Are you fond of online gaming? Do you take any interest in the world of video gaming? Are you also keen on understanding nuances of human relationships spanning multiple decades? Finally, do you dot on complicated confusing love stories? If you answer affirmatively to one or more of these questions then you have reached the right place by picking up this book.

The book starts in the 1990s when Sam Masur and Sadie Green accidentally bump into each other in Boston. But this not their first encounter. They’ve met before in a paediatric hospital in Los Angeles during the 80s.

Back then, Sadie was a visiting her elder sister whereas Sam was recovering from surgery on his crushed foot. He was also battling trauma from his mother’s sudden death in a car crash which he survived with a badly damaged leg. These events rendered him mute for a considerable period of time. But it was Sadie’s unexpected company that helped Sam to get back to talking about their shared love of arcade gaming.

This passion for online gaming helps them to reconnect during their university years when Sam is studying math at Harvard and Sadie is enrolled into engineering at MIT. Sadie is fascinated by the world of gaming and enrols herself on a workshop conducted by a famed gaming programmer called Dov. What game she designs as a class project eventually finds its way to Sam when she asks him to playtest it.

Once he and his almost-a-brother best friend Marx test this game, they are immediately taken by the idea of designing innovative video games with Sadie.What starts as a college project eventually turns into a successful venture.

We get a glimpse of what goes behind the scenes of the glamorous world of gaming. We can see how Sam toils ill health and physical limitations to see his first game come to life, we get to admire Sadie’s brilliance in transitioning all the nuances from paper to pixel and we also get to fascinate with Marx’s dedication to his friends. Their efforts pay off and their adventure turns into a full-time career which shapes their lives in more ways than one.

The novel feels all geeky and technical till the fatal scene in the office takes place and that curveball takes the story in some different directions altogether. The focus shifts from technical aspects of gaming and technology industries towards its characters’ dramatic lives. The story moves with a more immersive approach than before by continuing with empathy, mental health struggles, trauma and love.

We all can see why progressives and Gen Z have adored this book. It might be on account of its characters coming from diverse racial and economic backgrounds, attempting to capture the evolution of gaming technologies and nuanced perspectives on an evolving love story. 

My only regret about this tedious and complicated storyline is that it lacks depth in certain places, thus making it difficult for a reader to empathise with the characters and their motivations for their actions. If you can ignore a few such flaws then definitely worth reading this book.

Get this today, today and today to add to your summer reading list.