It took a minute to get into but then I devoured this book. I can't put my finger on what I like about it. In no way can I call myself a gamer, but I know enough not to have felt alienated.

I didn't really like Sadie or Sam I don't think. They were both frustrating characters. Nothing much really happened either. But something kept me going anyway.

Marx's death section was utterly beautiful. I've read a lot of people die and this one will stay with me I think.

It had a danger of leaning towards the Sally Rooney-esque - a genre defined by young people fucking things up because they refuse to talk to each other properly, but somehow it didn't annoy me as much as Normal People or bloody Cleopatra and Frankenstein did.

So I feel ambivalence but also have an absolute clarity that this was a 5* read for me.

Strange.