Rowena’s review of Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff.
From the acclaimed author of Brooklyn, Burning comes Guy in Real Life, an achingly real and profoundly moving love story about two Minnesota teens whose lives become intertwined through school, role-playing games, and a chance two-a.m. bike accident.
It is Labor Day weekend in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and boy and girl collide on a dark street at two thirty in the morning: Lesh, who wears black, listens to metal, and plays MMOs; Svetlana, who embroiders her skirts, listens to Björk and Berlioz, and dungeon masters her own RPG. They should pick themselves up, continue on their way, and never talk to each other again.
But they don’t.
This is a story of two people who do not belong in each other’s lives, who find each other at a time when they desperately need someone who doesn’t belong in their lives. A story of those moments when we act like people we aren’t in order to figure out who we are. A story of the roles we all play-at school, at home, with our friends, and without our friends-and the one person who might show us what lies underneath it all.
When I read the blurb for this book, it sounded like something different and I was in the mood for different so I picked it up. I haven’t read anything by Brezenoff before but I was up for something new so I dug right into this one.
This book is a coming of age book that follows a young boy named Lesh. Lesh gets in trouble and is grounded. He’s got a lot of time on his hands so he starts playing a video game where he names his avatar after the girl that he’s developing a fascination with from school. Her name is Svetlana. Over the course of the book, we see Lesh and Lana get closer and closer but for some reason, I couldn’t connect with either of them.
I’m not sure if it was because they’re gamers and I just don’t care about any of that or what but for some reason, I couldn’t connect with anyone in this book. I did enjoy the romance between Lesh and Lana but I felt like the whole gaming thing (and I’m not going to lie, I skimmed a lot of the gaming stuff) kind of smothered everything else and I just couldn’t get into that.
So while I’m not mad that I read this book, I will say that I’m probably not the audience for this book. The whole gaming world didn’t do a thing for me and it just wasn’t my cup of tea but that doesn’t mean that I hated this book. There were some things that I liked. I liked the Lesh and Lana time (even though there were times when I thought Lana was kind of ridiculous because her issues with her car? GTFO!) and I enjoyed Lesh’s best friend Greg but aside from that, this book just fell flat for me.
Grade: 2 out of 5
This book is available from Balzar + Bray. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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