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A review by mehsi
In Real Life by Cory Doctorow, Jen Wang
5.0
My dear boyfriend got me this book as a present. Thanks dear!
Now for the review! 4.5 stars.
First of all, I would highly recommend people to don't read the introduction. It can possibly ruin the book for you. It almost did for me. I read most of the introduction and I suddenly didn't feel like reading the book/was worried about the story of the book. The whole introduction is a lot of preachy blablabla about economics and a lot of other baloney. It really turned me away from the book. Sorry, I hate economics, I don't want to read about such things, so no I will not do as you keep saying.
I think it would have been better had this introduction been an outro. It would have fitted better and could have read about the why he made the book. But now it just ruins things. And I have decided to deduct half a star from the book for my rating because of the introduction.
Now to the book, character and story.
I really loved the story, though our main character is a bit of a nitwit. Sorry, but you just got a guild and someone tells you to kill people for money? And you do it? What did you expect would happen? You would be hailed as the hero? Would get a lot of happy people. Sorry no. Guilds have their guides and rules and you should have read those before following random people to a battle field of gold farmers.
And sure, gold farmers pretty much ruin games, but that is still no reason for you to murder their asses off.
Then we have the whole argument with mom. Sorry, but that mom is kind of old-fashioned and I was just shaking my head at it at times. Sure, I can imagine being pissed off when you clearly told your daughter that she shouldn't talk to strangers, but believe her at least when she clearly says she didn't chat with those people and that she is getting that money through a person in her guild. You can even propose to meet up with that girl.
This is clearly a mom who is a bit too overprotective. It amazes me already that our main character could have a pc in her own room. I had kind of expected it to be in the living room, so mom could keep an eye on things.
One thing I was happy with was the fact that our main character isn't just a girl like we see in a lot of books, she is a bit chubby, but she is 100% happy with herself. She has a whole bunch of friends, a club and something she can do (games). Normally with chubby girls we would get the whole "I-need-to-lose-weight" or the "Oh-boo-I-am-fat" tropes, but luckily none of that in this one. At least not that I noticed.
The whole online world was interesting and I really liked it, though I had hoped for a bit more. Now the story was mostly about our main character, her problems at home and the gold farmers (especially one of them). I had hoped for lots of RPG battles, lots of adventures and questing.
I really liked our main character's avatar, even though she was normal weight, they still looked a lot alike. And I can imagine why people would pick an avatar that looks thinner or more sexier than they themselves are. Why would we want to look the same as in real life? This is a game, this is a new world, you can be who and what you want. Thin, sexier, an animal, whatever you want. There is nothing wrong with that. :)
What I also loved was that our main character even dyed her own hair to match her avatar's hair colour.
The story itself was, like I said, good. I really enjoyed it, though it was a bit unbelievable. One girl and she can save a whole lot of gold farmers? Eh.
The ending was so-so. I am not even sure if I like it or not. On the one hand I loved it, and on the other hand I was just shaking my head at the clichés that popped up.
I still hope for some kind of sequel book. Since I feel that our main character's story hasn't really started yet. There is a lot still left to explore.
The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and I loved them. They really fitted the story and the backgrounds were really nice.
Still I would highly recommend this book. Just skip the preachy and annoying intro and you will love this book. :)
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
Now for the review! 4.5 stars.
First of all, I would highly recommend people to don't read the introduction. It can possibly ruin the book for you. It almost did for me. I read most of the introduction and I suddenly didn't feel like reading the book/was worried about the story of the book. The whole introduction is a lot of preachy blablabla about economics and a lot of other baloney. It really turned me away from the book. Sorry, I hate economics, I don't want to read about such things, so no I will not do as you keep saying.
I think it would have been better had this introduction been an outro. It would have fitted better and could have read about the why he made the book. But now it just ruins things. And I have decided to deduct half a star from the book for my rating because of the introduction.
Now to the book, character and story.
I really loved the story, though our main character is a bit of a nitwit. Sorry, but you just got a guild and someone tells you to kill people for money? And you do it? What did you expect would happen? You would be hailed as the hero? Would get a lot of happy people. Sorry no. Guilds have their guides and rules and you should have read those before following random people to a battle field of gold farmers.
And sure, gold farmers pretty much ruin games, but that is still no reason for you to murder their asses off.
Then we have the whole argument with mom. Sorry, but that mom is kind of old-fashioned and I was just shaking my head at it at times. Sure, I can imagine being pissed off when you clearly told your daughter that she shouldn't talk to strangers, but believe her at least when she clearly says she didn't chat with those people and that she is getting that money through a person in her guild. You can even propose to meet up with that girl.
This is clearly a mom who is a bit too overprotective. It amazes me already that our main character could have a pc in her own room. I had kind of expected it to be in the living room, so mom could keep an eye on things.
One thing I was happy with was the fact that our main character isn't just a girl like we see in a lot of books, she is a bit chubby, but she is 100% happy with herself. She has a whole bunch of friends, a club and something she can do (games). Normally with chubby girls we would get the whole "I-need-to-lose-weight" or the "Oh-boo-I-am-fat" tropes, but luckily none of that in this one. At least not that I noticed.
The whole online world was interesting and I really liked it, though I had hoped for a bit more. Now the story was mostly about our main character, her problems at home and the gold farmers (especially one of them). I had hoped for lots of RPG battles, lots of adventures and questing.
I really liked our main character's avatar, even though she was normal weight, they still looked a lot alike. And I can imagine why people would pick an avatar that looks thinner or more sexier than they themselves are. Why would we want to look the same as in real life? This is a game, this is a new world, you can be who and what you want. Thin, sexier, an animal, whatever you want. There is nothing wrong with that. :)
What I also loved was that our main character even dyed her own hair to match her avatar's hair colour.
The story itself was, like I said, good. I really enjoyed it, though it was a bit unbelievable. One girl and she can save a whole lot of gold farmers? Eh.
The ending was so-so. I am not even sure if I like it or not. On the one hand I loved it, and on the other hand I was just shaking my head at the clichés that popped up.
I still hope for some kind of sequel book. Since I feel that our main character's story hasn't really started yet. There is a lot still left to explore.
The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and I loved them. They really fitted the story and the backgrounds were really nice.
Still I would highly recommend this book. Just skip the preachy and annoying intro and you will love this book. :)
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/