I've waited a couple days to write this review because this book puzzled me, and I wondered if it was the author's fault or mine. It's silly to assign blame when one doesn't like a book; I suppose this one just wasn't for me, and I wish every book was.

On the surface, and based on the sample, this book seemed very much "me." The protagonist runs a small, one-person, mail-order game company. His most popular game, Trace Italian, a text-based RPG, brought to mind both my own (brief) history as a D&D player, as well as the epic adventure of Ready Player One. The game here functions as a refuge for its creator--I was fascinated by the fact that no one has ever made it to the Trace Italian, or fortress that would provide safety in a post-apocalyptic Midwestern U.S., nor is anyone likely to--borne of months spent in the hospital after a mysterious "accident." The game also embodies what I understand to be the book's major theme: how the decisions we make may have no real explanation or cannot be anticipated, including their consequences. For example, Sean, the protagonist, cannot anticipate how two young players will treat the game as too real, leading to one spoke of the plot, or how another player will make a choice I imagine Sean envies.

The book is structured so that its major plot points are only slowly revealed as you go; for example, about a quarter of the way through, the reader learns what exactly happened with the two young players that ended up embroiling Sean in a lawsuit. It isn't until the final pages of the book that one learns what happened the night of Sean's "accident," though why is much more complicated. In this way the structure is closer to that of a mystery...except it's not a mystery novel. It made me feel manipulated; while all storytelling is manipulation, in a way, this sort of teasing of what you're even reading about frustrates me. I tried to imagine the book structured differently and admit it would be a completely different novel. I don't have an answer as to what I want and can only conclude, again, that this is not a book for me.

As I read, I anticipated the ending accurately but hoped it might somehow still satisfy by then; it didn't. A book can be about roads we do and don't take, how our choices don't always have rational (or even irrational) reasons, but it still has to work as a story rather than shrug its shoulders. It strikes me that I might have loved this book as a short story, where less of a build-up would lead to less frustration.

What did I just read? What was this really all about? I really thought this would all come together somewhere but in the end, I think I am more confused than ever. There were stories, a few of them taking place in this novel, where they began and ended, I was never quite sure until I was already involved inside of them. It began with some videos, a customer complaining that there was something beside the intended movie on the screen when they watched it at home. I wanted this story, I wanted to know what was on that video but I soon found myself in another story surrounded by different characters who had their own drama and I was drawn into that. This novel was too much work and I should have put it down but I finished it.

Sean Phillips has lived an isolated life due to his disfigurement from a teenage injury. To make a living he runs a game through the mail.  When his game has real life consequences Sean is called on to account for it, this leads him to a retrospective state where we go back through his life to the point of his injury.  

I really didn't like this book. The injury felt like it was suppose to be this big reveal but I feel like Darnielle told us what happened a zillion times and didn't meaningfully dive into the why. Listening to this book kinda reminded me of listening to a hipster being really introspective at the end of his life.  Is that too mean? I didn't hate the writing style I just had an issue with the lack of content in this book.