ENTER THE META

Competitive gamers seek glory at the regional championship.

Lissa Walker loves the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game Ancestral in which she and fellow players on Team Phoenix work together in fantasy combat. Her teammates include best friend Ji-Soo, serious Jae-Jin, and newcomer Ray. At the community PlaySpace, run by their mentor, Devon, the gang works on their battle strategies, both in-game and interpersonally. As the regional championship approaches, they face Team Mastermind, a group of alcoholic energy drink–fueled frat boys who employ unscrupulous methods for achieving victory. Bennett’s debut novel is an intriguing look at the culture around esports. Lissa and her friends are older teens and 20-somethings, yet the messaging regarding the importance of teamwork feels reductive and overly insistent; older readers may find this aspect of the book overly saccharine. The diverse group of characters—Ray and Lissa, who are queer, read White by default, Jae-Jin and Ji-Soo are Korean American, and Devon is Black—are sympathetic but tend toward caricature, making for a superficial feel. Gentle romances twine throughout, juxtaposed against the bloody battle scenes. The digital world of Ancestral is fascinatingly rendered, coming across as both novel and recognizable to gamers. The happy ending feels a bit rushed and contrived, but readers will ultimately cheer for this not-quite-underdog team.

An originally wrought but flawed exploration of esports.