The L.O.V.E. Club
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of Beating Heart Baby, an immersive novel following three estranged high schoolers who are pulled into a video game to pursue the disappearance of their friend
Three years ago, Elle (the “E” in the self-proclaimed L.O.V.E. Club) disappeared from Calendula, an affluent Chinese American suburb in inland California. Soon afterward, Liberty and Vera (“L” and “V”) moved away, leaving O alone with her grief, abandonment, and confusion. . . until Liberty and Vera return for their senior year of high school.
Though the L.O.V.E. Club’s three remaining members once bonded as outcasts and gamers, they can’t pick up the pieces of their friendship. But the girls are drawn back to their old clubhouse, where they discover, loaded for them to play, a new game created by none other than the missing Elle.
One click, and Liberty, Vera, and O are ported into Morning Glory, an ever-evolving botanical fantasy coded with their lived experiences, complicated history, and repressed insecurities. Unbeknownst to the others, O can’t remember the events surrounding Elle’s disappearance—but within the game, Elle has sent O a cryptic hint about Morning Glory’s real nature.
While Liberty and Vera defeat increasingly sinister bosses, O grapples with the secret knowledge that her deepest wish, to reunite with Elle, might just come true. But as the girls progress through Morning Glory, O begins to wonder how well she actually knew any of her former best friends and if she’s ready to confront the hard truths—and dangerous revelations—about Elle in her returning memories.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The once tight-knit friend group, the L.O.V.E. club—comprised of Liberty, O, Vera, and Elle—bonded over their experience with social rejection and a passion for gaming. But soon after Elle went missing, Liberty and Vera moved away, leaving O alone in Calendula, Calif. Three years later, Liberty, Vera, and O meet again during their senior year. The trio's reunion is rigid until they visit their old clubhouse, in which they discover botanical fantasy video game Morning Glory, seemingly left for them by Elle. But Morning Glory is no ordinary game. Upon loading, the girls are bodily transported into the game's digital landscape. As they explore, they realize the game is coded with each of their complicated histories, memories, and insecurities. While Liberty and Vera face their own challenges, O—who finds that she has no memory of the circumstances behind Elle's vanishing—sets about decoding cryptic messages about the game's true nature. Lushly detailed worldbuilding by Min (Beating Heart Baby) makes for an immersive adventure that explores hard truths and dangerous revelations about the Chinese American characters' friendships and differing upbringings. Raw, emotive prose captures each girl's grappling with bullying, familial tumult, loneliness, and sexual, racial, and gender identity. Ages 14–up.
