I liked this, I did. But I’m afraid I am not quite enough into ’80s video game and geek culture to truly appreciate it. It’s essentially a coming of age tale wrapped in a dork’s fever dream. And there’s nothing wrong with that. At some point (for me, it was when I was much, much younger), we’ve all kind of wanted to be inside of a video game, no? I was successful in doing that once, and then my parents rushed me to the ER to take my dick out of the Super Mario Bros cartridge. I kid! My penis is misshapen for other reasons. And the main character here does get to go into the games, which is cool! It just makes it slightly less enjoyable if you don’t understand all the references and inside jokes.
If you’re into video games and reading (though I’m afraid the people who like one are mutually exclusive from the other), you’ll love this. I give this book one bruised joystick thumb out of two.
