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Guy In Real Life, by Steve Brezenoff
Aug. 23rd, 2015 07:54 pmDisclaimer: Steve's a friend. He's a few years ahead of me at Carolrhoda Lab (where we had the same editor), and before that he published, like, a billion chapter books for early readers. His three YA novels are: |-1| (which is the only one I haven't read yet), BROOKLYN, BURNING, and G.I.R.L.
So GIRL came out last year, and I didn't read it because...I don't even know. I mean, I don't read a lot of contemp, but I usually read books by my friends. For some reason (probably surgery and lack of time spent in the book store), I never got around to it. Then, when I was leaving Chapters, I bought the last hardcover just before the trade came out. I took it with me to The Woods in June, and...
Well, The Woods doesn't have wifi, as you know. I got about three chapters in, and thought to myself "I need to stop reading this until I am somewhere where I can livetweet it", and then I thought "No way in hell am I stopping this book", and then I read the whole thing, and drove up to the top of the hill IN THE DARK to go on Twitter and yell at Steve for having written something THAT WAS SO GOOD.
GIRL has two protagonists: Lesh, a teen-age dirtbag, and Svetlana, who has kind of figured herself out ahead of schedule, and whose family isn't really set up for that. Lesh meets Svet, and becomes...obsessed with her? I guess? It's not quite an obsession. Fascination, maybe. He's fascinated by her.
He's also grounded for two weeks, and all he can do is play the in-universe version of World of Warcraft. His (really, really terrible) best friend sets him up as an orc, but the ugliness and violence turns Lesh off, so he makes his own avatar: an elf healer who looks rather like Svet.
As Lesh goes further into the game and further into his real life, things become messy and complicated and kind of terrifying, and ALSO WONDERFUL, and more than one time I yelled "YOU ARE ON A LOCAL SERVER, YOU DUMBASS!".
I basically read YA books for a LIVING, and I have never read anyone who writes teens as real as Steve does. Lesh's self realization is AMAZING (not to mention timely: this came out just as GamerGate really hit mainstream, and watching Lesh be ACTIVELY REPULSED by aspects of the gaming world gave me, like, HOPE FOR HUMANITY), and Svet's entire character arc rang so true with me that alternated between laughing and crying for much of her narration (their families, I can't even. Perfection. Everything about this book is just too good).
Also, when Lesh is playing the game, it's written like the game. It was awesome.
I love this book with the sort of power I rarely feel for contemporary. I don't know if I've EVER love a contemporary book this much. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
++
Also, BROOKLYN, BURNING is a contemp YA about a gender fluid kid in (surprise!) Brooklyn, as well as: love, music, memories, neighbourhood, and the magical powers of a good fountain Coke. Written like a song, Brooklyn, Burning managed to keep me on the edge of tears FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK. I'm still not sure how it happened, but: ye gods. Read this one too.
So GIRL came out last year, and I didn't read it because...I don't even know. I mean, I don't read a lot of contemp, but I usually read books by my friends. For some reason (probably surgery and lack of time spent in the book store), I never got around to it. Then, when I was leaving Chapters, I bought the last hardcover just before the trade came out. I took it with me to The Woods in June, and...
Well, The Woods doesn't have wifi, as you know. I got about three chapters in, and thought to myself "I need to stop reading this until I am somewhere where I can livetweet it", and then I thought "No way in hell am I stopping this book", and then I read the whole thing, and drove up to the top of the hill IN THE DARK to go on Twitter and yell at Steve for having written something THAT WAS SO GOOD.
GIRL has two protagonists: Lesh, a teen-age dirtbag, and Svetlana, who has kind of figured herself out ahead of schedule, and whose family isn't really set up for that. Lesh meets Svet, and becomes...obsessed with her? I guess? It's not quite an obsession. Fascination, maybe. He's fascinated by her.
He's also grounded for two weeks, and all he can do is play the in-universe version of World of Warcraft. His (really, really terrible) best friend sets him up as an orc, but the ugliness and violence turns Lesh off, so he makes his own avatar: an elf healer who looks rather like Svet.
As Lesh goes further into the game and further into his real life, things become messy and complicated and kind of terrifying, and ALSO WONDERFUL, and more than one time I yelled "YOU ARE ON A LOCAL SERVER, YOU DUMBASS!".
I basically read YA books for a LIVING, and I have never read anyone who writes teens as real as Steve does. Lesh's self realization is AMAZING (not to mention timely: this came out just as GamerGate really hit mainstream, and watching Lesh be ACTIVELY REPULSED by aspects of the gaming world gave me, like, HOPE FOR HUMANITY), and Svet's entire character arc rang so true with me that alternated between laughing and crying for much of her narration (their families, I can't even. Perfection. Everything about this book is just too good).
Also, when Lesh is playing the game, it's written like the game. It was awesome.
I love this book with the sort of power I rarely feel for contemporary. I don't know if I've EVER love a contemporary book this much. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
++
Also, BROOKLYN, BURNING is a contemp YA about a gender fluid kid in (surprise!) Brooklyn, as well as: love, music, memories, neighbourhood, and the magical powers of a good fountain Coke. Written like a song, Brooklyn, Burning managed to keep me on the edge of tears FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK. I'm still not sure how it happened, but: ye gods. Read this one too.
