Week 34 Review: Don't Read the Comments

From Goodreads:
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. 

My Review:
This book was so fantastic! The whole concept of this book, of trolls going after these two, was just infuriating, and I wanted to see how these characters would deal with it! Especially Divya, given that gaming is portrayed by the media to be male dominated, and is most likely like that in real life.

So much of this book, of the way that both of these characters were treated, just boiled my blood! The Vox Populi, like really, you're really going to be that immature and awful? It's just a game, and you escalated it to real life, and that's not cool! And how Aaron slowly became disillusioned about his so-called friends actually paying him for his work. 

Divya is supporting her family by being a gamer streamer. Since her dad left, and her mom is almost done with going back to school, she's earning money to pay the bills, which puts a lot of stress on her. This situation with the trolls makes a difficult situation even harder.

I really enjoyed their relationship, because he's pretty awed by her, and they really had a chance encounter that really grew into something bigger! But that they never met in person-until the con, and things go down in a big way! That was so satisfying to read, on so many levels! 

I had such a great time reading this book, and I can't wait to see what Eric Smith writes next!

Author: Eric Smith
Read: August 22nd, 2021
Source: NetGalley/Library
Reason Why: Sounded really great, and it's a SAC 2021 Book!
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Published: January 28th 2020

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars