THIS BOOK HAD ME SHOUTING OUT LOUD! Such a riot! While reading I couldn't contain my gasps and moments of shock. The drawings were absolutely beautiful, and I love how much they changed from page to page - it wasn't just square strip after square strip - and I loved the colour palette. And the story! It was fantastic! It brought a very interesting social issue into what could have remained a very light hearted read. PLUS FEMINIST UNDERTONES.Much recommended.

3,5 stars

In Real Life is the story of Anda, a teenaged girl who is inspired by a speaker at her school to become active in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game called Coarsegold. In the course of trying to establish her role in a women-only guild called Clan Fahrenheit, Anda —in her online guise of Kali Destroyer— begins taking paying jobs wiping out "gold farmers," overseas minimum-wage workers who harvest in-game product and sell it to novice gamers for real-world money.But things be

Targeted at young teens (I think), this graphic novel makes the valid point that the real lives of many online role-playing gamers around the world are far from glamorous. Unfortunately, it drops the ball on all the related issues it initially seems to raise: Is there some kind of link between the privileges we enjoy and the repression/exploitation experienced in other parts of the world? Is it okay for marketers to promote games in schools? What about our game's tendency to celebrate violence a...

First off, I loved the art style in In Real Life. Art style is just as important to me as the plot when it comes to graphic novels, so I'm glad it didn't disappoint. It matches the cover, so it is a very cute, simple art style that is very easy to get into. That being said, what you see is what you get. It's not very complicated. I prefer my graphic novels to be a little more complex where I have to pay a bit more attention to the frames and with this one, you can skim most of them.As far as the...

3.5 because I adore Jen Wang's style too much 🥺😭While I am not a gamer, it was really refreshing to see a teenage girl interested in Dungeons and Dragons, guilds, and everything dominated by neckbeards. Yes, girls can be geeks AND super badass, it's not impossible or out of the ordinary! And the commentary on capitalism and its pitfalls is A+++.I saw that this was adapted from a short story by Doctorow. BRB hunting that down!Content warning: video/computer game typical violence (explosions, anim...

I loved the art style, but the story didn't wow me as much as I was expecting.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. In Real Life, this new graphic novel written by Cory Doctorow with art by Jen Wang is full of them. In its heartfelt introduction, Cory Doctorow says that In Real Life is about game and economics, about the – political, economical, social – choices that we make on a daily basis and their consequences. About how social media and the Internet can potentially shape and change the world.The book portrays how Anda – the shy and lonely main character try...

I was NOT expecting to love this as much as I did, but HOLY MOLY I LOVED IT.

A cool graphic novel that touches on subjects that a lot of people probably don't think about. The internal economy of the online games we play. How different cultures interact in these games. A fun read, light and pleasant, and hopeful. It's nice to read something hopeful every once in a while...

4.5 starsYYYEEEESSSSSSSS

Most of the people you see going to work today are LARPing an incredibly boring RPG called "professionalism" that requires them to alter their vocabulary, posture, eating habits, facial expressions - every detail all the way down to what they allow themselves to find funny.Okay, this ostensibly a graphic novel about a girl (high school) who plays a MMORPG called Coarsegold.But in reality is a lecture about poverty in China and the economic and class differences between middle-class American teen...

This is not a perfect story, still, I had a lot of fun reading it. I thought the art was fantastic. The online world vs real world has been done before. I did like the take that Cory takes on it. The whole thing is a little silly. You can very much connect on a virtual level, but it can't replace human touch and contact and being with a person. Our character, Anda, still meets someone across the world that she would never be able to meet in person and learns about a whole new life. That has wort...

I loved this book! I was drawn to it simply because of that gorgeous cover, but the story itself was surprisingly poignant and sweet. The main character was such a complex, kickass girl and the fact that a "book about gaming" tackled such important topics and bullying and health-care needs was a refreshing change of pace in a world where society's perception of gaming is still so full of misunderstanding and judgement.I wish it was longer! I wish I could play Coursegold Online! Highly recommende...

I got this book via Net Galley and my feelings on it are very mixed, but lean towards the negative. Pros: - The art is really good, particularly at making the main character Anda's avatar show emotions with her face- It's about a girl gamer which is awesome and is in the context of encouraging more girl gamers- And it's a chubby girl!Cons- Fundamentally this is a book about how white people who try to play 'savior' to people of color when they don't know anything about the culture in question......

Really, really enjoyed this gem of a graphic novel. The fact that it was about girl gamers was just the cherry on top of the sundae :)

Being a teen is restrictive but for Anda, when she logs into Coarsegold, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), she’s free as her avatar. And then she meets Raymond, a player her age from China, and her world, online and offline, changes. Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang’s In Real Life is an enjoyable and compelling comic that cleverly highlights the differences between Eastern and Western childhoods, as well as their similarities, through online gaming. Coarsegold for Anda is part...

If you're a gamer, you definitely have to check out In Real Life, but I think it would be a great read for people with no gaming experience, too! While it does take place partially within the game, and involves a lot of MMORPG action, there's not a lot of "insider" jargon to ruin the experience for someone who hasn't played a game like 'Coarsegold Online' before. At its core, it's more of a story about learning to recognize our privileges and empathize with people who have it worse off than us,

I probably should have liked this more than I actually did. I am a gamer, even if I don't play MMOs. I do appreciate Doctorow for pointing out how intimidating it can be to be female online. But that's basically abandoned as a storyline almost immediately. I'm happy he addressed it (though it's obviously much safer for him, as a man, to mention the issue than it would be for a woman) but it's just kind of mentioned once or twice then forgotten about. The book isn't about that, but I sort of wish...

With all the kerfuffle going on in gaming circles right now about the inclusion of women in video games, I'm so glad that Cory and Jen have created this book with a girl main character who loves and plays video games.More than that, I'm glad that this is a story where the fact that Anda is a girl never comes into question. Of course she's a girl. Of course she loves video games. Of course they're important to her in both her online and offline lives, and influence how she thinks about life in ge...