Don't Read the Comments by Eric Smith

In a ripped from the headlines novel, Diyva, Aaron and their friends face harrassment and doxing when Diyva becomes popular in an online exploration game.

Reclaim the Sun is a Massive Multiplayer Online Game where players explore randomly generated planets looking for resources. It's not designed as a war game, although players can fight...and if you die in the game, your progress and character are lost and you have to start over from the beginning. Diyva, known as D1V ingame, is one of the most celebrated streamers, leading a group of like minded gamers...the #AngstArmada...to discover new planets and have fun. But there's a growing group of players, the Vox Populi, who think that Diyva – a brown skinned girl –has no place streaming, and certainly not in a popular game like this one. They're prepared to do anything to get her out, even threaten her in the real world...


Coming off  Tweet Cute, this book was a surprise. The subject matter is much heavier, even though both deal with how people are treated online, and both could be called romances, although that isn't the focus of either. The trolls in this novel are horrific, and I wish I didn't know that in real life, trolls have done this kind of thing and far worse to those they deem 'deserve it'.

I adore Divya, who is strong and tough and still compassionate to others, and Aaron, who is sweet and kind but doesn't let himself be walked over. I had two minor suspicions about the story, which I can't say because they're spoilers, but neither happened and I was surprised. I wish Mira had been a bigger part of things than she turned out to be.


All in all this is a fabulous read and I can't wait for others to read it.

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.