enjoy this book a lot. The word building is amazing and so well done. I can truly see how realistic of a possibility this world could be. It’s an amazing take on how media and video games can take over and rule society, especially in a world ruined by capitalism, overconsumption, and environmental destruction; and how much easier it is to try and escape from it all rather than facing it.

The use of 80’s media was truly the best part of it all, made for such a cool and fun world.

That being said (possible small spoilers ahead but warnings any moral person might want).

This book is an incels wet dream of a y/n - self insert action hero whatever, complete with casual usage of transphobia and homophobia to really finish it off. Specifically the phrase “twinked out” when talking about people who are just dancing at a club (that he’s at no less!!) and multiple instances of blatant transphobia that you’d hope and think wouldn’t exist in 2045. Also every inspiration listed in this book is a male creator. Science fiction wouldn’t be what it is without women, Mary Shelly, Ursula Le Guin, I could go on. Do men just not think of women? Honestly curious.

I would put this book at the top of my list “so obvious it was written by a man it’s actually physically painful”.

The character Artemis is a queen amongst men. She is however a victim of the manic pixie dream girl ideal but that’s NOT her fault. She is the one voice of reason in this whole book and it feels like that might be the only reason she’s there, other than to be something to lust after and prove that the “nerd” boy can actually get the girl.

That being said Wade is obsessed with her and is totally in love with her so at least he gets one thing right. (This isn’t a spoiler he says it like in the first chapter okay).

And shoutout to Aech, who is just the coolest best friend of all friends.

I kept waiting for Wade to learn the lesson that was the real world is essential to truly living , something you don’t need to read the book to know I think. But he might actually just be the most dense man that’s ever existed ever. At one point, he admitted that he’s an agoraphobic geek and hates it but then changes absolutely nothing about his life. Also why does he have to make such a point that he’s not a fatty. Like realistically he’d be fat. That’s okay. What’s with the fat phobia my guys?

This feels like an Incel boys Bible of what you should do to be the main character. He is a very bad friend to his best friend and he doesn’t even get better. It’s very much a scary look into the mind of a man.

I originally rated the book 4 stars so it’s not that bad I guess, but zoo wee mama it’s like a punch in the gut sometimes. I really have to pause sometimes and go “huh, I know you didn’t just say what I think you did”, but of course he did.
And after a few days processing what I read I actually decided this book deserves 2.75 stars. How can a book be 4 stars when the protagonist is literally the worst person in the world.
Like any other character would’ve been a more interesting protagonist, especially Artemis, not that I want Ernest Cline to write a book from a woman’s pov. The only thing worse than wades pov would be a woman’s pov written by Cline. I think he would really benefit from reading some books written by women with female protagonists.

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blueacorn1991's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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lenorayoder's review against another edition

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adventurous

3.0

I might have rated this 4 stars because I do think the world is cool, but the teen boy of it all gets to be a bit much, especially by the end of the book. At first I thought the main character was just an accurate portrayal of teen boyness, warts and all, but it becomes obvious as the book goes on that Wade can do no wrong (and actually those aren’t warts at all!) once he’s learned the Moral of the Story. Cline also really hits you over the head with said moral. And let’s not forget the clumsy exposition that continues throughout the novel. I can tolerate that at the beginning of a book, but the entire thing?? Also “rubenesque”. More than once. Kill me.

Kind of a bummer, because I think this book had a lot of potential. I still liked it though, and I’ll probably check out the sequel. I can definitely see why this was adapted into a movie and I’ll be checking that out too.

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danka66's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious 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

4.75

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rbacon's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

This book had a potential to be even better than it is by cutting out the half-assed romance storyline and building on the apocalyptic/social issues/eco crisis going on and working out how to actually deal with that rather than running away from it!

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