Sam Maser and Sadie Green meet again in a train station after they drifted apart from a great childhood friendship. Sam and Sadie were brought together by sickness, but more importantly, by games. After Sadie gives Sam a copy of the computer game she had recently made, the pair embark on an adventure that will take them through the next decade or so of their lives creating games. Joined by Marx, Sam's roommate, they create Unstable Games and catapult into gaming fame. When the landscape of gaming and society evolves, how will Sam, Sadie, and Marx cope? 

This was a story about games, identity, and building stories. This was layered and nuanced, spanning childhood, adolescence, and adulthood linked through games. The story is told in a non-linear fashion, with sections that can span years or days. As someone who is not a fan of non-linearity in novels, that made it difficult for me to follow the story at times. 

All of the characters had this immense depth and realness to them to where they felt like people in my life, that I knew and could see myself in their flaws and imperfections. I appreciate how each character was diverse and human in their own way but never did that diversity seemed forced or added "just because." These characters felt like real people and not caricatures of people. 

Where the novel fell short for me was the "Pioneers" chapter. It felt entirely separate from the rest of the novel, which I can see where it could be an allegory for dealing with grief and how people can withdraw. But for me, it was boring, detracted from the rest of the beautiful story, and seemed to never end. 

All in all, I can see why this was voted as the 2022 Book of the Month Book of the Year.