businesscasualcowboy's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, and Hate crime
deetabz's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Gun violence, Suicide, Injury/injury detail, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Blood, Car accident, Death, Violence, Homophobia, Hate crime, and Murder
Moderate: Antisemitism, Body horror, Death of parent, Drug use, Medical content, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Ableism, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Classism, Alcohol, Cancer, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Vomit, and Cultural appropriation
penofpossibilities's review
5.0
I was surprised by how much this is a story about theater; I knew it was about games and love but I haven't read any shakespeare apart from a midsummer night's dream and I do know, like, alot of the plots from alot of the plays, because its, you know, shakespeare. But I didn't recognize the title as a reference so it took me by pleasant surprise as a theatre girlie <3 !! I love to see love for the theatre explored in symbiosis with video games like this it was really inchresting to me and I enjoyed it alot so YEAH
(Sorry its 10pm and im so tired it feels like 1am and I need to sleep)
I LOVE the exploration of cronic pain and (medical) trauma and dissociation and escapism and internalised ableism like those things were very connected and felt so real
And I could relate heavily to how characters in this book would step outside of their bodies either out of a desire not to be in them or involuntarily bcs of a traumatic experience like YEAH me TOO bro ✌
And like yea the author was definitely doing some of that "look how clever I am connecting these symbols I used earlier in the plot to this plot development later on" and it was also visible in word use which made me kinda feel like ok I know u are trying to be so clever rn and its a bit MUCH (very much in typical john green fashion so I guess thats why he loves it sm ???) BUt I dont really care like honestly fair enough if u write a spectacular novel like this ur allowed to be pretentious about it ,, i'd do the same thing fully so! It doesn't take away from my rating. This is a nitpicky thing either way like ,,, the book is SO beautiful like truly amazing-
I will come back to this review with favorite quotes!! I have lots
Oh ALSO ! Couldn't stop comparing sadie and sam to the mcs from mythic quest (my brain is tired im blanking on their names rn) but yk I think mythic quest characters are even more unlikable definitely preferred sadie and sam although ofc mythic quest is meant to be lighthearted and also there were very many overlapping themes especially about misogyny and interpersonal relationships between women in gaming and I think thats interesting !!!!
Go read this !!!! And watch mythic quest !!
I felt v much like this book would be a good one to recommend to fans of the seven husbands of evelyn hugo bcs this book crushed me in the same way that one did it just gives me simular vibes I cannot explain but trust me !!! Im right
Graphic: Chronic illness, Grief, Car accident, Gun violence, Medical content, Murder, Racism, Vomit, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Sexism, Suicide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Blood, Hate crime, Homophobia, and Injury/injury detail
Moderate: Sexual harassment
Minor: Antisemitism, Dementia, and Abortion
Internalized ableism, trauma (ptsd)hannalizzy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I wonder how I will feel about the ending after I’ve had more time to think about it. It felt like it lacked some of the finality I was hoping for in terms of Sadie and Sam’s relationship. I also felt like Sam and Sadie’s fights became a little too repetitive, but of course, c’est la vie.
I always love stories of characters encountering grief, loss, and depression in its most potent form and still figuring out how to manage to continue on. I think those kinds of triumphs are so important to read about in an age where poor mental health feels like a largely universal experience.
Graphic: Medical trauma, Mental illness, Gun violence, Death of parent, Death, Toxic relationship, Murder, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Injury/injury detail, Toxic friendship, Homophobia, Hate crime, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Sexism
Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Abortion, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, and Emotional abuse
literarylion's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Pros:
- Creative storytelling, well-paced; I haven't devoured a book like this for a long time
- Incredible character development -- even minor characters are nuanced and three-dimensional
- Innovative plot and setting -- a perspective we don't often see
Cons:
- There was some pretty blatant borrowing from A Little Life, but I love that book, so!
Graphic: Cursing, Racism, Death of parent, Murder, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Car accident, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Violence, and Vomit
capitolsara'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
3.75
Spoiler
When the shooting happened, I was fully gripped. I do wish I had known to expect that going in but understand I'm not sensitive to spoilers. Somehow I knew Marx would die from when he got with Sadie but I guess I expected a video game death and not the long drawn out chapter. But that chapter was my favorite and I had to actively stop myself from continuing because it was 10:30 pm and I knew I'd stay up to read the next 1/4 of the bookGraphic: Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Sexism, Pregnancy, Car accident, Cancer, Abortion, Homophobia, Hate crime, Death, Death of parent, and Suicide
nosophiesallowed's review against another edition
2.5
this is objectively a well written book i just think it’s a case of right book wrong person probably, either way it fell flat for me which is a shame.
Graphic: Death of parent, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Hate crime, Medical content, Car accident, Gun violence, Suicide, Grief, Mass/school shootings, and Homophobia
maddie7217's review
- 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
Graphic: Death, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Grief, and Gun violence
Moderate: Car accident, Cancer, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Violence
Minor: Pregnancy and Abortion
hancaavdic's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
that could be the only thing I actually really enjoyed about the story, apart from the writing.
This book is incredibly dense; definitely not as dense as A Little Life, if we’re comparing, but it’s nearly there. There are plenty of passages, paragraphs, phrases/sentences, dialogue, etc that I just did not care for. At all. In fact I think there’s a good chunk that could just be cut out from the book because it truly doesn’t do anything for the book, in the end, in my opinion. Like now that I think of it, I’m just asking myself what was the point? Why did I spend my time reading that? I don’t know. I felt like that a lot throughout the book. The structure and organization is weird because it constantly goes back and forth between the past and present and then at times—very quickly—it’ll jump to a time in the future, and then you’re pulled back in the present. The structure and organization are just weird; I hated the jumps in the past, and so much of it kept interrupting the flow of the story.
The execution of the story is poor. It feels incredibly pretentious and that it was trying to do too much.
Apart from that, one thing that really bothered me about the story is that with the characters, you wouldn’t know what they were exactly feeling or thinking about unless they actually said it themselves through dialogue. And because of that, when the reader reads through their dialogue, the characters seem to fall flat and almost monotonous. The tone of the language lacks emotion, there’s no spark. Nothing. Unless the character says so themselves, AND/OR when the writing in 3rd person POV is focused on their part of the story. And in other parts, it’ll change to 2nd person to put the reader as if they were the actual character. Again, trying to do too much, and in the end doesn’t add much depth to the story.
Also, final note: if you’re not interested in learning all about video games to the core, this book isn’t for you. I wasn’t prepared for that. I didn’t read the summary (I never do anymore with any book) but I don’t think not even that would’ve prepared me for the extensive talk and history about video games there is. Now I just genuinely don’t know what to do with all this information, and at the same time I don’t even know what I read.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abortion, Addiction, Cancer, Gaslighting, Grief, Racism, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Drug use