In their 1996 hit song, Itzsoweezee, rappers De La Soul sang of love being nothing but emotion and game. 

In Michael Milton’s new young adult novel, “Kissing Daisy Parker,” a book centering on young love and video games, it’s not so easy. And when you’re 18, immature and something’s hard, you don’t face it like an adult would just yet, despite reaching the voting age and being able to own a provisional license. You retreat. And for Scottish pals Greg and Junaid it’s in the fantastic, distracting realm of video games that they find solace from this thing called growing up. Because, let’s face it. When you’re that age, life is just more interesting that way when you’re only in transit towards becoming an adult and thus reluctant to give them up. 

“I think about it sometimes,” says the book’s protagonist Gregor. “That I’ve clung to games for fear of what lies beyond them.”

In between trying to come to terms with becoming an adult and clinging to their adolescence, the three friends which take turns narrating, go back and kiss and tell stories of their first so-called rites of passage into adulthood: creeping out after midnight for their hook-ups with the pretty girls at the summer camp and their drama-fueled nights at the disco. 

In his captivating, powerful, and hilariously written novel, Milton takes his target audience — Generation Z readers — back in time to the early 1990s to demonstrate how technology shaped Milennials who came of age during that time, and illustrates the pleasurable affect video games had on young people as a kind of escape from their navigation through life. 

In the meantime, Junaid and Greg, both admirers of Daisy — a somber literature loving devotee of ‘80s goth sensation The Cure — use dress-up to morph into their favorite video game characters to snag the coveted Scottish Street Fighter 2 Championship trophy. The book’s concept inevitably harkens back to the 2010 action/romance “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.”

When world travel forces the characters in separate directions, it presents growth opportunities that propel them to ascertain love’s true meaning, which they learn is not defined by the endearing quirks that originally drew them in:

“Sometimes the things you love about somebody are the things that end up pushing you away from them.” 

“Kissing Daisy Parker” packs a judo kick of laughter, infatuation and naivety that will have readers as connected and engrossed as they would their cherished video games.