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A review by greenbeanteenqueen
Level Up by Thien Pham, Gene Luen Yang
3.0
I love Gene Luen Yang's Printz winning graphic novel, American Born Chinese and I expected Level Up to be another witty and heartfelt coming of age story. In some ways it is, but I was let down by this one.
I think with the cover and the title and the character obsessed with video games, I expected this one to have more of a video game feel to it, ala Scott Pilgrim. But instead, the video game aspect is pushed to the side and instead we get a story about Dennis dealing with his grief over his father and his drive to make his father happy.
I wanted more about the angels but instead they seemed to come and go and never really connect with the story. I also wanted a bit more humor-while there are moments of humor, the tone of Level Up is much more serious.
It's still a good graphic novel and I'm continualy impressed with Gene Luen Yang's work, but I had hoped for a bit more.
I think with the cover and the title and the character obsessed with video games, I expected this one to have more of a video game feel to it, ala Scott Pilgrim. But instead, the video game aspect is pushed to the side and instead we get a story about Dennis dealing with his grief over his father and his drive to make his father happy.
I wanted more about the angels but instead they seemed to come and go and never really connect with the story. I also wanted a bit more humor-while there are moments of humor, the tone of Level Up is much more serious.
It's still a good graphic novel and I'm continualy impressed with Gene Luen Yang's work, but I had hoped for a bit more.