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i was enjoying the book so far until i heard the f slur.
i instantly went to read some reviews and many people have made it clear this book is homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, racist, fat phobic and the mc is just a creepy guy.
i myself am a queer person so i will not be continuing this book because i will never support such disgusting views. do better.
i instantly went to read some reviews and many people have made it clear this book is homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, racist, fat phobic and the mc is just a creepy guy.
i myself am a queer person so i will not be continuing this book because i will never support such disgusting views. do better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, Stalking
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Violence
Minor: Transphobia
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
Minor: Sexism
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-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 was an amazingly well developed story and a total nostalgia trip. Any fan of the 80s, nerdy stuff, pop culture, and sci-fi will be right at home. Some of the dialogue is misogynistic and fits in with the “80s teenage boy” character which prevented me from giving this 5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Misogyny, Transphobia
Minor: Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Too much nostalgia and name dropping, but good tension
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Transphobia, Vomit
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
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:
No
I needed a break from hockey romances, & rereading this book just seemed like a great idea. And it was, I forgot how much I love this story, & how much I wish I could visit the Oasis!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, War
Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Slavery, Blood, Classism
Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide
Minor: Transphobia
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Transphobia, Stalking
it sucks
adventurous
This is a book written by a cishet white nerd man to live out his teenage fantasies. I'm glad it exists for teenage nerds to be able to live in a world where their geekiness saves the day and they are able to see that as a positive thing instead of feeling like a weird-o. That said, this book is very cringey and problematic for anyone who isn't a cishet white male.
As a cishet white 'female' geek (yes, the word 'female' is thrown around a lot which gives you an idea what I'm talking about) who went through the whole 'you aren't a REAL geek' misogynistic bullshit and hated the gatekeeping 'tests' about geekdom, this entire book was basically that. There is a literal scene where him and his friend do a pedantic correction of some geek-lore 'and then the whole room cheered and clapped'. See? I wish the challenges in this book were more about making the connections through the geekdom references rather than memorizing word-for-word dialogue from 80s movies. Those parts were very cringe.
Then there is the whole romantic aspect where they only know each other online via their characters but the main character claims to be in love with the 'female'. Wisely, the female avatar says it's ridiculous and they don't even know each other and so he doubles down to say it doesn't matter 'what she looks like' he is genuinely in love with her soul. Then he claims the only qualification that matters is that she is biologically female and was BORN biologically female and he'll accept her no matter what else. Ick. I'm not particularly sensitive to discrimination against trans people, but this was just SO grossly transphobic and disgusting. Oh and of course, she is just as gorgeous as her avatar, but just has a birthmark on her face. So don't worry guys, happy ending.
I also was hoping the 'moral' of the story was about making real connections and not living a simulation of life online and it kind of was? I think. Which makes my point about it not coming across really well.
If you are going to engage with this book, 100% listen to the audiobook narration by Wil Wheaton. *chefs kiss* to the choice and his performance in this. I enjoyed it roughly 100x more than I would've if I read it on paper (or e-paper). I was able to mostly enjoy it due to his performance, if I was reading I don't think I could have looked past all the cringiness to just enjoy the ride.
As a cishet white 'female' geek (yes, the word 'female' is thrown around a lot which gives you an idea what I'm talking about) who went through the whole 'you aren't a REAL geek' misogynistic bullshit and hated the gatekeeping 'tests' about geekdom, this entire book was basically that. There is a literal scene where him and his friend do a pedantic correction of some geek-lore 'and then the whole room cheered and clapped'. See? I wish the challenges in this book were more about making the connections through the geekdom references rather than memorizing word-for-word dialogue from 80s movies. Those parts were very cringe.
Then there is the whole romantic aspect where they only know each other online via their characters but the main character claims to be in love with the 'female'. Wisely, the female avatar says it's ridiculous and they don't even know each other and so he doubles down to say it doesn't matter 'what she looks like' he is genuinely in love with her soul. Then he claims the only qualification that matters is that she is biologically female and was BORN biologically female and he'll accept her no matter what else. Ick. I'm not particularly sensitive to discrimination against trans people, but this was just SO grossly transphobic and disgusting. Oh and of course, she is just as gorgeous as her avatar, but just has a birthmark on her face. So don't worry guys, happy ending.
I also was hoping the 'moral' of the story was about making real connections and not living a simulation of life online and it kind of was? I think. Which makes my point about it not coming across really well.
If you are going to engage with this book, 100% listen to the audiobook narration by Wil Wheaton. *chefs kiss* to the choice and his performance in this. I enjoyed it roughly 100x more than I would've if I read it on paper (or e-paper). I was able to mostly enjoy it due to his performance, if I was reading I don't think I could have looked past all the cringiness to just enjoy the ride.
Content Warnings
Minor: Transphobia
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I quite liked this and finished it in four days. I'm far too young to get all the 80's references but found that they were well explained when they were important to the plot. Still I am a nerd and geek at heart and the book got me with it's clear love for nerd culture.
For obvious reasons it couldn't instill the feeling of nostalgia in me. But it still made me happy every time I got a reference.
For my thesis I studied game studies and the history of videogames and DnD quite extensively, so I really enjoyed being reminded of all the cool facts I could recognize - from adventure and zork to Gygaxverse and magic missiles.
However there were some points where I thought "Is this really necessary". Such as the needless transphobic remark, the tmi of Wade's sex life, the way his issues with his apearance and another character (Aech aka Helen at the end ) were described. I was also miffed that 'a female' was used instead of saying woman. Also the female character(s) were sometimes described like you would expect from a cis hetero man - with focus on their appearance. I remember the word 'bosom' was used - cue eyeroll.
All in all I still enjoyed this book because I decided to overlook these aspects. If they're a deal-breaker for you then you probably shouldn't read this book.
The fantasy/sci-fi world is quite fun, the VR Video Game awesome to think about and the dystopian aspect seemed scarily realistic. I liked the mystery and quests and the whole videogame feel this had. A solid read for me with some problems.
For obvious reasons it couldn't instill the feeling of nostalgia in me. But it still made me happy every time I got a reference.
For my thesis I studied game studies and the history of videogames and DnD quite extensively, so I really enjoyed being reminded of all the cool facts I could recognize - from adventure and zork to Gygaxverse and magic missiles.
However there were some points where I thought "Is this really necessary". Such as the needless transphobic remark, the tmi of Wade's sex life, the way his issues with his apearance and another character (
All in all I still enjoyed this book because I decided to overlook these aspects. If they're a deal-breaker for you then you probably shouldn't read this book.
The fantasy/sci-fi world is quite fun, the VR Video Game awesome to think about and the dystopian aspect seemed scarily realistic. I liked the mystery and quests and the whole videogame feel this had. A solid read for me with some problems.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder
Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Transphobia