Gamer Girl [Hardcover]

Mari Mancusi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2008

After Maddy?s parents divorce, she?s stuck starting over at a new high school. Friendless and nicknamed Freak Girl, Manga-loving artist Maddy finds refuge in the interactive online game Fields of Fantasy. In that virtual world, she reinvents herself as Allora, a gorgeous elfin alter ego, and meets a true friend in Sir Leo. Maddy can?t hide behind Allora forever, especially as a real-life crush begins edging in on her budding virtual romance. But would anyone pick the real Maddy, gamer girl and Manga freak, over the fantasy?

This fresh, geeky/cool novel includes online chats and exciting gaming, and features Maddy?s Mangastyle artwork.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7–10—Maddy feels as though her life just keeps getting worse and worse. Because her parents have divorced, she has had to leave her friends in Boston and move with her mother and younger sister to live with Grandma in New Hampshire. She has developed a mad crush on handsome, unattainable Chad, whose friends refer to her as Freak Girl. Maddy's only consolations are her beloved manga drawings and the online game Fields of Fantasy, which her father gave her for her birthday. As Maddy becomes more involved with the game, she creates a new identity for herself as a magical Elfin maiden named Allora, and meets the handsome knight Sir Leo online. Eventually Maddy realizes that she cannot continue to use gaming as a refuge from her real-life problems, and she finds the courage to confront both the clique at her school and her neglectful father. And even more importantly, she begins reaching out to potential friends by starting a manga club and entering Gamer Girl in a prestigious writing contest. This is a fun, quick but predictable story. Readers will guess the identity of Sir Leo long before Maddy does, and her grandmother is stereotypically fussy and interfering. However, the manga and gaming themes will appeal to many teen girls, including reluctant readers.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

After her parents’ divorce, Maddy has to leave her ultra-hip Boston life for a New Hampshire suburb, where she, her mother, and her sister stay with Grandma. Not only does Maddy have to deal with missing her friends and father, but Grandma ruins her first day at school by insisting she wear a unicorn sweatshirt and then by embarrassing a popular boy with stories of his childhood bed-wetting. Bullied by the in-crowd (“the Haters”), crushing on the wrong guy, and stuck with the nickname Freak Girl, Maddy escapes into her drawing and the online game Fields of Fantasy, where she can vanquish enemies and make friends far easier than at school. After encouragement from a sympathetic teacher, Maddy makes friends by starting a manga club. But just when things are improving, the Haters strike again. Mancusi believably captures the hopes, disappointments, and awkwardness of high school life. While the trendy elements may eventually become dated, the story of a girl finding her inner strength will always resonate. Grades 6-10. --Krista Hutley

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (November 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525479953
• ISBN-13: 978-0525479956
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,229,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mari Mancusi used to wish she could become a vampire back in high school.
But she ended up in another blood sucking profession --journalism -- instead. Today she works as a freelance TV producer and author of books for teens and adults. When not writing about creatures of the night, Mari enjoys traveling, cooking, goth clubbing, watching cheesy horror movies, and her favorite guilty pleasure--videogames. A graduate of Boston University and a two time Emmy Award winner, she lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Jacob, daughter Avalon and dog Mesquite. You can find her online at www.marimancusi.com or www.bloodcovenvampires.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

93 of 125 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is, bar none, the worst book I have ever read in my life., November 21, 2009

By 

Lucas H. (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gamer Girl (Hardcover)

This is not a book as much as it is a collection of clichéd plot devices and character stereotypes that are more two-dimensional than those found in after-school specials.

It has everything which makes a teen book amount to nothing. A main character named "Maddy Starr" (an obvious author-insert for Mari Mancusi) who constantly bitches about how "nobody gets her, and nobody ever will," and how she's repulsed that no one at her new school is a "mop headed emo boy" or an "Edward Cullen worshiping goth-girl". Rather, they're all "AberZOMBIES" and "Haters." Please note the capital "H," as Maddy expresses such disgust for anyone who is different from herself that she needs to emphasize it with a proper noun. All in all, the result is a grotesque caricature of a gothic teenage girl. She constantly talks about Twilight and My Chemical Romance, at one point even going as far as to complain that the lead singer from My Chemical Romance does not attend her school, because if he did, they would sooo totally be soul-mates.

The reader quickly begins to wonder whether the author truly writes at a middle-school level, or whether this is a devious marketing ploy created to pump the teen demographic for every last one of their parents' dollars. Either way, there is no literary merit to this book. Despite failed attempts at profundity, there's no message deeper than "love is good, follow your dreams, cliques are bad." But even the intended anti-clique message is overshadowed by the fact that all the cliques in the book are so incredibly stereotyped. In the end, they're really more of a straw man to make the main character seem superior than anything more meaningful.

All teenage girls, especially those who self-identify with alternative subcultures, should be insulted at this patronizing blackface show, reducing them to Hot Topic-obsessed, whining cardboard cutouts. I know teenage girls are better than this. The teen market deserves better than what Mari Mancusi has to offer.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible, October 14, 2011

By 

Mari - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gamer Girl (Paperback)

This book literally felt like I was reading a fanfiction; the only difference was that I was actually reading a book instead of reading it online. I just don't think it was developed well enough to be published. The story line is horribly clichéd. This honestly just felt like a fangirl trying to write a fanfiction about herself--a self insert. I thought that I would enjoy this novel because I like games and manga/anime myself, but I was horribly horribly wrong. This story might be good for a young 10 year old (except for all the cursing), but this book is definitely not a good story for an intelligent person to read if they want to pass the time. I am ashamed that there are still authors out there that still use this typical clichéd and stereotypical storyline. It's about time to come up with something new. Nothing was new material.

The characters aren't really developed and the main character's personality traits contradict a lot. One moment the main character considers herself shy and says she is too scared to talk to anyone in real life, but the next moment she punches a guy in the face. No.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read espeically for teens, November 29, 2010

By 

Yonni - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gamer Girl (Hardcover)

I am a high school teacher and one of my students insisted that I read this book. Initially I was only going to start reading this book to please the student but once I began reading I could not put it down.

I'm sure many teens could relate to this book especially those with interest in amine or manga or computer games. The book also deals with real life issues like dealing with issues surrounding divorced parents.