devastating, revelatory, broke me wide open. what is love? it is looking for someone in the dead of night. it is sitting across from them, playing a game. it is an inside joke and the forbidden pleasure of knowing nobody else will understand. it is creating something from scratch and sharing before you’re finished. 

i probably should have known how much i would love this because i was a BIG Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac girlie in middle school and a HUGE Halt and Catch Fire bitch during my pandemic year. but Zevin just blew me away with everything here: the timeline, and the depth of detail about each character’s life, and the games themselves; but mostly Sam and Sadie together, always in flux, always creating. i loved the setting. i loved the Pioneers section — i just saw a review criticizing the Pioneers section, and i’m like oh, buddy, we’re different. the creativity and the emotion and the heart here is just, whew, eviscerating. it's about games, yes, but also it's about friendship and pain and play and intimacy and betrayal and loving each other through it all, even when the love isn't enough, even when the love is too much. five fucking stars.