This sequel to Gamers: Attempting Connection picks up on the story of the middle school e-sports team, but tells it from the perspective of a different member, Bard. Shy Bard has taken a while to be comfortable with the other members of the team. He’s progressing, but balks when his teammates (and Mx. Sam Keene, their faculty advisor) decide to expand the team to new players and create an inter-school league. Things get even more difficult when his former bully decides to join the team, too.
Bard also feels like he can’t talk with his teammates about one of the biggest things on his mind: his mother has bipolar disorder, and sometimes needs assistance when she’s having what his dad calls “a challenging time.” His father relies on Bard to stay with her when he can’t, which means that Bard sometimes has to skip team practice or other time with his peers. Bard is getting support from the school psychologist, however, who is encouraging him to make new friends and to open up to his closest ones.
As with the first volume, author E.C. Myers incorporates exciting scenes of game play (from creatively imagined fictional games), while thoughtfully showing the interpersonal dynamics among a group of characters diverse in racial/ethnic identities and circumstances. The book again underscores the many positive aspects of gaming, including making friends, working together, problem solving—and even offering support to people with mental health challenges, like Bard’s mom.
Bard wears hearing aids, and while that isn’t the focus of the story, a few moments throughout help to show how his hearing loss impacts his life.
Sam Keene, the team’s advisor and school librarian, is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. Both Bard and his former bully introduce themselves by saying that any pronouns are fine, but the book only ever uses male pronouns for them, and there are no indications that either thinks of himself as nonbinary.
Avid gamers (or those wondering what the gaming is about) should enjoy this recommended book, which deepens the story of the teammates while also setting up some loose threads for a future volume.
Bard is White, and his family celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah; Chell dad is Korean American; her mom reads as White. Alyx is Black, and Mario is Latino. Other teammates reflect various racial/ethnic identities.
