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A review by popthebutterfly
Don't Read the Comments by Eric Smith
medium-paced
4.0
Disclaimer: I picked this book up from my local library! Support your libraries! All opinions are my own.
Book: Don’t Read the Comments
Author: Eric Smith
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 4/5
Diversity: POC main characters, Queer characters
Recommended For...: YA readers, Contemporary, Romance, Gaming, Streaming, Realistic Fiction
Publication Date: January 28, 2020
Genre: YA Contemporary
Age Relevance: 14+ (poverty, language, doxxing, sexual content, micro aggressive comments, assault, sexual assault, affair, WoW)
Explanation of Above: There are mentions and showings of poverty. There is some cursing in the book. The book focuses on a main character who is doxxed. Along with the doxxing, there are micro aggressive comments made to both main characters and assault is mentioned. There is slight sexual content in what a man says unwarranted to female main and side characters. Sexual assault is briefly mentioned less than a handful of times, nothing is explicit said or mentioned in both instances. Cheating/affair is mentioned, nothing is shown. World of Warcraft (WoW), which has been, since the publication of this book, outted as having a hostile work environment that fostered toxic behavior towards female employees, was mentioned in a positive light once in the book.
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Pages: 368
Synopsis: Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she’s playing Reclaim the Sun, the year’s hottest online game. Divya—better known as popular streaming gamer D1V—regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game’s vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she’s trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent. Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho’s entire life. Much to his mother’s frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun—and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V. At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds…and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron’s dreams and Divya’s actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line… And she isn’t going down without a fight.
Review: I really liked this book overall. I thought that the book did really good to convey the issues that a lot of female gamers, especially those who have their own platforms in the game of community, experience online and offline. There is a history in the gaming community of targeting female, BIPOC, and/or queer members in the community. Even those who just play games and don't have any content online relating to gaming are often targets of harassment by majority white men (but some women, BIPOC, and/or queer persons as well) who believe that they are superior to those they target. In that respect, I thought that the world building and the character development was really well done in this book. The romance was also super cute and I was really rooting for them at the end. And while I don't think that the book showed a good way to get over online and offline harassment, because in the real world police are not that forthcoming with their help especially to those who have been sexually assaulted or hate-crimed against, I did like that there was at least some solution to this issue in the book.
However, I would have liked to see a more realistic solution to this for those younger people who are reading the book and might be experiencing the same thing in real life. I thought that it was just tied up a little bit too neatly at the end and that the reference to WoW was a bit out of left field given what they have had occur at their company. The book came out before the walk-off due to sexual harassment within the company; however, I would like to see future editions of this book cut that reference out completely and replace it with something else. In short, I did like this book quite a lot but I would like to see another version maybe with these same characters but in dealing with the issues that they face in this book without the help of police.
However, I would have liked to see a more realistic solution to this for those younger people who are reading the book and might be experiencing the same thing in real life. I thought that it was just tied up a little bit too neatly at the end and that the reference to WoW was a bit out of left field given what they have had occur at their company. The book came out before the walk-off due to sexual harassment within the company; however, I would like to see future editions of this book cut that reference out completely and replace it with something else. In short, I did like this book quite a lot but I would like to see another version maybe with these same characters but in dealing with the issues that they face in this book without the help of police.
Verdict: It was good, I just wish that the solutions in this book were something that real persons could rely upon to help them with any similar predicaments they face online, especially in the gaming community.