For Divya and Aaron, it’s the world of online gaming. While Divya trades her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay rent, Aaron plays as a way to fuel his own dreams of becoming a game developer – and as a way to disappear when his mom starts talking about medical school. After a chance online meeting, the pair decides to team up – but soon find themselves the targets of a group of internet trolls who begin launching a real-world doxxing campaign, threatening Aaron’s dream and Divya’s actual life. They think can drive her out of the game, but Divya’s whole world is on the line...
And she isn’t going down without a fight.
And yet again I read a book that reminds me how cool it could be to chill in the MMORPG (looking at you Slay) world until I remember I have ZERO gaming skills. I tried to play this game once and when I couldn't figure out how to make my character look like me I quit. I tried another game but the map was confusing soooo…. I guess that means I’ll have to suck up all the excitement and keep it between the pages of my books.
“The only safe place for either of us has been online. In these games. With beautiful strangers that make the world worth living. And now I’m going to set this world on fire.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this book, in addition to being a fun work of fiction, speaks to the racist and sexist nature embedded in the gaming world. While that space, like many others, is full of kind, people looking for a world to escape into for a few hours, there are also people bend on destruction for reason I will never understand. Just kidding. Yes I do. They're a*******.
This book also speaks to what the online world can give us. Many month ago (over a year… what is time) I met a girl on Twitter who I honestly consider a friend. Someone who I check in with. Someone who I wish the best for. Someone who lives in a different time zone. We had no reason to meet. No reason to talk. But technology and social media brought us together and I’ll always be grateful for that.
This book is such an interesting one to read during a time when so many of us have been forced deeper into the virtual world. The Internet can be a dark place bent on destruction. But it can also build community that otherwise may never have been.
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