Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd - HIGH

Don’t Hate the Player by Alexis Nedd, 384 pages. Bloomsbury YA, 2021. $18.

Language: R (167 swears, 12 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Only a junior in high school, Emilia and her mother have her entire life planned out -- her mother just doesn’t know about how Emilia squeezes in time to play Guardians League Online. Emilia keeps her gamer life completely separate from her student-athlete life for both safety and sanity. When Jake catches her not only playing GLO but advancing in a regional competition, Emilia’s two lives collide, and she doesn’t know which one she wants to survive the damage.

I hope everyone finds their Jake or Emilia. I love this book for how Nedd portrays their uplifting and encouraging relationship -- a positive, healthy relationship that readers can actually look up to. Both Emilia and Jake make plenty of mistakes and make their lives far more complicated than necessary, but they move forward through the hard parts together. Turns out, life becomes easier and happier when you are true to yourself. The mature content rating is for alcohol use, sexual harassment, and mention of rape and sex.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen