I had a friend highly recommend this book to me, so I picked it up. I'm not usually into sci-fi, but I have to say the author does a good job with the world building. Where the story really had issues was the characters for me. I wasn't super invested in them, and I think part of it may have been on purpose. The world the characters are in is so disconnected from the act of socializing that it makes them hard to relate to as a result. I still think that it would have helped the story be more impactful if I was able to care more about the well being of the characters. Whenever they were in danger or or threatened I didn't really care all that much. Most characters in the book don't have real life friends because they spend so much time online. Whenever they are described there is very little we know about them. A lot of the information we get is about their gaming habits and their knowledge on pop culture, not actually personality traits. On a nicer note, the book does have a good lesson in the end, which is that just because technology allows so many advances and conveniences, It doesn't mean we should forget about the real world. Wade definitely develops as a character throughout the book as he goes from being someone who didn't have any real life friends and was afraid of the real world to someone who starts actively building real relationships. He even starts taking care of himself going from being an overweight teen to someone who works out and loses weight to deal with stress. Again, because I couldn't relate too much to the characters since there wasn't much to relate to, the romance didn't really do much for me either. I'd say the strongest points of the story is how action packed it is and the interesting world and pop culture references the author makes. Not a bad book, but don't go in expecting anything life changing either.