Such a sweet and wholesome story! I really enjoyed this middle grade romance and the way it tackles so many topics: toxic friendship, friendship break-ups, social anxiety, growing up in the internet age, long-distance friendship, and the way books help us through grief and through other pains life can throw at us. This sounds like a lot, but all these small threads are interwoven together really nicely into a coherent, beautiful tapestry—just like the main character’s knitting project.

The thing that often annoys me in YA and MG, even though I understand where it comes from, is how adults are either absent/useless or they turn into an obstacle for the main characters to overcome, one way or another. Here, there’s none of that. Ingrid’s relationship with her grandmother, in fact, was my favorite part of the book. I loved how, no matter how tough things got for Ingrid at school, she always felt supported and safe at home, and there was enough trust between Ingrid and her grandmother that if Ingrid wanted to keep something to herself for a while, she could just say so (or have her grandmother fathom it out first and help her find the words to put it into). In general, that was just such a good, loving relationship, depicted in a beautifully loving way, and their scenes together constantly made me smile.

I also loved all the geeky, nerdy parts of the plot, like the characters playing the online game together, talking about their favorite book series, or sharing astronomy and knitting facts, and how all of that blended with important conversations about real life issues. I did feel like maybe Lorren was a bit too emotionally mature for her age, and Oliver all around too perfect, to the point that it took me out of the story a little now and then 😅 But really, I didn’t mind because the characters were just so nice. Another random thing I enjoyed were the random bits of queer inclusivity. One of the wrong number texts Ingrid received was about aimed at someone called Todd, and the texter then opened up about helping Todd’s boyfriend with proposal plans. Ingrid doesn’t assume the new online friend’s gender until she knows for sure. When it’s revealed Traveler is a boy, Lorren asks Ingrid if she’s into boys. The MOO the kids play has a “more xp for those who get married in-game” mechanic and allows for same-sex marriages. This isn’t a queer book at all as such, but all these little touches are there and normalize queerness regardless, and I love it, and I love that kids these days get to grow up with books that normalize diversity.

Outside of a couple of characters acting older than their age (mentioned above), I guess the one thing I found a bit grating was the storyline with Ingrid’s Tumblr-equivalent based on the improbable quantities of “wrong number” texts she’s been getting. I guess I don’t need to know *why* she’s been getting so many, but the whole concept didn’t seem to mesh well with the whole concept of her grandmother teaching her to be careful about online safety, anonymity, etc. Especially once the blog started getting popular. Like… someone accidentally texts Ingrid. She posts a screenshot on her blog. The post goes viral. The person who texted her sees the post, checks their text message history, and realizes they now have the popular blogger’s number. They can now post that number somewhere. They can use it to try and doxx Ingrid. Idk, just doesn’t sound very safe, though at the same time, the blog story definitely served as decent connective tissue between other subplots and provided for some fun moments!