There are only two ways to respond to pop culture references in media. Either they flow through the story and enhance the discourse (Ready Player One and Gilmore Girls are examples of this) or they stab the reader's brain and have no reason to exist. Within the first few chapters of this book I felt the latter. The story felt forced and the references just pushed to remind the reader to say "Hey! It's the 90s. Look how crazy everything was. We had to wait to download stuff back then. 90s! 90s!"

It detracted from an already boring story. The concept was cute but the execution left me wanting something more. I didn't even finish the book. I skipped ahead and discovered it didn't improve. The ending was predictable and not worth the time.