Eric A. Smith

"At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds...and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron's dreams and Divya's actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line... And she isn't going anywhere without a fight." -- Amazon.

Don't Read the Comments

Eric Smith

Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she's playing Reclaim the Sun, the year's hottest online game. Divya--better known as popular streaming gamer D1V--regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game's vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she's trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent. Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho's entire life. Much to his mother's frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun--and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V. At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds...and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron's dreams and Divya's actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line... And she isn't going down without a fight.

Sarah Sammis

D1V livestreams her gaming sessions on an MMO, Reclaim the Sun. She has sponsorships, enough to help put her mother through college and help pay rent. But then she's targeted by an online faction with local ties. At first it starts with a photo of her apartment and it escalates from there.

Aaron, meanwhile, plays the same game for fun. He plays on equipment he's cobbled together. He plays with his kid sister. He lets her name planets things like Butts. They meet by accident in the game and become friends.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2020/comm...

We all need a place to escape from the real world. 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. “Wonderfully geeky and deeply compassionate.” —Marieke Nijkamp, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Teodora Nagy

Cartea a fost interesanta. Mesajul le care l-a transmis este unul important, mai ales în zilele noastre, cand lucruri de genul acesta se pot intampla atat de usor. Personajele au fost bine conturate, acțiunea interesanta. 
Motivul pentru care am dat 3 stele acestei cărți este ca nu m-a ținut mai in suspans. Mi-a placut sa o citesc, dar nu eram in stare sa stau toata noaptea trează, doar ca sa o termin. Jocurile video nu sunt exact genul meu, deci probabil si asta, desi in aceasta carte actiunea a fost frumos relatata. In rest, o carte foarte buna, cu un mesaj puternic

Demi

After finishing this book I had very mixed feelings. This was a very quick read for me and I really liked that it tackled topics such as racism and gender equality, and I think the concept of this book was very unique and interesting. I did however, find myself struggling to really get into the portions of this book that were told through the video game shown. While I do think this book was written well, there was something about it that made me struggle to stay interested in what was going on. There were many sublots between the two characters we followed, and I felt as though they weren’t able to fully develop because there were so many of them going on at once.

As for the characters, I did really enjoy them. I can’t say that I fell head over heels for them, but I did enjoy the different relationships we saw throughout this book, as well as the sweet and cute romance. I definitely think the romance was very sudden, but I will say that it was one of my favourite aspects of the book. Something that I liked in this book was that we got to see all the intersts each character was passionate about, and I did actually like the references about different fandoms. I could definitely read through the pages just how much fun the author had writing this book.

Overall, this book was a solid 3 stars for me. I did enjoy my time reading it, but I didn’t fall in love with it.

Dee B. 

Steph L 

A fun and important read

This book was a look at what happens in the video game industry. I really enjoyed my time getting to know Divya and Aaron.

Kayla 

This book was very thought provoking, it helps remind you of the times we are in with how advanced technology is and how easy it is to give out to much personal information on the internet and it come back to bite you. 

Parv

The beginning was slow, but it was a good read.

We all need a place to escape the real world. 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 they 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 they 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.

Kaitee Tredway

I couldn’t tell you what exactly I was expecting from Don’t Read the Comments since I don’t really register/remember blurbs. I read it solely because Eric Smith wrote it. I CAN tell you what I got: a heartwarming story with characters who could be my friends that delves into the realities of being a girl and a person of color (or both) in the gaming world, a story that explores both the good and the ugly of online communities and connections. I enjoyed every minute of this book. 
 
Aaron’s and Divya’s (or D1V’s) realities are as different from each other as they are from mine— which is to say that, while the circumstances of our lives are different, we’re all trying to find a place to be our authentic selves and communities that will hold *everything* we have to offer. (Luckily for me, I’ve found those communities. But I viscerally remember this feeling.) 
 
DRtC delivers on so much more that a sweet love story. This is a book for the gamers, the geek girls, and the writers. It’s also a book for anyone who longs for true connections. Eric’s writing is just so fun and authentic. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Aleena Korell

Candyce Kirk

Kerry Gibbons

A fine little book, though a tad predictable.

Tayler Park

Michelle Boyea

Thank you Net Galley for a copy of this great book!

I started reading this book months ago but honestly couldn't keep my attention on it. I found myself distracted and just not very into it. I liked the storyline but it just didn't capture my interest at the time. I got approximately halfway through it and switched to other books. Fast forward to today and I finished reading it in about 2 hours. I couldn't put it down. I loved the character and relationship development in the last half of this book. The storyline seemed to progress quicker and overall the book was great!

Becca Futrell

3.5 Rounded up!

Thank you to Netgalley & Inkyard Press for providing me with a copy of Don’t Read the Comments in exchange for an honest review. However, this review is based on the final copy (audiobook) as I didn’t get a chance to read this until after the publication date.

As a content creator and a person who’s written for multiple gaming websites, one thing that I’ve learned is don’t read the comments. If your post gets traction, you will have tons of people arguing your points & it’s just a Mess. I had a freelance job where I’d write Top Ten lists about video games, and each time I’d get comments that read, “you forgot this & this!” Like, no? I just didn’t want to include them in my list.

Anywho, our protagonist Divya lives by the same motto, don’t read the comments. She’s a Glitch (basically Twitch) streamer with a lot of followers and sponsorships. She’s caught the eye of the gaming community, and a lot of male gamers don’t like it. Enter Vox Populi.

Vox Populi is a group of trolls who harass Divya both online and in the real world. They manage to discover her location and plan attacks on her and her loved ones. This book is heavy with racism, trolling, misogyny, and doxxing. It takes on a really real subject for girl video gamers; from being called gamer girls to telling streamers to show more cleavage to actual death threats. There’s constant harassment in the community.

There are a lot of game and book references in Don’t Read the Comments, including ones I wasn’t expecting such as DontNod Entertainment’s Remember Me. I’m gonna be honest, I forgot that game even existed until reading this book. Personally, I’m a sucker for pop culture references in my reads, so this was golden for me.

As with most YA Contemporary plots, we are given young characters who want to go on a path different from the one their parents want them to go on. Let’s take Aaron for example, who wants to write for the gaming industry, yet his mother wants him to take over the doctor’s office. With this portion of the plot, there is nothing that makes it stand out from the rest of the YA Contemporaries.

I wasn’t moved by the romance at all; I didn’t feel any chemistry, and I rooted Aaron and Divya on as a platonic relationship. It really just seemed rushed and unnecessary.

To sum it up, there are some issues with Don’t Read the Comments. However, I did enjoy the main gist of it & the messages that it was sending out about the video gaming community.

Geneviève Rouleau

Such intense subjects are addressed, while also being such an entertaining read. I loved the relationships and the side stories. I really binged through this and never felt bored or like it dragged on (even though I'm zero into gaming ahahah) Also the narrators in the audiobook are👌

Belle Ellrich

Eric Smith knows just how to tug on my heartstrings. The entirety of this book, I was on a roller coaster of multiple emotions and feelings. I would be given a second or two to breathe, and then it was back up that climb.

Don't Read the Comments is a book that focuses on many important issues and topics, such as racism, sexism, harassment, and more. These are focused in both online and offline settings.

We are given two main characters, Divya and Aaron. Both understand what it's like to be discriminated against due to the color of their skin, and it's brought up in multiple parts of the book. I really liked this addition to the story because I feel like we can never have enough books talking about racism in everyday life. If we don't give people the opportunity to write about, speak about, or share about stories like these, no one will care and no one will listen. We need to keep pushing for these and emphasize their importance.

Another thing I really liked that the author included in this book was the harassment females face in online communities. DRTC specifically centers on Divya's involvement in the video game and streaming communities, but it also carries on into her offline life. There is a group of men that have targeted Divya named the Vox Populi, and they're determined to shut her down and ruin her entire life—specifically because she's a girl. As someone who's been a part of this community before, I can't even begin to emphasize how IMPORTANT this is. I used to moderate the live chat of multiple streamers, and my job as a moderator was to warn, block, ban and reinforce those who misbehaved/acted out. I can tell you now, the majority of those that I did have to ban because of inappropriate behavior or actions was men. It's really sad, if anything, that they're proving the point of this now severely needed and important discussion.

This book focused on heavy topics, but it also had its light moments. We experienced a budding friendship between Aaron and Divya, and even though this book is categorized under YA romance, it's not heavily focused on at all! In fact, Divya makes it known that she can survive just fine on her own without the help of a guy, and I really loved that.

For that, I rate this book 5 stars. Eric Smith knows how to write his books, and I'm so thankful we have him as an author in our community. He's one of the ones I really trust to help make a change, so definitely boost this book up!

Kate

This is a wonderfully geeky story that explores sexism, misogyny, racism, doxxing and toxicity online and specifically within the gaming industry with nuance and candour. 

With two strong and unique voices, multiple brilliantly explored relationship dynamics, epic bookish shoutouts (one of the characters has a bookstagram!!), a diverse cast of characters and VR gaming passages that almost made me forget I was reading a contemporary and not a sci-fi (in a good way), this was a thoroughly enjoyable read and perfect for gamers and non-gamers alike.

TW: discussion of sexual assault, sexism, racism, harassment, doxxing.

Don't Read the Comments

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