By Gabrielle Zevin
I read this during my trip to Innsbruck in early November 2023, for my first conference.
I don’t know what to say about this. It’s a blend of The Lessons, The Secret History, Ready Player One, and Normal People. It’s brilliant. The sheer characterisation of Sam, Sadie and Marx, the depth and affection with which they are portrayed, make this emotionally resounding, and it’s only compounded by the inventiveness of ideas with the gaming. The art and business that goes into making a game, and the creativity of some of the ideas, like Ichigo or Two Sides(?) but also Sadie’s earlier games like Solution or EmilyBlaster.
I’ll think about it for a long long time. There’s a bit about eating a peach, there’s a dream sequence about flying over a field of strawberries - these images will stick in my mind.
And the love between Sam and Sadie. The sheer joy of having a creative partner, the jealousy between them, the sheer fury and conciliation, and the knowledge that they were bound as kids, passing a small handheld console to each other over hospital sheets.
I know this has just been a list of ephemera from the novel, but goddamn it’s good, corroborated by several friends.