A review by shanyreader
Level Up by Thien Pham, Gene Luen Yang

4.0

What can you say about this? American-Born Chinese was actually a very entertaining read. It was completely unlike anything I ever read. It wasn't a serious book, it brought in so many random elements...but it's playfulness and it's truthfulness really made me love it. That said, Level Up was actually very similar--it has that sense of unrealism (what with Pacman ghosts and angels that cook/clean/and encourage you to become a doctor)so you don't know whether he has schizophrenia or not. But this book's main character happens to be REALLY good at video games despite his father's disapproval of them. The main character was just...lovable in every way. It's a simple story about a simple Chinese boy and for some reason...it just works. It's funny, I love the way it's drawn, and I think it's just an amazing piece of literature just as good as American Born Chinese was.