Blog Tour: Review – “Don’t Read The Comments” by Eric Smith
About The Book
Synopsis: Slay meets Eliza and Her Monsters in Eric Smith’s Don’t Read the Comments, an #ownvoices story in which two teen gamers find their virtual worlds—and blossoming romance—invaded by the real-world issues of trolling and doxing in the gaming community.
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.
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Review
Don’t Read The Comments is a books that is centered around the internet and the world of gaming. Following the point of views (in alternating chapters) of Divya and Aaron who are both gamers who dealing with struggles in their own lives. Divya is a big gamer with a large internet following who is struggling with trolls who are trying to tear her down and dismantle her platform. She works hard to build a revenue from her gaming challenge to support herself and her mom financially. Aaron dreams of creating games but doesn’t have the needs to do so. His parents want him to be a doctor and he wants to follow a different path.
Though Aaron and Divya are complete strangers they instantly click while playing Reclaim The Sun. They’re true gamers at heart and playing the game with one another is place they can escape from the problems of their daily life. The writing is immerse in not only in the characters point of views, but the game play as well. Through the characters eyes you feel as if you’re exploring the vast galaxies of Reclaim The Sun yourself. Though Divya and Aaron come from different backgrounds they find a lot of common ground. I appreciated that the two didn’t just jump into a relationship, but slowly built a system of trust where they become close friends. I felt their characters were relatable to a wide audience since they talk about financial issues, growing up, finding their paths in life, and familial obligations.
This novel is also a commentary on internet culture as a whole and how people hide behind keyboard comments. I’ve learned myself long ago to “not read the comments” for most things since people can be so horrible to one another. It also touches on toxicity and the bullying that happens with online gaming as Divya faces harsh criticism, trolls, sexism and racism. It also brings up the issue of gamer gate. I love that this book is so diverse in which its main characters are poc, characters come from different walks of like, are inter-sectional, etc.
Though I’m not the biggest gamer but I do enjoy playing video games from time to time. I could connect with the main characters and their feeling of excitement and escapism they felt while playing the game. I also liked the overall message/discussion of internet culture in this novel. My only wish is that Reclaim The Stars was a real game so I could play it. Recommended read!
Final Verdict:
About the Author
Eric Smith is an author, prolific book blogger, and literary agent from New Jersey, currently living in Philadelphia. Smith cohosts Book Riot’s newest podcast, HEY YA, with non-fiction YA author Kelly Jensen. He can regularly be found writing for Book Riot’s blog, as well as Barnes & Noble’s Teen Reads blog, Paste Magazine, and Publishing Crawl. Smith also has a growing Twitter platform of over 40,000 followers (@ericsmithrocks).
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FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from Harper Collins in exchange for a fair and honest review.
