I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.

A summary on NetGalley calls this novel “Stranger Things by way of William Gibson.” I think a more accurate metaphor might be Romy and Michele’s Ready Player Nineteen-Ninety-Three.

It's a fun idea executed almost too specifically. (There's a spoiler-y counter-argument that it makes sense, the over-specificity of the year…) It definitely picks up about halfway through, for a clever payoff.

I could definitely see this ending up as a series on the CW.

This has nostalgia all over it, but for me it was just too short. Overall I had fun reading this one, but it felt like a short story.

In Beta contains too many secrets that I'd be loathe to reveal but I can say that those who were teenagers in the early 90s will find a great many reminders of what made the decade entertaining. Harvey uses references to video games, music and movies to immerse the reader in the tiny world that surrounds Cascadia High. Fans of video games, cyberpunk, mystery thrillers, and Stranger Things will find plenty to dig into in this fascinating novel that is not only a whodunit? but also a whatisit? By the time all the secrets of the novel are laid bare, it all makes perfect sense, and you''ll wish you'd seen it sooner. But that would spoil the fun.

Disclaimer: I would like the thank the author and publisher for providing an advance review ebook.

"In Beta" by Prescott Harvey was very hard to put down. As hinted in the description, this book certainly takes the reader back to high school in the early 90's. Even if the reader happens to have not to have attended Bickleton High as a senior in 1993, anyone who has ever attended high school will likely uncomfortably identify with parts of this story. Similarly, the cultural details will certainly bring back memories to those who have lived through the 90's in the U.S. In fact, this reviewer is quite happy not to have lived in Bickleton, gone to Bickleton High in the 90's, nor ever been one of the characters in "In Beta." Fortunately none of those attributes is required to appreciate this story. The world that Harvey creates in becomes increasingly thought-provoking as the reality is revealed and the all too human characters strive towards an acceptable outcome.

Brilliant. I was trying to relate it to other books that I’ve read or films and movies which are similar and came up with a whole list that I think it’s a weird combination of:

Wayward pines, Stranger Things, The Truman Show and Ready Player One

I challenge anyone to read it and disagree with the list.

It’s so good - the ending left me wanting a second book of some sort! Can we somehow expand their world and let them go to college? Bickleton high school is too small for these characters.

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who loves sci-fi, pop culture references from the 90’s and murder mystery style books! It had me gripped and I read it in a whole two days. I loved Liz’s character and Stevie and would love to read more about Stevie. It would make a great tv series and I’d love to see who people would cast as Jay, Jeremy and the John’s.