Book Review: Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff

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Guy in Real Life
Author: Steve Brezenoff
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: May 27th 2014
Review Source: Balzer + Bray

From the acclaimed author of Brooklyn, Burning comes Guy in Real Life, an achingly real and profoundly moving love story in the vein of Rainbow Rowell and John Green, 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.

Guy in Real Life is original; we don’t see many books like this. Although unique, I didn't quite make fond of it. Part of it is because I am not a gamer. Which I was pretty much disappointed since I couldn’t wait to read this book.

When I first started reading, within seconds, I was laughing. The names of the chapters are pretty cute and funny but the story opens with Lesh being drunk. Everything to him is spinning and he ends up colliding with a girl riding a bicycle. Nothing much happens after this accident, except the fact that he gets grounded.

Within the next chapters, we come to learn these two strange-to-each other attends the same school. Lesh and Svetlana. The sophomore and the senior. The Metal-lover and the game creator. These two are completely different, but their world collides again when Lesh’s best friend tells him to download a MMORPG.

So far, so good, right? Well, the story completely changes for me when Lesh becomes obsessed with Svetlana. He creates this girl avatar to game with her, the game he did not want to play but when he finds out its her game. But that’s not what gets me. It’s the fact that we start reading the game. The book becomes the game. Like I said, I am not a gamer. I don’t have anything against it but if I don’t like something, I would definitely do not want to read it. I skimmed the rest of the story.

Sure it had its perks. I did like how two different people are made for each other. I liked Svetlana character as well. She knows who she is and doesn’t let anyone get in her way. Overall, I think this would've made a great story for me if we had less of the gaming part.