I enjoyed the story itself but since having requested this book I have learned that this author is not a person who should be telling this story. Statements the author have left me uncomfortable providing a review on content alone given the book is about characters who identify as members of the community the author has been negatively vocal towards.

As someone who is not typically into science fiction or online role playing games, I had a difficult time following this book at times

Thanks Netgalley and HarperTeen for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I think the idea behind this book was really good but for me personally there was a lot of information that was a struggle to conceptualize. I often struggle when books center around a fictional show or comic book or something like that and it feels like the concept isn't well flushed out but is frequently referred to. Like if there had been a better description of the plot of the show than the references that were in the book about the show would have made more sense. As it was I felt like I was missing something throughout. This is actually a struggle for me with sci-fi in general so the fact that the show they are on is sci-fi probably just worked to make things more complicated for me. I did like Frey's journey to understanding themselves. I don't like some of the thoughts that Frey had in terms of sexuality but I like that they had never really thought about their own gender until someone said they were trans and then it was like a switch. It was similar to my experiencing realizing I'm non-binary. One day I just realized what some of the thoughts I'd had but never really paid much attention to meant. I think there are people who would like this book but go in knowing that you'll have work a little harder to understand the show concept.

DNFed this book pretty hard. Probably stopped at 40 percent and couldn’t read it anymore. Maybe it wasn’t for me.

The blurb sounded intriguing, but due to the author being problematic towards lesbians in real life and comments they have made about them, I, like several other reviewers have decided not to finish this novel. Thank you, Netgalley, for the arc.

While I thought this book made a valiant attempt at talking about diversity in media I thought, considering the context of the author’s online commentary on lesbians and queer women, this book felt performative as well as uncomfortable. There were moments where a lot of dialogue and commentary on lesbians felt uncomfortable and just plain wrong. I hope there are more efforts put into sensitivity reading by this author in the future.

this book was feeling eh to me and then I realized halfway through it has one of my favorite tropes involving internet best friends. I've seen that trope before in fanfics and this book reminded me of Spoiler Alert and the show reminded me of Game of Thrones(at least with the bad writers lol). However I will say I felt a little weird with the romance after learning about the author's previous actions towards lesbians. But I did like seeing some asexual rep in this book.

Due to the author being problematic towards lesbians in real life and comments they have made about them, I have decided not to finish this novel. Thank you for proving the ARC and look forward to reading other LGBTQ stories in the future by other authors.

this book was phenomenal, in every sense of the word. the main character was fun, likeable, and relatable. i could personally relatable to their struggles with their gender identity. it's a new understanding about how gender identity isn't something everyone figures out while they're 13 or 14, and it can take time. often times, you won't even notice the feelings of not connecting with your assigned gender until something points it out for you. it's a take you don't often see in media. i'm not sure if the author themself is genderqueer, but it's an accurate, well-written representation of that experience. one detail that truly stuck out to me was the way the narrator seems well aware of their privilege and uses to stick it up for those who are marginalized. they acknowledge their privilege as a rich, white actor who's whole career is built of nepotism in a way that is not cringy or annoying to read, but understandable and doesn't center themself in the conversation. that being said, i had one or two bones to pick with this book. one is just how predictable it is. one of the main "plot twists" is noticeable right away and sort of ruining the suspense of me. as well as that, some plot points were left unresolved in my head, at least. i will avoid spoilers but at one point the main character has an argument with their mother and says some really hurtful stuff, and their mom is seen to be quite upset about it. it seems as if there is a later discussion offscreen about this, but it felt unresolved to me and like it was swept under the rug to keep the page count down. i would have like to see an honest, heartful discussion about the feelings between the main character and their mom as it's something we see the main character being upset about often throughout the book and never quite get anything clarity from out. but overall, this was a fantastic book to read and i really enjoyed it.

This review is hard for me to write. I was so excited to read a book about a non-binary person and how they come to term with themself. (I also didn’t know about the problematic history of the author, I just found out a few minutes ago and I’m not sure how to feel about that.)

If you're interested in reading this book, I would strongly suggest choosing another one of the many, many fantastic LGBT YA novels that have come out this year that are not reeking of lesbophobia and have a raging lesbophobe author.

Note: I DNFed this book at 10%.

Since starting the book, I was made aware of the author's online behavior, specifically towards lesbians, which, given the romance in this book, seems uncomfortable, to say the least. In addition to my experience with the first 10% of the book, this fact made me put it down.
What I read of the books was riddled with stereotypes and unoriginal writing, in addition to not realistically portraying what it's like to work on the movie set and the relationships between the teenage characters. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with this ARC.

I really tried to read it regardless of what the author has been saying. However, it has proven to be really hard. I tried my best to at least like it but I failed to.

I really appreciate NetGalley for providing me with an ARC and I apologise for not being able to give an honest review.

I wanted to love this story but I just could not. It was unrealistic, uncomfortable at times, and overall confusing.

I honestly hated Frey. Being 17 is tough I get that, but the complete self centered ideas and inability to comprehend anything going on with anyone else was irritating. I wish we had gotten more of the character development in their real life, instead of just in the video game. I liked Greta's character, but she felt very 2-D to me, and her asexuality seemed like an afterthought to make her character more well rounded. A dual POV would have made this book so much more fun. The rest of the characters were either complete stereotypes or entirely forgettable.

I would not recommend this novel.

I knew this book had queer representation going in, but little else. This is a solid YA coming of age story, featuring young actors on a hit sci-fi show. The protagonist, going through their own identity struggles, advocates for queer representation, which snowballs into so much more. With the current political climate, topics broached in this novel may be considered by some as too "woke", but the struggles faced by the diverse characters don't pull punches, and we need more of that. The additional layer of mmorpg nerddom made for a fun layer onto an otherwise solid coming of age queer story!

When reading the description of the book I was extremely intrigued. However, as I began reading the book I unfortunately felt uncomfortable with the way lesbians were spoken about. I continued to read in hopes of the plot distracting me from those comments. I was excited to read a romance between a nonbinary main character and an asexual character but I don't think this was the right way to go about it.
The pacing of the book threw me off a bit. All of the scenes felt like they were all over the place and the timing wasn't consistent. I also felt that the ending was rushed compared to the rest of the book.
I also was not the biggest fan of the main character Frey. I felt that they still had a lot of learning to do and continued to turn a blind eye on the events going on around them. I thought the concept of this book was amazing but it wasn't what I wanted.
Either way, thank you Netgalley for this arc!

i am sorry, but i have tried both of z.r. ellors books, and have found them both to be poorly written and problematic.

Note: I received an Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
As an older queer adult, my first reaction to this book was shaking my head, feeling like I was talking to an idealistic teenager. But as I sat with the book, reading through each character’s experience, I realized that I felt that way because this world *was* ideal. A world where white people raise BIPOC voices instead of just feeling guilty, or a world where a queer youth can come out and the hate is a minority in the world’s feedback. This is the kind of book that gives teens and young adults the courage to do what is right, no matter if it is the status quo. I would recommend this to any teen or young adult that has ever felt misunderstood and angry at the world for its treatment of others.

This book had a lovely concept that was poorly executed. Beyond the storytelling being disjunct and the characters being very unlikeable, I found the MC's thought processes to be rather sexist. Frey is only 17 years old, so It could be believable that they would have some internalized misogyny, but the author never takes the opportunity to clarify for the character, or readers, that these thoughts are harmful. This is concerning to me since this book is geared towards young readers. Speaking of the character only being 17 years old...It's really not ok that an adult character asks the teenage main character if they do "that awful scissoring thing". Like, what?!

THANK YOU NETGALLEY AND THE PUBLISHER FOR ALLOWING ME TO READ THIS ARC.
3 stars.
This book was okay. I felt mostly the stuff was unrealistic. I don’t know if it had anything to do with a male writing a w/w book or something completely different but this just wasn’t it for me. I’ve read better and maybe in the future I’ll try the author again but I just didn’t live the writing style so we’ll see.

I think the concept of this book––finding oneself and navigating queer identity––is great, and I was really excited to see some asexual representation in one of the characters, but as the story progressed, I became more disappointed than anything else.

Firstly, the pacing was off a lot of the time. There were scenes that should have been more fleshed out (such as the beginning) but weren't, and there were scenes that could've been a bit quicker (towards the end), yet, they dragged on. Overall, I just didn't feel like there was a good balance in the pacing, and that hinders readers' opportunities to understand and connect with the characters on a deeper level.

I wasn't totally a fan of the main character, Frey, either. They seemed very irritating and had a savior complex for the entire book. Additionally, I'm not part of the trans or nonbinary community, so I can't speak much about that aspect of their identity and self-discovery, but I do wish readers got to see the same journey for Greta's asexuality as we do for Frey's trans/nonbinary identity. I really wish we had gotten to dig deeper into Greta's character and I feel that a dual POV might've helped strengthen a lot of the issues with the main character being irritating, as well as give Greta more of a voice as well; being in only Frey's mind every chapter made the book fall flat.

I also felt kind of weird about the (many) scenes/lines where Frey is confronted by the idea of racism existing in their show, and still turns a blind eye to it. There is one time where they even say "I never noticed it," but there were a few other mentions of racism being present in the storylines and scripts previously, so it just seems like willful ignorance at that point.

But I still am very grateful for the opportunity to read an arc of this book!