Gamer Girl is brain candy. It was entertaining and amusing to read but didn’t require a lot of deep thinking. This isn’t a bad thing at all; sometimes it’s nice to just read for the fun of reading and know that the author won’t require you to learn the entire sociological structure of their world to enjoy the book. Despite the fact the narrator Maddy spends a good chunk of time navigating the fantasy world of Fields of Fantasy (a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game in the vein of Everquest or World of Warcraft), the real world she inhabits is our own, with real-world problems.

From the preppy, “Aberzombie” high school royalty to handling her parents’ divorce, Maddy tells her story as it is. She doesn’t spend time sugar-coating events or her own actions. In her old school, a private school in Boston, she was part of the happy majority of teens who didn’t “conform.” She wasn’t an outsider or goth, but her crowd was more expressive in their creative imaginings. In her new school? Not so much. The majority of the students live in awe (and fear) of four other students–Chad, Billy, Lucy and Chelsea, rulers of the social pecking order and embodiments of all that “popular” kids can be like. Chad is the apologetic, secretly creative cute one. Billy is the jock and bully. Lucy is the cheerleader, and Chelsea is the future politician’s wife. Unfortunately, on her first day, Maddy (or rather her grandmother) manages to piss off Billy, and from then on Billy makes it a point to make her life miserable.

Maddy is artistic and wants to be a manga creator like her idol, Svetlana Chmakova (real life OEL manga-ka of Tokyo Pop’s Dramacon and Yen Press’s Night School), so her conversations include references to well-known series such as Naruto and lesser-known series like Chibi Vampire. For someone like myself, who is immersed in the pop culture of anime and manga, Maddy is perfectly understandable. My sister, who also read the book and is not a fan of anime or manga, was lost almost completely. The explanations Maddy gives to interested classmates are bare bones and don’t pass along just why someone should be interested. You can feel that she is passionate, but you can’t understand why.

The other side of the book, with Maddy playing Fields of Fantasy after receiving the game from her father for her birthday, is given better treatment. Much of what we read about as far as her playing the game are chat sessions she has in character as Allora or out of character as Maddy with either her father, RockStarBob, or a mysterious friend she meets online called “Sir Leo.” Any quests she embarks upon or adventures she has within are explained clearly with little reason for anyone to become confused. Several times throughout the course of the novel Maddy refers to herself as a “true Gamer Girl,” but this is misleading, as Maddy isn’t quite a Gamer by pop culture’s definitions.

Most of what Maddy experiences as herself then become epic battles for her character Allora in her manga (based off both her high school life and her playing life in Fields of Fantasy). She has Allora go from a meek, unpopular, and bullied high schooler to a hero triumphant in a fantasy world, and finally we see Allora deal with the bullies as herself in the “real world.” The adventures almost parallel Maddy’s own trials and serve as an outlet for her frustrations about high school, her father, and her life.

This was a fun read that looked at a couple of subcultures that don’t get a whole lot of positive recognition in young adult novels. It handles the topic of separated parents a little clumsily, and the ending seemed more rushed then thought-out. Hopefully others will read Gamer Girl and be inspired to look into something that might not have interested them before. ( )

Mari Mancusi has been a long time fave of mine and honestly, I've been looking for this book since it came out! I finally came across it in a charity book store and I scooped it up as fast as I could.

If you're looking for a mid-2000s middle grade/YA book following a manga-loving girl who becomes a video gamers and the typical high school hijinks, then you've found your book! This book is so utterly adorable with a fast paced plot to fulfill all of your 2000s nostalgic needs.

Maddy's parents have divorced and man is that hard. She now lives with her Grandma, Mother, and little sister. Her Grandma is obsessed with unicorns and apparently embarrassing her?! Her Dad isn't super in the picture and even when he is he's too busy obsessing over that video game of his... The one Maddy wants to play... The one her Dad gets her for her birthday?! This changes everything! She meets an online friend who she is slowly falling in love with. It's a much needed distraction from the bullies in her high school who keep making fun of her for her love of manga and her incredible artistic abilities.

This book is light and fun! I went into it hoping for an escape from reality and I sure got it! It's got middle grade meets YA vibes and is super light hearted. It's an easy read and is not super deep other than your typical "your better than the mean girls" and how to deal with divorced parents. I absolutely adored this book and I don't understand all the hate it gets. It's a fantastic read that is light, fluffy, and fun.

Five out of five stars. ( )

In short: one of the books of all time.

Genuinely, one of the most bare-bones reading experiences - it's honestly not an inherently terrible concept for a book, even if it is a little contrived. The main issue I have with the book is that it falls short in delivering substantial depth, offering instead a narrative that remains largely on the surface with little room for any actual compelling plot points.

For example, the book goes out of it's way to make the main character appear as though they are a loner, which is a genuinely interesting plot point to follow (with many potential options for expanding upon this, such as exploring the resentment that grows from being a social outcast), but then almost immediately "resolves" the problem by giving her a collection of adoring friends. This "quick fix" is even more noticable in that the friends act more like doting fans of the main character, being referred to directly as a "fan club" towards the end of the novel.

Please don't read this, opt instead for any number of other novels that provide a more thought-provoking insight into identity and the concept of being an "outcast" from the "normal" group. ( )

Great, now I accidentally deleted my entire review... how about not making the stupid shelves in the "edit your review page" into fucking links????? Asshole goodreads.

Oki, whatever. This book was just as amazingly bad as promised by the blurb. Yes, this book is a rip-off of Twilight, of A Cinderella Story, of anything written by Meg Cabot, but without anything that made those good. Just the rehashed storyline of girl moves to new school, falls in love with a popular guy and has trouble fitting in.

Still, this book about a "Gamer Girl" is written by someone that can't possibly have spent any time in the gaming community, or if she did, had absolutely no intention of properly portraying the subculture. And I say that as a non-online gamer. Just the way Maddy distinguishes between IRL and online, and how she has apparently not played any games ever before this one, seems off to me.

It also bothers me that Maddy is such an amazing manga artist at age sixteen. Having her believe that, and maybe even her friends, isn't much of a stress, of course, but the narrative is clearly agreeing with her, and that just doesn't seem right. She makes a complete manga story, with a storyline and chapters and finished drawings, in less then a month or something, and then of course it is hailed by everyone as something amazingly good. There's not a word breathed about how Maddy might have to try to improve her drawings, that she has talent but a long way to go, nope, she is at age sixteen ready to teach her peers how to draw manga, she is THAT good. Honey, come one. If you ever get tired of Fields of Fantasy, I'm sure the people at DeviantArt will accept you right in.

Well, Maddy is an annoying character in general. She spends most of the book being so lonely and friendless, but the second she makes even the slightest effort at getting to know someone she gains like three bffs in two days. Sure, we all put ourselves down, but her teenage angst is just too much to deal with most of them time.

Oh, and there's a character going by the name Black Raven. As if this wasn't already similar enough to My Immortal...

Maybe I should two-star this, because at times the story was kinda cute and there isn't actually anything wrong with this most cliche of YA storylines ... if it's handled well. Most Meg Cabot book follow this formula (and it's full of pop-cultural references and MCs that feel wronged by the world), but the execution is usually much better. If nothing else because the MCs often realize that they have been judgemental and possibly stuck-up by the end of the books: they are allowed to grow. Maddy never does this, she gets everything she needed by the end of the book, and she didn't it by being a little shit throughout the book, more or less.

Anyway, it was hilarious, go read it. ( )

Maddy is new in school and has to find a place where she fits in. She loves Manga and starts a group at her school that discusses and works on Manga. At the same time, she reinvents herself in the fantasy world of gaming online when she becomes Allora the elfin warrior in the game Fields of Fantasy. She makes friends with Sir Leo in the game, but that isn't real life, and the boy she has a crush on at school is. What will Maddy do? Will she become more wrapped up in the world of fantasy or will she find a way to bring her fantasy into real life? This is a really good story about a girl who lives through the challenges of being in a new school and not fitting in. ( )