In Real Life by Cory Doctorow, Illustrator by Jen Wang

In Real Life

By: Cory Doctorow, Illustrator by Jen Wang

Have you ever played an online game before?  

A girl named Anda who loves playing a massively popular online RPG (role-playing game) game called “Coarsegold’s”.  Any spare time she had, she would spend it on this game. 

In the game, there was a place where Anda was able to make friends from all over the world, but things become a little more serious… 

When Anda befriends with a gold farmer (an unfortunate Chinese teenager) who illegally collects treasured items, such as money, this behaviour is powerfully against guidelines in the game rules. You could say the gold farmers were kind of ‘hacking’, as anything you do that is against the game rules is considered exploiting.  As Anda realizes that, the right and wrong cannot both be right, and finds out that all video games, even the best ones, are less straightforward than being a human being in real life. 

Will Anda help her friend or will she betray? 

I personally think that this book shows a powerful meaning.  It shows how you cannot trust everyone, and that you have to be clever with who you make friends with, and who you do not.  This book is not just about video games, but also about people around the world struggling with their lives.  Some kids in the world start at a young age, working to support their family.  Children like these do not have the right access to their basic needs, which makes them do things like ‘hack’ a game.

I recommend this book for teenagers, ages 13-15, who like graphic novels with a game-based story.  I rate the book 4 out of 5 stars because I enjoy graphic novels a lot and I can relate to how much fun video games can be!

Here are some other books by: Cory Doctorow

·         For The Win

·         Little Brother (Little Bother #1)

·         Homeland (Little Bother #2)

·         Down and Out in The Magic Kingdom

Book review by: Tracey Pham