Lara Ceroni

I’m not intimidated by long reads (this book taps out at over 600 pages), but I found the length (and the storytelling) to be overdone. I didn’t see the need for this story to be 600 pages. I think it would have been a sharper story if the book was tighter. The stories and perspectives of each character was really exhaustive to the point I just found it tedious and redundant. (Whhhhy did Dickie go all in a building a bunker, btw? I still don’t get all of those pages devouted to this.) This novel is that classic generational family drama in a small town, where everyone knows everyone’s business and everyone has some secret that eventually explodes. Not super-original (or maybe I’ve just read waaaay too many family sagas!). Each chapter is devouted to one member of the family, and every chapter ended on a cliffhanger (like the ending itself), and I find that a bit of a cheap convention. The writing is excellent and the character development is also extraordinary, if not too heavy-handed. I found the story was actually quite predictable (?) and prescriptive of those family saga novels. I knew where it was headed. If you love classic generational family sagas, then you should read this one. I just think I would have enjoyed it much more if it was edited down.

I avoided reading this book because I’m not a gamer and I’m not that interested in gaming culture, but many (many) people told me this book supersedes all of the gaming rhetoric and storytelling and offers so much more. I just didn’t see it. I found the storytelling outside of the (very obtuse) gaming arc to be a bit predictable and cliche. All of the tech bro and tech industry tropes were overdone, and I found Sam and Sadie’s relationship read contrived, as if the author was trying to create this dramatic, emotional tension in their relationship over decades that just didn’t measure up, and it felt manufactured. **SPOILER ALERT** (don’t read on if you want to read this book) Unrequited love, really? Mass shooting? On the cusp of her being pregnant? Not that original. It just read a little disingenuous to me. Who was Sam, actually? He morphs from Sam to Mazur with little to no depth or discovery. It just…happens. Sadie felt one-dimensional to me. No real character development. She’s in a toxic relationship that she felt “controlled by” and yet, no pages devouted to what that actually meant for her character. I hate to say it, but 400 pages lacked substance and character to me. It felt shallow. I think it focuses too much attention on the minute and granular details of gaming and creating games and so the surrounding storylines suffer. The chapter where Marx is on his death bed was the best writing of the whole book. Outside of that, I struggled with this one. It just didn’t read like a Great America Novel to me. It was too bland.

Wholly original writing. Darkly hilarious, perverse, unstoppable. Completely recommend.