In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. …
None
3 stars
First off, a confession: I have been a loser dork nerd my entire life, and I know two industries, videogames and film. So when someone writes in those two spaces, I know what’s authentic and what isn’t.
So, onto the book.
It’s actually quite a sweet tale of friends and partners throughout their young lives. Sort of platonic lovers, I guess. I suppose the central idea is that creative partners can be closer than romantic partners, sharing everything but sex. It’s an interesting idea, and very youthful and modern(I don’t mean that in a derogatory way). I don’t know if I fully buy it, but it’s a nice idea. I feel like there is a lot of asexuality involved, but I’m an old fool and don’t know much about anything.
Anyway, yeah, it’s not bad. It’s kind of a life-long love story about platonic friends. As far as the relationships and the characters feel, that all feels real. Sadie and Sam and even Marx(I actually knew a guy like him. Dude was awesome.) feel authentic. And their relationships, as strange to me as they may be, also feel authentic. The sort of confusing possessiveness Sam feels for Sadie. The overwhelming joyful love Marx has for them both. Basically, any of the interpersonal stuff felt true to me.
Where it didn’t land for me was in the technical details and the tendency to time jump in abrupt and disorienting ways. Skip ahead if you don’t care about dumb nerd stuff.
I don’t know if it makes sense, but it felt like the author has a very gameified understanding of game development. I know the afterword mentions the Doom book and Extra-Lives(both fantastic), but I didn’t see that in the text. What I saw was an understanding of game development that came entirely from other games like Game Dev Story or Tycoon. Poor understanding of game engines and graphical abilities. It felt like a very modern mindset of games, lacking in any historical context. Like the idea of anyone playing EQ in a hotel on a laptop or a free-to-play MMO in the US in the early 2000s. These things just didn’t exist. Or the idea of using the term NPC as an insult in 2005. That came about much later. There’s even mention of a zip drive being used to store a game in, like 2007. But, ultimately, these criticisms are meaningless and pedantic. They don’t take away from the story and only stick out to tedious nerds.
It’s fine. I’m sure some folks will bemoan it as ‘woke,’ but who cares. Maybe the idea of love and relationships is changing for the new generations. That’s okay. Let the kids live their lives.
So, onto the book.
It’s actually quite a sweet tale of friends and partners throughout their young lives. Sort of platonic lovers, I guess. I suppose the central idea is that creative partners can be closer than romantic partners, sharing everything but sex. It’s an interesting idea, and very youthful and modern(I don’t mean that in a derogatory way). I don’t know if I fully buy it, but it’s a nice idea. I feel like there is a lot of asexuality involved, but I’m an old fool and don’t know much about anything.
Anyway, yeah, it’s not bad. It’s kind of a life-long love story about platonic friends. As far as the relationships and the characters feel, that all feels real. Sadie and Sam and even Marx(I actually knew a guy like him. Dude was awesome.) feel authentic. And their relationships, as strange to me as they may be, also feel authentic. The sort of confusing possessiveness Sam feels for Sadie. The overwhelming joyful love Marx has for them both. Basically, any of the interpersonal stuff felt true to me.
Where it didn’t land for me was in the technical details and the tendency to time jump in abrupt and disorienting ways. Skip ahead if you don’t care about dumb nerd stuff.
I don’t know if it makes sense, but it felt like the author has a very gameified understanding of game development. I know the afterword mentions the Doom book and Extra-Lives(both fantastic), but I didn’t see that in the text. What I saw was an understanding of game development that came entirely from other games like Game Dev Story or Tycoon. Poor understanding of game engines and graphical abilities. It felt like a very modern mindset of games, lacking in any historical context. Like the idea of anyone playing EQ in a hotel on a laptop or a free-to-play MMO in the US in the early 2000s. These things just didn’t exist. Or the idea of using the term NPC as an insult in 2005. That came about much later. There’s even mention of a zip drive being used to store a game in, like 2007. But, ultimately, these criticisms are meaningless and pedantic. They don’t take away from the story and only stick out to tedious nerds.
It’s fine. I’m sure some folks will bemoan it as ‘woke,’ but who cares. Maybe the idea of love and relationships is changing for the new generations. That’s okay. Let the kids live their lives.