I'm generally not a massive fan of teen road trip books (I loathed Paper Towns by John Green), but despite my initial misgivings I found myself liking this book. There's a little romance, a lot of self-discovery, resilience, and oodles geek love (tons of World of Warcraft terminology and asides, but everything is explained for non-gamers). While trying to register for school (after a lengthy absence from battling cancer), Dylan snaps. They're not letting him register without his mom and his mom can't be bothered to come help him so he decides to take the car and just keep driving. Unsure of where he's going he finally settles for meeting his online gaming friend, Arden, a few hours away. He has no other friends to speak of, so meeting Arden sounds better than nothing. Plus maybe they can go on a quest together. Together they decide to go on a crazy road-trip to California to find a lost ship of pearls. It's not really the destination that matters though, it's the journey. Arden and Dylan are getting used to seeing each other IRL (in real life) and they have some issues to work out. Dylan is a gay boy and Arden is a trans girl. Will all the flirting they do in World of Warcraft surface on their road trip? What do they make of it? Also what impact will their living situations and money situations have on their situation? A great book for gamers and LGBTQ teens. It's nice to see some diversity in YA books for a change.
