Don't Read the Comments

By: Eric Smith

Narrated by: Richa Shukla Moorjani, Sunil Malhotra

We all need a place to escape from the real world.

For Divya and Aaron, it’s the world of online gaming. While Divya trades her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay rent, Aaron plays as a way to fuel his own dreams of becoming a game developer – and as a way to disappear when his mom starts talking about medical school. After a chance online meeting, the pair decides to team up – but soon find themselves the targets of a group of internet trolls who begin launching a real-world doxxing campaign, threatening Aaron’s dream and Divya’s actual life. They think can drive her out of the game, but Divya’s whole world is on the line….

And she isn’t going down without a fight.

“Wonderfully geeky and deeply compassionate.” (Marieke Nijkamp, number one New York Times best-selling author)

©2020 Eric Smith (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Ironic to leave a review

This was a good read. I didn't expect the feminist aspect, but yay! A great look into a sad downside to the gaming world, but it was well written and the characters were very likable. The love story was cute, too.

Cute teen gamer novel

I read this to better understand my teenage client who is a gamer. I do not fully understand the appeal of the game they play not their desire to engage with so many strangers, including trolls, but this book did remind me of what it’s like to be a teen and what’s important to the teen today IS their whole world even when adults don’t get it. So it was a cute and helpful listen for me.

Really enjoyable!

Is 52 too old to become a gamer? Asking for a friend...

Although I really know nothing about the online gaming/streaming world, other than what our UPS driver at work has talked about, I found this to be a really entertaining story. I don't think you have to be a gamer to enjoy it, but I'm thinking I might want to take up a new hobby!
I loved how we saw the gaming world through Divya and Aaron's points of view. They both had such different outlooks and were in it for such different reasons.
I appreciated how sexism and racism were handled in this story. I have to tell you, my anxiety was through the roof a couple of times, I was so angry and frustrated on Divya's behalf.
I really liked the "girl power" feel to Don't Read The Comments. Even though we got both a male and female pov, it felt like this was ultimately Divya's story. Don't get me wrong, I was happy Aaron had his own storyline! I liked him and his family, his sister was adorable. But it was nice to see a story that would "normally" be one you'd expect a male to play the starring role in kind of flipped on its head.

The narration was terrific, I especially liked Richa Shukla Moorjani's portrayl of Divya. Both she and Sunil Malhotra were new to me narrators, I'll be keeping my eye out for other books narrated by them for sure. I did find Sunil sounded just a little older than I would have imagined for Aaron's character, but I still thought he did a wonderful job. Both narrators brought a lot of emotion to the characters, which made for a very enjoyable listen.

Wonderful, kindhearted book

Strong authentic voices and tackling real issues, this book was a fun read and a lesson in how to write YA well.

Charming and important

This book manages to be both charming and deep. Surprising story that never sags. Compelling and real characters. I am sad to let them go at the end of the book!