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It's been ages since I was this excited about a book and all I want to do is scream my life for it from the rooftops in all caps. This was everything I love in YA, condensed into a beautiful book that, despite being just shy of 400 pages, somehow didn't feel long enough. Emilia, the heroine, is strong, smart, and geeky; she makes mistakes, but is exactly the kind of girl you could see yourself wanting to be friends with, which is why it's absolutely no surprise when she gets the boy. And Jake is SUCH a sweetie. When people try to write beta heroes, it doesn't always work out. They either end up with flat personalities or with a severe case of Nice Guy Syndrome. But Jake-- Jake is the guy.



And bless my heart, this is the geeky romance I have been waiting for that hits the pitch-perfect references OUT OF THE PARK. It never felt forced, the jokes sounded things I might say to my own friends, and I just. I JUST. You know how sometimes you read a book and it but you know you're probably never going to pick it up again? I am keeping this book forEVER to reread because it was so good, I know I'll definitely want to revisit those warm fuzzy feelings.



The plot is beautifully simple in its complexity. Emilia and Jake played arcade games when they were young together. Now they're both in high school and in addition to being an athlete and an all-around overachiever, Emilia moonlights as a semi-professional gamer. When she and her team are tapped to play in a MAJOR competition that might have some serious rewards, she's shocked to see Jake and even more shocked to find out that he's playing on one of the competing teams. The game they play is a cross between League of Legends and WoW, and it portrays the gaming community at its best-- and at its worst. On the one hand, it is a thriving community of diverse individuals who can be so compassionate, kind, and funny, with the sort of camaraderie and witty repartee you would find in a swashbuckling romance. On the other hand, it's a boys' club with a "no girls allowed" sign taped to the fort and when people violate the rules, they get mean. This book gets that. Both sides.



I really can't say more because you NEED to read it to see for yourself why it's so great, but I loved the banter between Jake and his team, the kick-butt Latinx heroine who was an athlete, a gamer, and all-around champion of nice (not that it kept her from sticking up for herself if need be). Oh, and an utterly swoon-worthy hero and an ending that had me flipping pages five minutes to midnight. If this doesn't become a movie, I am going to lodge a Formal Complaint because it was truly epic.



Please, please, please, please tell me this author has twenty more books in the making.



I want to read them all.



Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!



5 starbest-young-adult-books les-arcs-de-triomphes poc-interracial ...more128 s Zoe338 1,921

I do indeed hate the playerromance-books111 s alexia284 113

WHY HAVEN’T I READ THIS EARLIER 19 s Jacob Proffitt3,157 1,863

I'm quitting this at about midway, mostly because I don't my romantic leads being in romantic relationships with other people. Not that Em wasn't in my doghouse already. I mean, her deciding to give into the pushy (but kinda sweet) jock and be his "girlfriend" (whatever that means, though kissing is at least some of it because that happens right away) was the last straw, but I already didn't really her much as it stood.

Mostly, I don't buy her as a character. She has three things that would tax any living person to the max, individually, to maintain at the level she does and I don't care how much planning she does or how much sleep she forgoes, I don't buy the setup. It's just too much. Add pushy parents who are so up in her business that they crash her, supposed-to-be private, career guidance sessions and who are dictating what colleges she applies to and what majors she'll pursue and what extracurriculars she'll indulge and I'm just done with the whole thing. Not that the parents are Em's fault. So I'll blame the author for creating a high-stress impossibility that breaks my suspension of disbelief every time a detail crashes into the narrative.

And it doesn't help that you can see the house of cards Em is building out of deception, trying to hide her participation in an eSports league. Frankly, I don't buy it lasting this long with parents that up in her business. I mean, you can't hide the kind of gaming needed for high-level play. It takes concentration and that'd mean hours for nosey parents to do a bedroom drop-by where Em wouldn't even see them coming. And don't get me started on supposing that she's mouse-quiet during a tense match. I'm sorry, but that just isn't even possible at that level of play. Communication is key to teamwork and when adrenaline is high so is the volume.

And it doesn't help, either, that every axis of "other people suck" is ramped to the max. Racists are disgustingly racist (though Em has some ugly moments about white people, so turn-around/fair-play?). And I'm sorry, but I know too much about this generation and gamers to believe that it was as bad as she describes. Look, my daughters and a niece* are gamers in a couple games very the one fictionalized here. The niece is a relatively high-profile player on a decent team (diamond tier though not league-level but with her own channel and merch). And yeah, she catches some sexist crap. But she is not at all shy about dishing it right back and that's not at all unexpected or unusual. There aren't a ton of league-level female players, and I'd love to delve into why with some forensic studies and a microscope. It'd certainly take a bit of a thick skin as a female player, but that's true of male players, too. Trash-talk is the lingua franca of that milieu and everybody is fair game. I gave it an initial pass as her representing an extreme case but then we see her win a league game and I'm not buying that official forums had a bunch of sexist attacks that weren't moderated out of existence sharpish. Game publishers ban people hard for that nonsense and nobody faults them for it.

Sigh. The rest of the gaming lingo and culture are actually pretty well-depicted. Nedd obviously knows the space, and I'd say intimately because she captured the tone and pattern of how they talk to one another and the depth of analysis that goes into their discussions. If she isn't a player herself, she knows some very well and pays attention to their chatter with enough understanding that she passed all my considerable filters. That's quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself.

So it's sad that Em crashed it all for me. I really d Jake. But Em is putting him through the wringer and I lost interest with the "cheating". Fine, it's not cheating. But there's romance in the air and jock-boy just isn't a match. She doesn't respect him, even a little, so playing around with being his girlfriend really broke me. One-star level broke me.

* A note about my niece: The niece who lives with us recently came out as trans. I went with the feminine pronouns in this review (and niece designation) because his past experiences were relevant to my point when he was playing while identifying as a girl. And it was confusing trying to do it any other way. So I hope this note will suffice for those who might otherwise correct me with a "well, actually" should they know the circumstances.17 s Syndi3,179 925

Don't Hare the Player is a YA book. many YA novels I picked up before, I feel luke warm.
Don't get me wrong, the book is cute actually. I guess the problem is me. I am not a gamer. The technical jargon is what lose in me.

This is my first read by Miss Nedd. The idea of nerd hero loving a popular heroine is usually win a soft spot in my heart. I want to this book more than 3 stars. But again... I only feel luke warm.

3 stars16 s Natalie Monroe607 3,741

“I’m just saying that the worst thing to ever happen to me was Guardians League Online changing their meta to make my main completely useless in competition.”

I relate to this harder than I should. Overwatch recently buffed D.VA's mech call to do 250 damage instead of 50, so now being squished by a baby DVA is very real, very frequent threat.

It's okay if the above statement sounds gibberish. Before I got into Overwatch, I wouldn't understand a lot of the terms the gaming community, or this book, uses either. As refreshing as it is to see a YA revolving around a female gamer, I do feel this would only appeal to a rather niche audience because people who don't play games League of Legends, Overwatch, Apex Legends, etc would have a hard time understanding Emilia's gameplay in Guardians League Online.

You can pretty much skim the gameplay sections though and still follow the main storyline. Emilia got doxxed in the past because the gamer community is a seething mess of misogyny, racism, and all-around toxicity, and is now very careful about protecting her real identity when she plays. Based on real-life experience, the community is honestly as terrible as the book portrays. It's not all Belle Delphine bathwater jokes. People tell you to kill yourself if a game goes badly, they use "autistic" and "gay" as insults, sexual harassment goes on in DMs and the parent company barely ban or penalize offenders (though considering Blizzard's lawsuits, that's hardly a surprise, is it?).



The romance was the equivalent of a lukewarm glass of juice for me. Tolerable, but not something to get excited about. Jake is quite sweet though and while it's never explicitly stated, he's clearly neurodiverse.

Plus, I didn't how needlessly mean Emilia was to Conner (a guy she went on a date with and he's really into her). She complains about him endlessly, yet doesn't just tell him that she's not into him or that they're moving too fast. From what I can tell, his crimes include *gasp* buying her a macha latte every morning and *slams table* spending half his lunch break to venture out and buy her macha ice cream. "But I don't macha," she whines, "and the ice cream is all melted!"



Then she’s all impressed by Jake only getting chocolate donuts for the car ride. Babe, if Conner did that, you’d be calling him presumptuous.

She also made this throwaway joke that didn't make sense to me:

“To be clear, she is harsh, but you can tell the girls who don’t get her are the ones who can, , call their mom a bitch when their friends are over and feel no fear. You know. White girls.”

Do Black girls not call their moms bitches? I guess Hedd was trying to say privileged and spoiled girls, so not say that then? Why this random white people joke to show off your wokeness? (But not so woke to exclude a Harry Potter reference in your nerdfest book. Down with white people, but yay for transphobia, I guess?) I sometimes feel that these "men ain't shit," "white people ain't shit," "heterosexuals ain't shit" subgroups are counterproductive to their respective movements (feminism, racial equality, LGBTQIA+). They edge into extremism under the guise of humor and create stratified groups instead of working towards inclusivity. Though I already didn't Emilia due to the Conner thing, so eh.

Emilia defenders do not @ me. You will not change my mind.girl-squad love-wins not-as-good-as-i-expected ...more14 s Lindsay (pawsomereads)915 559

This was such a charming and fun read! There were so many adorable moments but also some serious looks into the world of online video games and the risks faced by being a girl in gaming.
Don’t Hate the Player follows Emilia Romero who is currently living a double life. By day, she’s a field hockey star with a popular boyfriend and a flawless report card. But by night, she’s kicking virtual ass as the only female member of a highly competitive eSports team. Emilia has mastered the art of keeping her two worlds thriving, which hinges on them staying completely separate. This is in part to keep her parents from knowing about her gaming, but also to keep her safety as female players frequently face harassment in the online community. When a major eSports tournament comes to her city, Emilia is determined to prove herself to her team and the male-dominated gaming community. But her perfectly balanced life is thrown for a loop when a member of a rival team-Jake-recognizes her.
Honestly all I want to talk about is how cute this was. The romance was so sweet and Jake was a total cinnamon roll of a character. He must be protected at all costs. I loved watching the friends to lovers relationship develop between him and Emilia. They were both so understanding and supportive of each other.
There was definitely some serious sexism that Emilia had to deal with. While I don’t know a ton about the gaming community, I think this was a really important topic to include as I’m sure people in real life have had to go through with similar things.
It was cool learning more about eSports as that’s growing to become such a serious and widely-followed competition.
I really enjoyed this one and the whole cast of characters were fun to follow along with!12 s ash ?? 326 1,369

i forgot everything that happened in this tbh. age-ya genre-realistic-fiction rep-latino ...more12 s Dana794 42

I think there were a few things that really knocked a star (or two) off but overall, this was fairly good.

‘Don’t Hate the Player’ follows star high schooler Emilia Romero, an excellent student, a star field hockey player, and all around perfect preppy girl. Or so she wants everyone to think. In the dark of night, she’s an excellent gamer, so good that she is on track to be pro.

Along with Emilia, we meet Jake, another player and boy who’s flitted around Emilia‘s circle since they were kids. He comes from a broken family and when they meet again, it on opposing sides of a gaming tournament.

I really loved Jake. I think he was so sweet and how Emilia helped him with his trauma was so sweet. I d Emilia enough. At the very start she seems to look down on the other nerds, despite being one herself. I didn’t that but her attitude definitely changed so I think she learned from it.

The plot was pretty good, all things considered. I d the twists and how it all resolved. I found the ‘enemies’ pretty despicable and it absolutely infuriated me that this is all real stuff that happens to women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ members on the daily in gaming communities. It makes me so. Mad. Especially since I am a gamer and have met my fair share of awful players who judge you based on factors that have nothing to do with my playing.

Overall, a great read for teen gamers. Romance is super cute and the game descriptions are really neat.2021 library9 s Lia Strange528 234

nerd, streamers y que la principal de llame como yo (en realidad solo su apodo)? claramente iba a gustarme este libro, si a mi nomas me gustan los boludos como jake que viven a base de jueguitos y son las personas mas virgas del planeta, dios, justo ese tipo de chico me gustan8 s Hannah Markmann338 1 follower

I was going to give this a generous 3 stars but in writing this review I realised it deserves 2. I’m so disappointed! When I came across this book a few months ago, I thought it sounded so fun and cute. I was so excited that I even pre-ordered it but goddamn do I feel let down. My main critique is actually within the structure and writing style itself, which never usually bothers me. I thought it was so bizarre to start each arbitrary part with a chapter in the third person perspective of Jake, and then to alternate the rest of the chapters in the first person perspective of Emilia and the Unity team group chat. I wanted to read more from Jake’s perspective - he was the closest thing to an interesting character. I really didn’t Emilia. I found that almost all of her problems were entirely of her own making. I wasn’t compelled that she had to keep her gaming life totally secret from everyone she’s ever interacted with. For the most part, I wasn’t sympathetic toward her. I felt that her relationship with Jake could’ve been really sweet had it been explored more, but it felt a very minor subplot more than anything. I never got excited about them being together. In fact, all of the characters felt painfully one-dimensional to me.

As for the gaming scenes themselves, I found them a little too heavy on gamer jargon that I wasn’t very familiar with. It was easy enough to infer everything, but I found that the description of MMO strategy and gameplay doesn’t really translate to the written form very well.

I found the major complication to be interesting, but i thought it was skated over too quickly. I think Emilia should’ve been a lot angrier and more upset when she found out what happened. I would’ve d to see her confront the people involved.

Finally, a couple of trivial things: WHY didn’t we get to see Jake and Emilia go back to the arcade??? That would’ve been such a good scene and I’m MAD. And WHYYYY have two characters called Matt and one character called Penny and another called Penelope??? WHAT DOES THAT ACHIEVE????6 s scl.ashx230 295

"Jake was eleven years old and completely in awe of the bossy, curly-haired girl who showed him the shield trick in Knights of Darkness and waited for him to get pizza. He was twelve and thirteen and feeling his heart leap into his throat every time he went to a party and saw her there, knowing she’d want to play. He was fifteen and hiding from her in the arena, and she’d found him anyway. He was caught in the rain, and she basically kidnapped him. She opened up to him, she saw him, and told him he wasn’t stupid. Jake had never gotten over his crush,"

And now he has his crush as her girlfriend. He won.

Woof.

That was one heck of a story and so beautiful. I'm soooooo glad that Em switched over to Team UNITY. She deserved it.

And also really loved how her parents accepted her choices - though money did has its part - but, oh well. Parents do worry about their children's future and seeing it secure would make any parent agree to whatever their child is doing(anything legal).

One thing that the story missed - was showing the shit faced loser - Byunki's reaction after he lost. Well, that would be the most satisfying thing after he doxxed Em. He got what HE deserved. Though I'd to know to his history with Bob - team unity's DAD.

Overall an awesome story with really cute and beautiful teens "in love" with gaming and in love with eath other.9 s Guylou (Two Dogs and a Book)1,425




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