Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

I was about halfway through this book and loving it. It's the type of story I love– some extremely talented creative pouring all their energy and dedication in creating something truly unique. Passion, perseverance, the exhilaration of creation. I was intrigued by the kind of creative relationship the protagonist had with his partner.

But halfway through, I got hit with some kind of narrative disassociation and suddenly the whole book stopped working for me. Suddenly the characters seemed completely unbelievable. They felt like caricatures, only there to serve the plot. The relationships felt barely developed and extremely toxic. It also started to feel more and more like a “hot topic” novel throughout, when suddenly we weren't just handling non-binary videogame protagonists and (anti-Asian) racism, but suddenly also homophobia and gun issues.

Pick something and stick to it, but don't try to work every single hot social issue into your novel. And then there's the story in general- this feels like such an absurd invention of a game company's birth. Just go read MASTERS OF DOOM instead. You have actual human characters, a similar hate/love relationship between the creators which actually feels believable, and the joy of reading about truly talented people at work.