In Real Life
Ratings94
Average rating3.6
*rec by shay
This book is beautiful! The art style is perfect for this story, the illustrations emotional and telling. There is such a seamless flow between reality and digital styles.
The story is a little bit of coming of age tale and about discovering how playing online and meeting people is just as real and meaningful as life. Great read I recommend it to basically everyone who enjoys graphic novels .
expected something else but got very pleasantly surprised with the storyline such a cute and moving read:)
5th March 2022:
The ending might have a bit too optimistic I would admit that. But I was reminded a lot of the online freelance world so it wasn't that unrealistic.
I did like that Anda became more confident at the end, more willing to branch out.
The world's a big capitalistic mess but even then I guess a little ray of hope and sunshine every now and then isn't so bad.
3/5 stars
This is one of those books that I'm going to have to reread at a later time. Usually, graphic novels are an easy and fast read for me. This wasn't the case with this book. While the art is extremely captivating, I had a hard time grasping the story itself.
Although I was interested in the premise, the more I read, the less I was interested in reading the book. Even though I finished it, I barely retained any of the story. At the moment, I can't say I recommend it.
I love the artwork but one of the conflicts brought up was solved much too swiftly and it relied on the “white savior” trope which was a total buzzkill. I know it probably came from a good place but the topic is way too complex to be dealt with in that manner and in a 200 pages graphic novel.
Story: 5.0 / 10
Characters: 8
Setting: 7
Prose: 7
Drawing: 8
Tags: Gaming, MMO, work, leisure, advice, judgement
Lovely illustrations, important themes, but I hoped for something more as far as the length and details of the story are concerned.
This book was not at all what I expected (which was more video game-y type stuff) and I was very happy with it on the whole. I can't believe I sat on this book for so long without reading it, it was truly a delight to read from beginning to end.
This was an absolute joy to read.
I loved the art style used here and the coloring – the division between real life and the video game was well done.
The conflict and problem in this book is really important and watching the main character grow and work out how to help was very nice. There are consequences for your actions, even online and we have to remember that not all countries have the same laws and rules. Also communication is gold!! I don't know how many times I've complained about stories where lack of communication is the basis of the problems (even in books of the same series), but this one was all about communicating, learning, and understanding people.
I would have liked more interaction with supporting characters. That is probably my only negative feedback and I even understand why the lack of friends here made sense.
Definitely will be recommending this book, especially to gamers, younger people (MG too), and perhaps even people who have yet to read a graphic novel.
This book was so adorable. I loved the artwork and how relatable and realistic Anda was. I also love how Anda wasn't the stereotype awkward loner, she was a regular girl with a natural body type. I also love how it went slightly above the gaming world and talked about other issues going on. I did think that at times it was a bit fast paced for what was going on though.
It's pretty classic Doctorow, with pictures? I mean, if you're into gaming unionization, you'll probably get a kick out off it. Otherwise ...
Picked this up at a comics expo after having it on my radar for a long time. I wasn't sure I'd be into a Cory Doctorow-written graphic novel. I love Cory's writing, and I love graphic novels, but it just struck me at the time it came out as - meh, it could wait. But, man! I should have read this sooner! A very charming, refreshing comix with gorgeous art by Jen Wang, and great storytelling by Cory. Very similar, thematically, to his YA book, For the Win, in that this also talks about economics and labor rights through the lens of gold farming and online RPGs.
We follow the story of Anda, a pretty awkward, pretty average young girl in Flagstaff, Arizona, who loves geeky things and is invited to play a cool new online game called Coarsegold. As in many of Cory's writings, the virtues of online gaming are sung to the high heavens: camaraderie! heroism! sacrifice! imagination! The art is lovely in expressing all this, since Anda's life in the game is immersive, finely-detailed, exotic and fun. Anda quickly teams up with Lucy/”Sarge”, a fellow gamer who's on a mission to slay “gold farmers”. They slay with relish, until Anda befriends one farmer, Raymond, and - using the power of Google Translate - they get chatting. Raymond is just a kid from China with no options and a love of online gaming.
I always kinda appreciate, kinda cringe when non-econ people start talking econ, but Cory mostly gets it right. And he's such a compelling speaker and pedant (and I say that with affection) that I appreciate his taking an interest in, say, development and globalization and what it means for everyone (say it, Gary!). So that's nice. I also appreciate the Good Values this comix exhibited: stuff about how nerds can be elitist and mean too (oh man, have I experienced that...), stuff about the barriers girls face in geekdom generally. I loved the homey realism of Anda's school and home scenes, and I loved - LOVED - the art in general, especially those splashes of watercolor and the wonderful, human expressiveness of them all. Very nice, and I definitely recommend.
Disappointing, because I usually enjoy this author. This ends up being a simplified version of the politics in his novel For the Win. Doctorow has his agenda, but doesn't take the time to set it up which is a real disservice, because it had so much possibility. If you want a strong female heroin gamer, Check out Felicia Day's The Guild comics. You get to see a female gamer grow into the strong woman she is without the proselytizing and lack of depth in this book. Sorry Doc, you've done better.
I've just begun to explore the graphic novel genre, so I'm picking up one every once in a while from the library. This one looked interesting, so I took it home.
I can't say that I'm in love with the genre or anything, but I did like the message the author was trying to convey in this story. It was an interesting read!
Beautiful artwork. Dabbled in a complex problem, could have gone further, but I understand not wanting to go further at the risk at limiting audience or being controversial. Enjoyable introduction, too.
I hate seeing reviews that say this book is a “must read for girl gamers!” Why not boy gamers, or young women or men or anyone else? It's a great short piece about working together, organizing, learning about other people's life situations before judging them, gaming, self-esteem, the dangers of the internet, and becoming confident speaking up for yourself and other people.
Hmm; depending on how you approach this book it is either a brisk, fun read, or a disturbingly simplistic view of a complex topic. Taking it at its most basic level, the topic is refreshingly different and the artwork is very good. The problems come when you think about the implications of the actions of the main character; in real life (ironically, given the title of the book), the consequences for the person affected by the actions of the main character would be much more dire, and it is unlikely the tale would have such a neat ending.
I guess my confusion stems from not being clear on what the target audience is. Based on the wordy introduction, which references economics, political activism and the Occupy movement, initial impressions are that the story is going to be a meaty, in-depth look at a complex problem, of interest to a slightly older, more well-informed audience. It is then somewhat of a surprise to encounter the neat, almost fluffy, story that seems better aimed at a slightly younger, more innocent audience. The older audience is likely to be constantly thinking “well, ok, but...”, while the younger audience is likely to be driven off by the introduction.
So, while it is not bad story, it is not quite as deep or as world-view changing as the introduction would have you believe. A story that it is best enjoyed when you don't think about it to deeply.
This review contains spoilers!
Cory Doctorow is so optimistic. As a white cis male, he's more likely to have his voice heard and not be attacked for his gender or race. He does pretty well when he's fighting for women in gaming, and this book really shows that - the protagonist is a young girl and many of the other characters are women gamers. They're part of an all-female guild, in order to raise awareness of women gamers and help other women to stop being afraid of using female avatars. So this is a story set in a similarly sexist world to our own, and the protagonists are women making things better for women. Awesome. Unfortunately, Doctorow is apparently still totally cool with the white saviour narrative. The main character Anda meets a gold farmer in the game, a Chinese kid named Raymond who has health problems and no insurance, and is treated poorly by his employer. Anda does a bunch of research to find clinics near him (which for some reason he was unable to do himself?) and encourages him to start a union. Which he tries, and is fired for. Anda feels terrible (I'm sure Raymond feels pretty shitty too but we're not really looking at his story, are we?) and doesn't know what to do. There's a good scene when Anda finds out that Raymond was fired from a different gold farmer. He yells at her about how you (Americans) think you know everything about us because you read about us on the internet, but you don't know anything about what our lives are really like. At which point I was like, yeah, exactly, I hope this goes somewhere good, but then Anda was like, I don't know what it's like for you but I do know what it's like to be a kid who loves games! and then it went downhill from there. Anda and her American buddies passed around a note from Raymond to the other gold farmers about unions, and for SOME REASON NEVER EXPLAINED, NOW everyone is willing to approach their employer about health insurance. So, yes, the second note was a call to arms from a fellow (ex-)worker, but without American influence, they all would have just sat around ignorant of unions and dying without health insurance? Anyway, Anda is vindicated, especially when Raymond shows up back in the game with a fancy new avatar blah blah blah.
The art is lovely and the story is nice until it's problematic. I'd probably have given it 3 stars if I hadn't been looking forward to it.
Is like a stripped down version of For the win
Not bad but I donno I felt like wanting more