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ars410's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I'm so glad I backed this on Kickstarter back in 2019, and so glad I finally read it! I loved the variety of experiences that all spoke to the same feeling of community and magic that existed in the early days of the internet. Reading these stories made me feel like I was back in 8th grade, spending hours on my family computer, chatting with my best friends on AIM late into the night and reading Cleolinda on LiveJournal. I really enjoyed this collection!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death of parent
altruest's review
4.0
I backed this on Kickstarter! I'm infamously bad at reviewing anthologies, so suffice it to say that I had a good time. Favorites include the Pyjarmy by Erica Buist, Sommy by Ryan North (who's participation introduced me to the project in the first place), I was Valkyrie by Jessica Val Ang, and probably #1 is The Restaurant at the End of the Internet by Andy Connor. I love reading about the internet, and it's super cool to read stories from just a few years before my introduction to the World Wide Web from people who had a completely different experience than I did.
4/5 stars
4/5 stars
caramm's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
stifledlaughter's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This book was an intense roller coaster of emotions that I honestly didn't expect when I Kickstarted it. When I first saw this on Kickstarter, I was incredibly excited, thinking it would be a lighthearted, nostalgic look back at the world I had my formative years in (ages 9-17 - a bit younger than most of the people when they had the experiences in the book, but still very resonant with me).
However the book was a lot more emotionally intense than I had thought it would be initially, and even though I received it in early 2020, I only finished the last essay in it in March 2022. It took me two years to read because almost every story was like a gut punch in a way I just had not prepared myself for, and it wasn't until halfway through that I just started to assume every story would involve intense themes such as death, physical illness, child abuse, mental illness, etc etc. (Not all of them did - just many of them!) Therefore, I really had to be in the right headspace to read the book, which, as you can imagine, during 2020-2022, was not the easiest to be in. But I am so glad that I did finish it.
The core of the book involving the internet as a lifeline or space of respite tied it all together, and the essays were all brilliantly written and then chosen/edited in a way that reflected the theme. I appreciated how varied the experiences were - for example, I hadn't known about some of the spaces mentioned in it (I had mostly stuck to my little corners of the internet such as Neopets, ff.net, and GaiaOnline).
It felt like getting to know friends I had lost contact with during those years of the untamed internet, and their commentary on the current internet resonated so much with me. I would strongly recommend this book not just for people who also were on the internet at this time, but also any GenZ readers who might want to see what the experiences were back then on the internet. I just suggest you be in the right headspace- it's not a light read, but a read that's very worth the emotional investment.
(This review was also posted to other review sites.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Child abuse, Mental illness, and Terminal illness
Since it's an anthology, the various stories contain various content warnings, so it's difficult to list them all according to story.isabelle_necessary's review
5.0
I've basically been reading this all day instead of doing work and I've laughed and teared-up and it is something very special.
emmie_mort's review
5.0
For me it's a 5* - I started going online in 1998/1999 using Netscape & a dial up connection I saved change to pay for. I made an internet friend through a Due South fansite, built my witchcraft knowledge & in 2000/2001 developed an unhealthy love of Neopets (which had for some reason a free text message service in it??). I'm not sure those much younger would enjoy as much. But for those of us of a certain age it's a look back at what was, & what can be occasionally again.
thespiritoftheage's review
5.0
Reading this book was incredibly moving. The aptly chosen essays managed to cover a myriad of experiences from different social, geographical and generational contexts, many of which had a direct impact in the identity formation of their writers, which made reading their blurbs at the end of the collection so special! I felt like I had met their younger selves and now saw all these brilliant kids turn into amazing people doing incredible things.
The experiences recounted in these essays resonated deeply within me, and often seemed to mirror my own. I felt many excerpts ring true to my own experience, and it was very emotional feeling part of this community once again, especially in an analysis in retrospect, because it prompted me to reminiscence. I too found my people on the untamed internet in a simpler time and it too changed me and helped me become the version of myself I aspired to. I too was a kid looking for myself and needing a setting where I could experiment with my identities, all messy and loud and enthusiastic and uncivilised. Finding like-minded people (who went on to become my best friends) helped me reconcile these identities with my IRL self and made me the person I am now. Reading Better than IRL brought to the fore memories and nostalgia, but it also helped me reconstruct this process.
I am so grateful to Katie West and Jasmine Elliott, to the contributors, and to everybody who, like me, pitched in, for making this book possible, for making our experiences visible, and with that, leaving for posterity an account of the role the internet had in making us who we are. Thank you.
The experiences recounted in these essays resonated deeply within me, and often seemed to mirror my own. I felt many excerpts ring true to my own experience, and it was very emotional feeling part of this community once again, especially in an analysis in retrospect, because it prompted me to reminiscence. I too found my people on the untamed internet in a simpler time and it too changed me and helped me become the version of myself I aspired to. I too was a kid looking for myself and needing a setting where I could experiment with my identities, all messy and loud and enthusiastic and uncivilised. Finding like-minded people (who went on to become my best friends) helped me reconcile these identities with my IRL self and made me the person I am now. Reading Better than IRL brought to the fore memories and nostalgia, but it also helped me reconstruct this process.
I am so grateful to Katie West and Jasmine Elliott, to the contributors, and to everybody who, like me, pitched in, for making this book possible, for making our experiences visible, and with that, leaving for posterity an account of the role the internet had in making us who we are. Thank you.
iheartmuseums's review
4.0
Thinking back on the internet of my young adulthood, the MUDs and MUSHes, LiveJournal, usenet, message boards.. It was like living in a different world. I still find my people in pockets of the internet, but it isn't really the same. Everyone is extremely online nowadays, it seems. But back then..
These are missives from that different time, that different world. A multitude of experiences that all have a tinge of familiarity to me. People learning to know themselves, and others, as they connected on a strangely anonymous platform. People able to be themselves and connect outside of that platform. Finding friends and love and family in so many ways.
Thanks to the contributors for sharing their stories of another time. I hope the stories resonate with those folks who are traveling in a different internet now, but still making fast friends.
These are missives from that different time, that different world. A multitude of experiences that all have a tinge of familiarity to me. People learning to know themselves, and others, as they connected on a strangely anonymous platform. People able to be themselves and connect outside of that platform. Finding friends and love and family in so many ways.
Thanks to the contributors for sharing their stories of another time. I hope the stories resonate with those folks who are traveling in a different internet now, but still making fast friends.
cosmicvalkyrie's review
3.0
you know when you wait forever for a book to come out, totally sure it’s going to be right up your alley, and you end up only really liking 1-2 passages from it? that was me, reading this.
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