Tragic and funny.

If this hadn't been for Book Club, I might have an abandoned this but fortunately, I kept reading because I did enjoy some of it, especially the part about building games. None of the characters resonated with me, though I did like all the grandparents. Maybe they were a bit too wise to be credible. I would have liked Marx but he started off very faintly drawn, just Sam's quite kind room mate. and I never really understood his motivation, except for the kindness. It was very sad when he died. Also, Sadie always struck me as too selfish to be anyone's best friend. Sam, I suspect was on the asexual spectrum.
Given that this is a favourite book of so many people, I turned to You Tube to see if any reviews would change my mind. I was delighted to find that most reviewers shared my opinion.