Title: In Real Life
Author: Cory Doctorow
Illustrator: Jen Wang
Publisher: First Second (:01)
Copyright: 2014
Price: $17.99
ISBN: 978-1596436589
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Summary and Quick Thoughts: The story opens with new-ish to town Anda, still getting used to Arizona. Yes, she misses San Diego, but seems to be settling into Arizona ok. She has friends, plays games, and takes a computer class/club. It is in this computer class/club, Anda is introduced to Coarsegold Online: an MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game...think Minecraft or World of Warcraft or the oldie Runescape*). Anda joins and is sucked into a world of fun until she meets a "gold farmer" who is a low level avatar that collects cool stuff to sell to players. It's a rule breaking issue but when Anda "meets" the boy behind the farmer, she begins to question what she knows.
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Recommended Audience: YA. Middle School and up.
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Things to be aware of: Nothing out of the ordinary.
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Further Thoughts: I want to like this. I really, really do, but all it reminds me of is some "after school special" thing or The Tale of One Bad Rat. Basically, it's a nicely done graphic novel with a message or two.
I felt that the message is beaten over your head quite a bit before you even read the story. First there's the giveaway in the book jacket. Follow that with the intro by Cory Doctorow, which should have come as an afterward if it was needed at all, and at this point, my teen self is whining "stop! I get it. Life isn't fair and blah, blah, blah! I played Runescape. I watch Steam's trading cards during the sales." (Although, funny thing, I don't exactly remember the message except something about exploitation like this happens in all kinds of settings). Either way, I read all this text and thought "teachers will have a field day with this."
I started to read the story. The art is pleasant. Anda is interesting. She's a nerd of sorts and she knows her computer stuff. Then comes the special commercial from Liza McCombs who is from Australia (confusing point later) and "has a special deal for you! Girl gamers, buy the game, pay the monthly fee, and you can be in the special clan that Lizanator has in the game! Since I'm the game's creator, I can do this and we need more girls in this game!"
Ok, how'd she get into the classroom to advertise this and how did the boys feel? Yeah, we need more girl gamers, but how is this even cool in the classroom? Am I just out of touch with what happens in the classroom? And Anda's mom just kinda goes along with it as long as Anda talks to girls her own age? We really need an explanation about how looks are deceiving here. At least Anda is like every teen and just wants on the game.
She gets on, starts playing, and then meets a gold farmer. This is when she starts to realize things are not right in the world. As the story progresses, Anda talks to the gold farmer and finds out he's from China and works in sweatshop-like conditions with little pay. This angers her, so she starts to try to find ways to fix this. In the meantime, her dad's company is having trouble and the factory workers strike. This gives Anda an idea, but just makes the situation a thousand times worse and leads to Anda's banning from the game by Liza who hasn't returned to Australia. Will Anda figure out how to help her new friend in China? Will Liza do something to stop this in her game? Read on to find out.
If you take away all the contextual text, it really makes for a nice story with a few unbelievable parts (to me) like Anda meeting a gold farmer who is a boy from China, not a bot, or how Liza's "deal" for girl gamers is "ok" with everyone**. I also really feel if the foreword was actually an afterword, it'd have a bigger impact. Instead, teen me is freaking out before the story and educator/librarian me is noticing how this can be used as a book discussion book. On the flip side, teens might skip all that text and go straight for the story.
Overall feeling: It was ok. Loved the art.
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*I played Runescape and it was cool for a while. I don't play there any more.
**Granted, this was written before the video gaming drama going on right now, but even then, I'd think at least one guy in the story would be like "wait a minute..."
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Source: Netgalley
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