Sarah Graley

Super fun, energetic and definitely reminded me why I like being a gamer. Bonus - my niece (currently 8) recommended this to me with the highest praise. She assured me, with page specific details, why I would really enjoy it.

Including the fact that the villain was -- whoops! Don't want to ruin that!

The friendship between Eric and Izzy was the backbone here, giving us a good glimpse of their dynamic and why it works so well.

Rae, the robo-nerd Izzy meets in the game, is a bit lecture-y at first (they're definitely exposition-y), but is committed to the Questing.

Several well known adventure game or fantasy tropes are played with, sometimes really well (the whole "chosen one" aspect for instance) and sometimes less (the Big Bad reveal felt a bit too convenient).

Overall a very good rec from my niece and an excellent graphic novel to give to kids intrigued by the concept.… (mehr)

Representation: Major Black character
Trigger warnings: N/A?
Score: Seven points out of ten.

I didn't enjoy this novel as much as other books I've read. The main character changed throughout the book as soon as she got the new video game, she lied to her parents, and they let her get away with it, and she neglected her friend as well, which I didn't like, but once she defeated the main antagonist, she stopped playing the game and she and her friend got along well again. The world building was very interesting, with lots of enemies, dungeons, and other stuff, but I've seen video game novels like this, however, each one is slightly different to one another and I enjoyed some novels like this, but not all. The false protagonist robot was very enjoyable to read, she appeared friendly at first, but then it was revealed that she worked for the main antagonist, to just take over the real world, and that's it? Most of the characters didn't really have any depth to them, so I couldn't connect to them as well as I had hoped. If you like a fantasy or a sci-fi book, this is the book for you.… (mehr)