I found this to be an engaging but annoying read. There are occasional awkward wordings that make it clear the book was translated a bit too closely, but my main issues are with the world of "The World," the game in which the characters spend most of their time. Despite multiple references to in-game avatars fussing with their hair, it seems unlikely that such a thing would be either possible, necessary, or something a player would actually have their avatar do during a fight. The non-linear story is somewhat hard to follow, and I dislike the gaslighting of the reader wherein multiple realities, or layers of reality, are presented, and conflict with each other. However, I must admit that at this point, I should have expected a story in which "people are trapped in the game world and can't remember the real world" from the .hack franchise. The blurb on the back tells the story in a more comprehensible manner than the 200 pages inside.