Review
Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Reviewed by: Brooke Taylor
Issue: March 2024
I was resistant to read this book: 1) Video games are a central component. The two main characters, Sadie and Sam, are gamers and create video games and I personally don't care for video games or have any interest in them. And 2) Perhaps more importantly, Steve Ackerman, my grandpa and publisher of The Readers Exchange said he had tried it and didn't like it, so put it down. However, all last year, it was the book that I constantly heard talked about; it has the familiar colorful front cover (inspired by Japanese artist, Hokusai's The Great Wave) that I passed every time I went to the bookstore and airport; and it was on The New York Times bestseller list for 33 weeks. So I caved and gave it a go - and I have to say - it may just be my favorite book I read in 2023 (Sorry Grandpa Steve!). This is a classic bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story, a journey of loss, friendship, and personal growth. The characters are complex and experience universal feelings that we all go through during life and the author, Gabrielle Zevin, captures them and writes this novel spanning 30 years beautifully. Sadie and Sam's friendship starts as kids in LA, they meet in the hospital. Sadie is there visiting her sister when she meets reserved Sam playing video games in the children's hospital game room. Sam has been involved in a tragic accident and subsequently has not spoken much to anyone - Sadie changes that. They bond over their love of video games and become fast friends. Time goes by, they lose touch, and by a random chance encounter, they reconnect at a subway station in Boston where they both are enrolled in college. They are still avid gamers, taking computer science and coding classes at their universities, Harvard and MIT. Sam learns that Sadie is also a talented game designer, and shortly after, he recruits her to make a game with him. This is when it all takes off. The trials of creating something together, Sam's roommate, Marx, becomes an investor, and they have a blockbuster hit in their game they create titled Ichigo. Fame follows and their lives are changed forever -good decisions, bad decisions, running a business together, creative differences, depression, conflict, tragedy, their successes and their losses but ultimately the complexity of their friendship is at the core of this novel. While their video games reflect aspects of their life, this is not a story about video games. This is a story of love (perhaps not romantic love) and a reflection of two people growing up together. It reminded me of the people in our life that are there for our journey and see and know all sides of us. There are incredible observations Zevin makes from walking and driving the streets of Boston and LA which I also found resonating since I've lived in both places. This book took me months to finish and was not a quick read, but I was sad when it was over. I appreciated and enjoyed the journey and would read it again as there were so many little details and thoughtful touches including the very title, a reference to Shakespeare's Macbeth.