Gina Arboleda

I've never felt such affection for i literary characters like I did with Sam and Sadie. It's a slow dance for the two of them but it's gratifying just the same. What the book blurb says is true - "yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before." The tender moments between them are so far apart, but the love is constant, at least for Sam. For Sadie, the love is relegated to the background by rivalry, ambition and betrayal. But as Marx wonder why Sadie resists getting married, I thought - does she really not believe in marriage or it's just because it's Marx? I was so captivated by their story, I think of them even after closing the book. And to think I'm not a gamer. Zevin's prose is clear and simple. The mechanics of gaming flows smoothly. She constructed the plot in such a logical and engaging manner. The characters are flawed but aren't all humans flawed in one way or another? A bildungsroman type of novel is quite appealing for me. It is fascinating to see how the personality of a person is fully formed even at 11 years old. His fortune may change but his basic nature is still intact.