Filed under: C Reviews, C Reviews Category, Reviews
Dear Ms. Mancusi,
While I’ve read a few of your adult books, I’ve never tried your YA works. I’m not sure why that is because I’ve always gotten the impression your voice would do well with a younger audience. In my opinion, Gamer Girl proved my hypothesis correct. Maybe a little too well, in fact.
After her parents’ divorce, Maddy Starr leaves Boston to live with her grandmother in the suburbs. Starting over at a new school is always tough when you’re fifteen. It’s harder when your new school is full of poster children for Abercrombie and Fitch and your outfit of choice comes from Hot Topic. To make matters worse, Maddy’s first day at her new school is marred by having to wear a unicorn sweatshirt, her grandmother escorting her to the front office, and that same grandmother embarrassing the school’s quarterback by recounting an embarrassing childhood incident. Branded “Freak Girl” by the in-crowd, resulting in becoming a social pariah, Maddy loses herself in the online gaming world, Fields of Fantasy. Too bad her real life can’t be as perfect.
The best comparison for this book is that it’s like cotton candy. It’s pleasant and sweet while you’re consuming it, but the next day it’s a vague memory. This book is a very quick read and not once was it ever slow. I also think it deals with many topics today’s teens can sympathize with — divorce and wanting your parents to get back together, starting new schools and trying to make new friends, relocating and experiencing culture shock when your new town is nothing like your old one, and balancing real life with a virtual one. It’s a pleasant, comforting read.
But because of that, I also think it suffers. Not once does it ever push any boundaries or explore those issues with any real depth. I’m not saying all books, YA or not, need to be deep or edgy to be good. I am saying, however, that this book’s execution was a bit superficial and shallow for my tastes. There was nothing awful about it. But there wasn’t anything particularly good either.
Perhaps I wouldn’t feel this way if the plot were a little more original. As it is, however, we have the very familiar “Girl goes to new school, is bullied by in-crowd, and falls for cute boy belonging to in-crowd” story and we all know how that one ends. I did like the ultra-modern trappings of including MMORPGs and manga, but their inclusion here almost felt like a neon sign proclaiming “Look how cool and trendy I am!” I could be wrong. I’d appreciate hearing thoughts from any young adult readers (those readers within the actual target audience, that is.)
Which brings us back to where we started. While I love young adult fiction, I think I also have limits as to how young I can read. Gamer Girl may be a YA novel but I fear it falls on the younger end of the YA spectrum. It reads very young and is relatively simple in story and plot. I checked the inside of this book and it’s recommended for ages 12 and up, which falls in line with my impressions. This is more of a tween book than an older YA book. So if something like The Hunger Games is too heavy and readers are looking for more lighter, comforting fare, this might be the ticket. But if readers want their books more meaty, this is one to avoid. C
My regards,
Jia
This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells. No ebook format.
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But all the MMORPG and manga stuff is accurate?
Don’t think I’ll be reading this one since you called it shallow and superficial, but I might consider it for my library now.
I think the manga stuff was probably one of the more accurate inclusions I’ve seen in recent YA fiction. I still feel that there’s a vague sense of “trying too hard,” in the sense that I, the reader, thought that the text might have trying too hard to be trendy and hip and relevant. The name and title dropping might have contributed to that overall shallow, superficial feeling. But it’s not bad.
I don’t play MMORPGs myself so I can’t say for certain that aspect was 100% accurate. I have friends who play so I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to point at something and say, “That’s wrong!” unless it’s glaringly obvious.
You are right. Gamer Girl is definitely targeted at a younger YA/tween crowd. In fact, it was picked up by Scholastic for their book fair in the spring–and all their books are guaranteed to family friendly without objectionable content.
In writing Gamer Girl, I wanted to write a more wholesome, sweet YA tale in response to what’s currently out there on bookstore shelves. While, as an adult, I love the edgy, sexy, often-drug/alcohol fueled tales, I felt there was a younger, more innocent real teen audience who has been under served as of late.
So while Gamer Girl may be too simple and sweet for an adult audience who loves reading YA or an older teen audience who craves a more mature reading experience, I believe (hope) it will really speak to the tween reader who has felt alienated at school. While light in tone, it deals with some serious issues of bullying. As someone who was bullied a lot as a teen (you can read my story over at http://www.storysiren.com) I really felt it was important to write a story that empowers young girls to stand up for themselves and not let others define their self-worth. Again, it may seem a simple message wrapped in a saccharine package for an adult who has been there, done that and gotten the “I survived 8th Grade” t-shirt, but there are so many tweens and teens out there who are currently being swallowed up by the blackness, who feel alienated, weird and alone and don’t know what to do about it. I wanted them to know there’s someone out there who understands what it’s like. That they’re not alone and that they have the power to climb out of that deep hole, to help themselves. To get their own happy ending.
That’s why I wrote Gamer Girl.
Mari
That link above should be thestorysiren.com. Sorry about that.
Oh and yes, I read manga and play MMORPG games in real life so yes, I believe it’s all accurate. :) The actual game in the book is fictional - called Fields of Fantasy and is based on a combo of “Final Fantasy” and “World of Warcraft” - two of my favorite gaming franchises.
As a mother of a young tween girl, I can certainly attest to the lack of fiction for that age group. I’ve been looking for good bridge books after Harry Potter pre Twilight.
Yeah, Marianne! I’ll be looking for it, then! Our school does Scholastic book fairs twice a year…in fact, our fall fair is going on right now.
I agree that a lot of the YA stuff out there is too dark and disturbing for younger girls. My daughter is ten, but reads ahead of her grade level and I’m always on the look out for books that portray young girls in an empowering way. Especially in dealing with bullying, which is a topic we discuss around here a lot. I read a lot of YA and very little of it is appropriate for my daughter. When I’m done, those books get passed along to my 16 year old niece.
Congrats on the book. Sounds fabulous!
Cover’s pretty.
Thanks Jill and Julie. (And yes, Moth, I love the cover, too!) I really think teaching girls self-esteem in any way possible is just so important. I know so many girls grow up without it and not only suffer in their teen years, but long into adulthood.
O/T- am I the only one who finds the article titles in the scripty font difficult to read?
Hey Marianne, are you playing Wrath of the Lich King? I’m almost tempted to take up WoW again.
I haven’t read GG yet, but I have to agree that the cover is fab, and it is nice to see more ‘young’ fiction. I’m all for the dark stuff, but some of the YA stuff out there has main characters drinking heavily and doing major drugs all the time. Even the druggies I knew at 16 took a break once in awhile.
I had to do a self-imposed break from WoW earlier this year to concentrate on book stuff - as the game was taking over and the current book I’m working on, The Camelot Code, for some reason wasn’t writing itself while I played. :) It was actually refreshing to take a break, to tell you the truth. I had been pretty hardcore.
I’m sooo tempted to go back now that the x-pac has come out though! Doesn’t help that my friends keep gushing about how cool it is, either…
I think there’s definitely room for both dark and lighter YA fare, just like there’s room for both sweet romance and erotica on the adult shelves.
The cover art is gorgeous, and I have to say that as a ‘tween, it would have definitely influenced me to want to buy the book. At that age I was perfectly happy to read books in and out of my age group so long as the plot was interesting, so I can only guess that the plot line would have interested me. I went to five different school districts before I graduated from high school, starting around age eleven, so I don’t think there’s ever too much new-girl-in-town fiction out there for young girls!
For those of you looking for good YA (bridge from Harry Potter) I highly recommend Diana Wynne Jones. She writes great books that are easily read but not light and fluffy. She has strong female characters. Her Chrestomanci series is fantastic. I recommend starting with The Lives Of Christopher Chant. She doesn’t seem to be as popular in the US as in the UK. Also she wrote Howl’s Moving Castle. The movie is good but the book is better.
Marianne, I think I love you. :)
Speaking as an (adult, female) Goth and an avid World of Warcraft gamer, I’m totally going to have to look this one up. :D
You ought pick up the new x-pac if only for the Death Knight starting zone. I’ve always liked the Warcraft lore but it’s been absent in the majority of quests. Not so in Lich King. I’m not a hardcore roleplayer, but I love being a part of the story and seeing it unfold around me. (This is the case in the 70+ expansion content, too, from everything I’ve read.)
I have to mandate “write x amount of words, then play WoW”, or I don’t get anything done. (Although writing is being replaced with packing at the moment, as we are moving cross-country by Xmas.)
Dark Lady, watch over you! :)
Personally, I’d steer away from online gaming being cool unless there was a message in there somewhere about separating reality from fantasy. My son games online and is pretty good at self-discipline (school, work etc.) but a recent tragedy in my family involved a 15 year old boy who ran away after his dad took away his X-Box because he skipped school to play online.
My nephew’s body was found two weeks ago, a month after he went missing. It was an unfortunate accident (fell from a tree while getting his bearings) but the subject matter is still too painful. The upside is that he brought together a whole community if not all of Canada.
Sigh. Maybe I’ll write about it someday, but not yet. As an author, we teeter between sending messages to our audience and telling a great story. Often, readers take more away with them than we expect.
I don’t know if I’m making sense, but the subject is still like a raw wound.
That’s very sad, Sandra. But yes, Gamer Girl definitely has a strong message on real life coming first. The heroine isn’t addicted to the game but her father (who gave her the game to begin with) is and this leads to some disapointments for her when he chooses the game over his own children. She’s the one to teach her dad the lesson about balancing real life and the game.
I think videogame addiction is a very serious issue as many of my friends are addicted to World of Warcraft and I’ve seen it put strain on marriages and jobs. ‘
Nonny, I like your wordcount idea! Maybe I should institute that. No gaming til writing is done. :) I’ve heard the storyline in Lich King is really interesting and I’m very intrigued to check it out myself!
MARIANNE
That’s very reassuring, Marianne. I’m glad the book has that sort of message.
I like the idea of having a word count target before going on to other activities.
I’m on a deadline now, so I should have a target before checking out all my favourite blogs!
Oh, I am disappointed to here the plotline is like that. When I first saw the cover, I was eager to check it out. I haven’t read it and just find out what the summary is about. I was hoping it is more of a fantasy book. I’ll see if I’ll get it one day. Hopefully this manga fan won’t be too disappointed.