Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

31 reviews

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-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

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is more than just a thinly veneered gush of 1980s culture that it's beginning and marketing may lead you to believe. It's distracting how the second and third part of the book show how strangely designed the "video game" is, but it "makes for good television". The plot is very engaging and most of it feels very earned. A lot more morbid moments than I expected. Surprised there is a sequel.

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medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

this book is so so bad.

according to the author, in 2045—which is an actual year that will happen in my lifetime—reality will be a dystopian nightmare riddled by climate change and poverty. probably not far off actually, but here’s where he loses me: instead of actually doing anything about it, we’ll all be idealizing the 80s on virtual reality and stalking random women and utilizing the most convenient plot devices in recorded history. which is a very depressing thought.

speaking of the author, it’s clear that this (somehow) published, award-winning work is nothing but an indulgent fan fiction for himself—and its target audience is middle/upper class american nerds born in 1979-1989. this book is completely oversaturated with obscure retro pop culture references that Kids These Days™️ are simply not cool enough to understand, and any semblance of a plot suffocates under the weight of the encyclopedic knowledge of pointless information.

what’s also not cool is misogyny and that’s another thing this book is full of. for instance when the main character gets super fit and muscular in a week(??) to impress the aforementioned girl he’s been stalking on internet forums for years(??). the women in this story are treated as side characters and afterthoughts which is a shame because they could’ve have been decent characters if the author had tried.

misogyny isn’t where it ends, though; the mc’s best friend’s avatar appears as a straight white man for 99% of the book, but she turns out to be a black lesbian in real life. and yes, it tried to be inclusive, but this roundabout representation barely counts as a plot element since it’s in the last 5 pages of the story and we’re distracted with giving the main character good person points for accepting her. if marginalized people still must hide their identities to be safe from homophobia and racism, why are we led to believe this virtual world is a perfect utopia? if the author truly wanted to include a diverse group of characters, he could have just written her as a black lesbian from the start?

all of this inexcusable grossness aside, there could have been an attempt at a coherent plot, and there simply isn’t. the author throws the three act structure out the window to make room for all the times he mentions space invaders; the best example of this being near the end, when our ragtag group of heroes are tragically defeated by the evil video game billionaire who controls the VR world—however, this little roadblock is entirely subverted because they become the first ever people in history to get a free second attempt! for no reason! and they win the game and get a ton of money or something and that’s the end of the book. no moral of the story besides “there will never be another decade as culturally relevant as the 80s.” which is a lesson that is soulless and definitionally false and will leave you bored and vaguely confused.

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-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

Third time reading it through and I continue to love it. I also love having different opinions of it now than I did the first time, but always feeling tense and worked up despite knowing how the book ends.0

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 The loudest nerd fantasy, nerd revenge narrative. Complete with a manic pixie dream girl. Overall it was fine, I had fun with the puzzles and action bits. But the middle dragged on and the narrative became repetitive. I found myself thinking, “Ok, we get it” a few times. Sometimes, the dialogue seemed so forced and unnatural. It was as if the author was writing what he thought teenagers would talk like instead of an actual conversation between teenagers if that makes sense.

I can’t fault the author for all of my qualms with the book though. I am not sympathetic to the ~nerd boy obsessed with the nerd dream fantasy girl that he puts on a pedestal and then ultimately feels entitled to her love and affection and gets all sadboi for 100 pages when it doesn’t work out for him~. I get that there are readers who would totally dig that, but it is just not for me. Outside of that narrative though, the premise is super interesting and cool. 

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adventurous fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Lots of 80s/90s popculture and videogame lore, and although I am not an expert on either, it was easy to follow along. There were times when the storytelling seemed a little too convenient, and  times when I felt frustrated with the main characters. However, overall this read was enjoyable and immersive! I found the world-building very engaging (and a bit unsettling reading in 2025, when everything in the book seems possible). 

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This was the first time listening to an audible book. I thought it would be difficult to stay focused, but the book was engaging and kept my interest. Some parts were difficult to listen to, sounding familiar to some current events going on today. It was easy to stay invested in the story and find out what happened next. 

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adventurous informative lighthearted fast-paced
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous funny medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book has many flaws. There are these multiple-page lord drops where about 10% of it is actually important and the rest is just kind of boring. There are many things that for all intents and purposes should be important to the plot, and then end up not being important to the plot and are just kind of ignored and/or downright contradicted. And of course, it contains quite a few eye-rollingly sexist and racist moments. But, despite all that, this really is a fun book with an engaging plot. 

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