Practice and creativity win out over those who can buy all the power-ups.
Augmented Reality and video games meet in a sweet YA romance about a high school student, Loren, who has just moved to a new city. Loren is non-binary (she/they), and from a single-parent household without a lot of money. Loren’s mother and extended family have just scraped together enough money to buy Loren the latest AR device that everyone in that age group wants to have, Ghost Glasses. On the Ghost Glasses Loren starts to play the popular game HoloHeroes. Early-on Loren happens to run into Sergio, who unbeknownst to them is a past champion of the game. Sergio sees promise in Loren when they beat an overblown powered-up bully in one of their first games. Sergio is looking for promising new upstarts to give him a real challenge to compete against, and decides to take Loren under his wing.
Loren makes friends with Irene, and soon starts crushing on her. They initially bond over the game, but together with their extended group of friends have a number of social events that connect them even closer. Irene reveals that she’s demisexual, and that she finds it comfortable to be herself around Loren who has shared their non-binary state.
Throughout the book, Loren competes in a number of HoloHeroes challenges to earn a spot to go to the national competition, where they ultimately square off against Sergio. Loren manages to win each competition by coming up with a creative twist on the rules of the game, that helps them win.
This is, at its heart, a story about learning to feel secure. Loren is trying to escape anxiety and feel confident that they can handle anything that comes. The growing romantic feelings between Loren and Irene twine it into a satisfying story, although, to be honest, Loren skates too easily through all of the challenges they face. It feels much too easy to become a national champion here; but if you’re willing to suspend disbelief, it’s an enjoyable story. I’d have liked a bit more complexity to the characters, perhaps.
There is no sexual content in this story, only relationships.
I was looking for a book that showcased diversity in STEM, and was initially disappointed because the closest this comes is playing video games, not building them. However, gaming is a gateway to software development – many youths who play games are inspired to enter the software industry – and diversity in gaming and gamer culture is as much an issue as diversity in STEM. So a book normalizing women and non-binary people participating in gaming – in particular AR/VR – still has value to including more people in STEM and tech culture.
Find Press Start on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0882Z31BZ/.
For reviews of other children’s books featuring diversity in technology and engineering, see STEM Area: Technology.
For reviews of other children’s books featuring gender and racial diversity in STEM, see Diversity Type: Gender.
Also see our full STEM listings of books and other resources that feature diversity in STEM.
