In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang

In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang
Series: N/A
Published by First Second on October 14, 2014
Genres: Video Games, Graphic Novel
Pages: 196 : Paperback edition
Source: Borrowed from my local library
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Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It’s a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It’s a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. Gaming is, for Anda, entirely a good thing.

But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer – a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person’s real livelihood is at stake.

From acclaimed teen author and digerati bigwig Cory Doctorow and rising star cartoonist Jen Wang, In Real Life is a sensitive, thoughtful look at adolescence, gaming, poverty, and culture-clash.

I love me some great graphic novels and this has got to be one of the best that I’ve read in a long while! Pair an awesome storyline with a kick ass female character and video games, and voila! You get In Real Life! I’m not even kidding when I say I read this in about 45 minutes because it was just THAT good. It was so refreshing to read a story where a girl (emphasis on girl) gamer goes through a story making mistakes, but also inciting changes in the world around her.

Anda was such a real character and I loved her perseverance to do what was right, not for herself, but for those of whom she didn’t even know. SO cool! I wish I could’ve had that sort of resolve at sixteen years old. I love how everything was wrapped up too, and the length of this graphic novel was just right. Everything was basically perfection.

I can’t wait to go buy this on Amazon and own it for myself so I can read it a million more times!

0 Replies to “In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang”

  1. ccplteenunderground says: Reply

    I love the cover of In Real Life, so every time I see something about it, I think how much I want to read it. But I don’ t thinking I’ve actually read a review until now. Thanks for sharing! I’m so glad to know that the fabulous cover has a fabulous story to go along with it.

    1. The cover is absolutely gorgeous! And this has to be one of my all-time favorite graphic novels of the year (I highly recommend it!).

  2. […] In Real Life by Cory Doctorow […]

  3. […] Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang (REVIEW): 5/5 stars! Kick ass gamer female character, plus awesome story line equals […]

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