This was such a fun book! I have never read a ya book with a coding competition and I loved it! Must read this book!

The Chinese American teen navigates sabotage and love at a coding competiton at a mit hackathon. Great vibes throughout the book 💖

Love the story line and characters

Quick read with an interesting premise, but I found my self skimming towards the end as the book kept taking all these turns that didn’t seem to contribute anything to the plot other than to check off a bunch of stereotypes that other reviewers have mentioned. There was nothing satisfying about the ending either.

I liked the coding element to this book and how it was used in this universe, the overall concept worked in this universe and characters and enjoyed the overall element that was going on. I was hooked from the first page and enjoyed the overall story to this and how it was told. Rona Wang has a strong writing style and was glad it had that feel that I was looking for.

I thought this was sweet and compelling enough to finish in a day. I think this it a debut author, so I am pretty sure I haven't read anything else by them, but found this to be a fun read!

Thank you to Simon Teen for the EARC in exchange for my honest review.

Prior to reading about the discourage to this book, I would have rated this around a 3. It is cute. Nothing over the top. After reading about the discourse I would not rate this at all if I hadn’t been sent the arc.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book!

I had to DN this book because of its excessive language.
And the plot wasn't quite what I like. Maybe someone else would enjoy this better than I did. It just wasn't what I was looking for at the time.

This story was so cute. I love that the main character heads to a coding camp and learns a lot and steps outside her normal boundaries. This book was so enjoyable that I finished it in a day I couldn't put it down.

Contains spoilers

Full disclosure: I lean a bit more toward the techie side than some readers, which may be why this book struck such a nerve with me. I initially picked it up expecting a lighthearted rom-com. Based on the description of the arc I was thinking fun comedy, While there were romantic and comedic elements, the story veered into problematic territory that left me unsettled.

Several aspects of the narrative relied heavily on stereotypes. For example, the portrayal of the protagonist’s roommates brown parents pulling her out of the program she used as a cover to dance felt not only like a plot hole (how was she affording this program to begin with?), but also an unnecessary depiction of them as dream-crushers.

The characterization of the “top app developer” as Asian leaned into a tired and unfair stereotype. Similarly, suggesting the female protagonist only got into the program because of a gender quota was troubling; women can code just as well as men sometimes even better. These portrayals felt reductive rather than empowering.

There were also troubling depictions of immigrant families and first-generation dynamics, which clashed with the supposed message of “Hello World” being about connection and inclusivity. When developing the app they were targeting only some folks making the opposite really of what the app should be inclusive and building bridges not more silos.

Other character arcs felt unnecessarily dark. The war hero suffering from PTSD who was also abusive and had a gambling problem seemed like a caricature rather than a nuanced portrayal. Like why did he have to be such a bad person?? Likewise, the “evil tech bro” villain trope overshadowed the story’s characters, leaving the protagonist without any positive male role models beyond a romantic interest. Heck even her dad left so like making her dependant on a man only like her mom seemed strange. Give her more girlfriends there are a few possible ones and ending on the kiss come on ??? like there should be more this isn't the end of the story at a kiss.

In the end, the narrative seemed skewed more toward political commentary than a genuine romantic comedy. While I appreciate when books take risks and explore deeper issues, this one leaned too heavily into stereotypes and heavy-handed tropes. I really had high hopes for this book but felt that it majorly missed the mark on things.