☼ The novella has two different perspectives. There is the POV of the people inside the VR pod and another of the people outside of the VR pod. Given that VR is capable of creating your worst fears, I expected that to catch my attention. Grant has the opportunity to create some horrific situations that I would have loved to read about. Unfortunately, the perspective outside of the pods was far more interesting. 

The plot inside VR reads like a young adult or children's book. Note that this is not a bias against a young adult (I read that too) and it is not because the main characters are teenagers. Younger people are more than capable of being the subject of an adult book. However, the writing style seemed very rose-tinted in a way that catered to younger readers, whereas the other latter perspective was more suited for an adult book. I understand why this might have been done deliberately, but it was often immersion-breaking and hindered my enjoyment. 

I think my problem with the VR story is that it did not fulfil its purpose. The intent behind its inclusion was to demonstrate how connections are formed, but I think the story followed too much of a horror plot formula to do this. It did feel like a horror movie, but I couldn't really see any connections being formed. We were told that they had already formed while we weren't looking and, while that may be entirely feasible if this were put into practice, it felt like a tell and don't show. It made it harder for me to suspend my disbelief. 

☼ I did think the premise was very interesting and Grant was one of the first people to point out the groundbreaking discovery of being able to see another person's dreams (I feel like nuances like that always get swept under the rug in sci-fi). I would definitely be interested in reading another book that follows a similar idea. 

☼ Although I wasn't necessarily fond of the main character, I did think that she had a good backstory. I think her interactions with her father in the VR was one of the better parts of that perspective. It was a step toward humanising her (although all characters did seem quite cardboard at the time).