Month: August 2022

By: Gabrielle Zevin

Recommend

TLDR: Gamers and bookworms unite! If you happen to love video games and reading – this book is for you. It’ll hit you with all the 90’s and early 00’s gaming nostalgia with a lot of really fun symbolism woven in. It lagged at certain points for me, but never enough to make me put it away without finishing.

I selected this book because of the focus on a friendship between the main characters as opposed to a romantic relationship – which felt new for me (at least based on what I’ve read recently). Oddly, the relationship between the two main characters left me thinking a lot about Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng, in that this friendship isn’t always an easy one and it’s often most complicated by things left unsaid between Sadie and Sam.

Nevertheless, following their journey from childhood friends to business partners (in their mid-to-late-30’s by the time the book wraps up) was an enjoyable experience overall. Zevin weaves in flashbacks where possible to add greater context to how Sadie and Sam each operate, which wasn’t always a seamless experience for me, but I can understand/respect the intention. You’ll also get tidbits about important friends and family members. The little bits of late 90’s and early 00’s nostalgia were reminders of the fun parts of my own childhood. Though I’ve never considered myself a true gamer, I can recall playing a number of the games referenced as experiences or inspiration for Sam & Sadie.

I also love that the title and cover art are symbolic to the story; I was confused by them when selecting the book, but I love when things pan out this way. Otherwise, this gets a “Recommend” because I wouldn’t consider it a page-turner through-and-through. There were lulls, but again – it never lagged enough that I wanted to quit before finishing.

Gabrielle Zevin has also authored several other novels and YA novels. TBD on whether I add any of them to the reading list. Up next: The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, which has unofficially been on the reading list for years thanks to one of my favorite High School English teachers.

By: Celeste Ng (Repeat Author)

Highly Recommend

TLDR: This book perfectly highlights the complexities of a Mid-Western family grieving the loss of a daughter/sister, and offers a glimpse of how each family member’s actions and reactions shapes the behavior of others. It’s intriguing more than anything else.

When I read the synopsis of this novel I thought I’d be learning more about what happened to Lydia Lee. And though you do eventually learn about Lydia’s demise, what’s more intriguing is how Celeste Ng artfully weaves the stories of the remaining family members together while highlighting the things they aren’t sharing with each other.

Reading this book reminded me of some advice my therapist once gave me: if you aren’t clear about your feelings and intentions, children will often fill in the blanks and that can lead to assumptions that aren’t always correct. This book highlights that perhaps that behavior isn’t just limited to children and we see the repercussions of the words left unsaid with all members of the Lee family.

This novel is raw and emotional in ways I wasn’t expecting and for that it gets the “highly recommend”. I’ll try to keep the ratings here simple: do not recommend, recommend, or highly recommend. I’ll also let you know when we’ve got a repeat author (as I did above).

Celeste Ng is also known for Little Fires Everywhere (read and reviewed on IG), and her upcoming release, Our Missing Hearts.