I'm always a little iffy on books that focus on fan culture and fandom -- sometimes they're delightful and deeply relatable and like someone has taken that huge part of my life and written a love story to it, but sometimes it can also seem like an author is writing about a community they haven't really been a part of. Don't Read the Comments is certainly the former.

The book has a dual POV, switching between main characters Divya, a Glitch (read Twitch) streamer, and Aaron, a gamer who also writes scripts for a mobile game developer. The two meet in the online world of their favorite game, but tensions rise as a group of trolls begin targeting and harassing Divya, both online and irl. Both teens grapple with issues with their family and friends, all while developing a relationship that takes place almost exclusively online.

Smith clearly, clearly, is deeply entrenched in fan culture. From an obvious understanding of how the system works to shoutouts for bookstagram, I always felt like he was having as much fun writing about his nerdiness as I was in reveling in it. I also loved that the characters of this book play pretty much only one game: Reclaim the Sun. It sounds insanely cool, one of those in book creations that you just want to experience for yourself (like Daisy Jones' Aurora album).

My only criticism is that this book had a lot going on. Each character had several subplots going, and not all of them really felt fully developed. We get the sense that Divya's mother disapproves of her streaming, but the pair never really have an actual discussion about it (or actually any conversations at all). Aaron and Divya's friend Rebekah clash on several occasions about his privilege, and he gives some pretty textbook bad answers to her callouts, but again, this is never actually addressed. I kind of wish that some of these little plot points had been sacrificed for more gameplay or more time devoted to the more important issues at hand.