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3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
This wasn't horrible, but it certainly wasn't Vizzini's best work by far. I think I was most dissaopinted because I had in my mind what I thought the book was going to do, and it instead went a very different direction. On top of it all, a lot of the characters didn't flesh out for me enough to care.
I'm not quite sure why this one felt so flat and formulaic as I was reading it, but, well it did. Bailed at 24%. May try again sometime down the line.
As is my usual practice with DNF books, I leave no rating.
As is my usual practice with DNF books, I leave no rating.
Perry Eckert loves to play Creatures & Caverns in all of his spare time. He doesn’t have any friends to play the game with, so he just creates characters. When someone inspires him to create a character based on himself, he does. Of course the character differs in some ways, like his red skin, yellow hair and tail, but he is also not that strong, not that fast, but full of honor. Perry’s parents are worried about him being a social outcast, so they send him to summer camp. There, Perry is swept into a world where Creatures & Caverns is real! Even better, they need Perry to help them save their world. All it will take is Perry kissing the most popular girl at camp. No pressure.
Read the rest of my review on my blog, Waking Brain Cells.
Read the rest of my review on my blog, Waking Brain Cells.
I will preface this by saying that I am a nerd. I play LoL and Magic: the Gathering. I even won a Magic tournament a couple of weeks ago (and yes, I was super excited about it). So I was really hoping for something different from this book about a kid who plays C & C (which I thought was a clever name, btw). But as I read it, it felt too much like a Percy Jackson novel crossed with Diana Wynne Jones' Dark Lord of Derkhelm written by a very "writerly" writer. (Is that a word? There is such a thing as a painterly painter, so I'm using it.) I felt like the author wanted to be admired as someone who wrote teen novels literarily. I found it distracting and irritating and I finally gave up about halfway through.
This was waaaayyyy better than Be More Chill, but the pervasive sexism and objectification of women remains impossible to stomach. I wanted to like Perry so much. But his self-centered view on life and his consistent lack of empathy made him feel like more of a psychopath than a loveable dork. His enthusiasm for adventuring was born more from boredom, egotism and quest for glory than it was from an earnest desire to help. The glib violence was disturbing too, the obvious brainchild of someone who is/was willing to kill. I can't get on that wavelength. D&D references along the lines of Ready Player One, I am here for. I liked that he structured the whole thing like a campaign - you can almost count up the dice roles, xp, hp, charisma and damage. I liked the imaginative nature of the story. Ghetto camp made me a bit squeamish. Definitely more of a 2012 vibe than 2020. The romance aspect was a hot mess. No: you cannot get with a frog man and still be a contender. Sorry. As far as an arc for personal development...tell me again why his game was akin to smoking crack? Did we learn anything, Perry? Did we grow? Are we smarter now, braver now, better now? Or did we just do some stuff, get hurt, heal, and want to do more stupid stuff??
Perry Eckert isn't the most popular kid. In fact, he doesn't have a single friend. Instead he spends his time playing Creatures and Caverns alone, reading rule books and imagining a fantasy world.
When his parents (through their lawyers) decide that it's time Perry started socializing with people and making some real friends, Perry finds himself getting packed off to camp.
That's where things start to get weird...well...weirder. Perry of course doesn't hit it off with his new yurtmates (yes they sleep in yurts) and ends up in the nurses office first thing. That's where he meets Anna and Mortin. Anna is a normal girl, who enjoys knitting mittens. Mortin looks exactly like Perry's C&C character Pekkar Cland, which is odd since Pekkar Cland is a Ferrule - he's one of the Other Normals, creatures from an alternative earth who have been visiting Perry's Earth for a long time via mushroom patches (it's a bit complicated).
Soon Perry finds out that Mortin and his fellows are from the World of the Other Normals and it's up to Perry to save their Princess from the clutches of the reptilian monster Ophisa. To do that Perry only needs to kiss the Princess' correspondent on Earth, Anna. Every Other Normal has a correspondent on Earth and when something happens to one of them, it affects both of them. When Perry punches the Other Normal Ryu, the Ryu at camp who put Perry in the nurses office on the first day, becomes the one who got beat by Perry instead.
So all Perry has to do is kiss Anna and the Princess will be saved. Easier said than done when you're a socially awkward skinny kid who has yet to grow a single hair.
Vizzini's novel is very funny and awkward, there are some cringe-worthy moments when Perry does exactly what you'd do if you were an awkward kid, he's pretty endearing. There is a lot of great and realistic character development going on here, both in the World of the Other Normals and at the summer camp. Perry doesn't immediately become brave or understanding or perfect all at once (or ever) but he does gain a sense of self and a greater understanding of others, Other Normals and um...Normal Normals both.
I remember back when I was in college reading Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini and loving it too. It had some of the same messages, being true to oneself, yet also learning how to be 'chill' and figuring out how to fit in without hurting others or yourself.
I would suggest this book to those who are growing out of the Diary of the Wimpy Kid books, kids who game, kids who like goofy books, fans of Pete Hautman and Gordon Korman among others.
When his parents (through their lawyers) decide that it's time Perry started socializing with people and making some real friends, Perry finds himself getting packed off to camp.
That's where things start to get weird...well...weirder. Perry of course doesn't hit it off with his new yurtmates (yes they sleep in yurts) and ends up in the nurses office first thing. That's where he meets Anna and Mortin. Anna is a normal girl, who enjoys knitting mittens. Mortin looks exactly like Perry's C&C character Pekkar Cland, which is odd since Pekkar Cland is a Ferrule - he's one of the Other Normals, creatures from an alternative earth who have been visiting Perry's Earth for a long time via mushroom patches (it's a bit complicated).
Soon Perry finds out that Mortin and his fellows are from the World of the Other Normals and it's up to Perry to save their Princess from the clutches of the reptilian monster Ophisa. To do that Perry only needs to kiss the Princess' correspondent on Earth, Anna. Every Other Normal has a correspondent on Earth and when something happens to one of them, it affects both of them. When Perry punches the Other Normal Ryu, the Ryu at camp who put Perry in the nurses office on the first day, becomes the one who got beat by Perry instead.
So all Perry has to do is kiss Anna and the Princess will be saved. Easier said than done when you're a socially awkward skinny kid who has yet to grow a single hair.
Vizzini's novel is very funny and awkward, there are some cringe-worthy moments when Perry does exactly what you'd do if you were an awkward kid, he's pretty endearing. There is a lot of great and realistic character development going on here, both in the World of the Other Normals and at the summer camp. Perry doesn't immediately become brave or understanding or perfect all at once (or ever) but he does gain a sense of self and a greater understanding of others, Other Normals and um...Normal Normals both.
I remember back when I was in college reading Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini and loving it too. It had some of the same messages, being true to oneself, yet also learning how to be 'chill' and figuring out how to fit in without hurting others or yourself.
I would suggest this book to those who are growing out of the Diary of the Wimpy Kid books, kids who game, kids who like goofy books, fans of Pete Hautman and Gordon Korman among others.
I don't know much about role playing games and in this book Vizzini created a complicated one. At some points I was confused. I had trouble keeping track of the different types of creatures. Otherwise, the book was at first a little slow but picked up soon enough to be well liked. The main character, who alternates between Perry and Peregrine, is at first somewhat unlikeable. He's socially awkward and has no interest in doing anything but playing his RPGs. Honestly though, I don't blame him. His family dynamic is messed up. Anyway, his parents send him to camp in order to normalize his social behaviors. However, this is exactly the opposite of what happens, as he falls into a world much like those displayed in his games. He meets creatures and wants to stay in this alternate world but he has a mission. The end is a little bit surprising but also somewhat expected.
I love Ned Vizzini, and I wanted to love this. But it just didn't resonate with me. The pacing happened extremely quickly. I felt no connection to the "world of the other normals" and had trouble suspending my disbelief in terms of Perry's reactions to it. I think there were a lot of things that could have been flushed out in more.