It's another Blog Tour! Don't Read the Comments by Eric Smith
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Hello, Reader Friends! I have another exciting title for you this week. I finished Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith in one glorious sitting and enjoyed every single page of this wonderful book. There is a lot to love in this book. There is the fun and witty banter between Divya and her friends, strong friendships that are able to weather the storm that can be the online world, and the struggle to balance family obligations with personal hopes and dreams. Smith writes with real care and love for his characters and you can feel it on every page. This book will give video game lovers a thoughtful look behind the scenes of sponsorship, time commitments, and the effects that trolls have on the very real lives of those who make their living online. I can’t recommend it enough but that’s enough of my rambling.
Here’s all the important information you need from the lovely people at Inkyard Press:
Slay meets Eliza and Her Monsters in Eric Smith’s Don't Read the Comments, an #ownvoices story in which two teen gamers find their virtual worlds—and blossoming romance—invaded by the real-world issues of trolling and doxing in the gaming community.
Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she’s playing Reclaim the Sun, the year’s hottest online game. Divya—better known as popular streaming gamer D1V—regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game’s vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she’s trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent.
Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho’s entire life. Much to his mother’s frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun—and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V.
At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds…and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron’s dreams and Divya’s actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line…
And she isn’t going down without a fight.
You can get your copy from your favorite retailer:
Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-A-Million Kobo Indie Bound Google Play
Eric Smith is an author, prolific book blogger, and literary agent from New Jersey, currently living in Philadelphia. Smith cohosts Book Riot’s newest podcast, HEY YA, with non-fiction YA author Kelly Jensen. He can regularly be found writing for Book Riot’s blog, as well as Barnes & Noble’s Teen Reads blog, Paste Magazine, and Publishing Crawl. Smith also has a growing Twitter platform of over 40,000 followers (@ericsmithrocks).
Author website: https://www.ericsmithrocks.com/
Twitter: @ericsmithrocks
Instagram: @ericsmithrocks
Facebook: @ericsmithwrites
Thank you to Netgalley and Inkyard Press for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.