Guy in Real Life

April 14, 2014
Ever since sophomore metalhead Lesh Tungsten collided with geeky 17-year-old outsider Svetlana Allegheny on the street, he can’t get her out of his head. When she begins to join him at lunch to thwart a classmate’s lecherous advances, focusing on anything but her
becomes nearly impossible. Meanwhile, Lesh is being drawn into a multiplayer online RPG, but the avatar Lesh most enjoys playing as a buxom elf he names Svvetlana—doesn’t exactly distract him from her real-life counterpart, who is struggling to keep her Dungeons & Dragons–style gaming club afloat. Brezenoff (Brooklyn, Burning) successfully immerses readers in the characters’ progression from awkward acquaintances to adorably besotted teens. In addition to alternating between their perspectives, he also spends time within both the digital and analog RPGs, exploring sexism and gender stereotypes, while highlighting the way that both types of games are often driven by a novelistic kind of storytelling (even if some gamers skip past those scenes). An idiosyncratic romance that offers plenty of cultural food for thought. Ages 14–up. Agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.

April 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-After some late night drinking at a heavy metal show, high school sophomore Lesh Tungsten literally runs into senior Svetlana Allegheny when her bicycle crashes into him. What begins as an accident evolves from wariness to friendship, especially after Lesh discourages an unwanted admirer of Svetlana's. They soon discover their mutual interest in gaming-he, online, and she, role-playing-and as they navigate their differences, the teens learn that the roles they play aren't as important as who they really are, especially when together. Whether reading it as a brief glimpse into the world of gaming and MMOs (massively multiplayer online games), a romance, or a tale of self-discovery, Brezenoff's novel works on many levels, and its depth and humor will appeal to many readers. Told in the alternating voices of Lesh, Svetlana, and their online personae Svvetlana and Kugnar, the story deftly navigates the real and virtual worlds of the characters, and while the gamer-speak can be a bit much, it gives the audience a better understanding of who Lesh and Svetlana truly are. Although they are flawed and have traits that are unlikable, they come across as authentic teens who will have readers rooting for them as individuals and as a couple. Their sweet-natured romance isn't overly saccharine and offers a charmingly awkward look at first love, and the supporting characters, particularly Svetlana's friends, are well developed and just as quirky as the main protagonists. For fans of Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl (St. Martin's, 2013), gamers, and readers in-between.-Audrey Sumser, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Mayfield, OH

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 15, 2014
Sulky metal head boy meets artsy gamer girl. Awkward teenage love ensues. When Lesh's and Svetlana's worlds collide--literally--in Saint Paul, Minn., it precipitates a time-honored culture clash wherein magic happens, but that's where predictability ends. In a first-person narration that alternates between the boy in black and the girl dungeon master, Brezenoff conjures a wry, wise and deeply sympathetic portrait of the exquisite, excruciating thrill of falling in love. What might easily have been a stale retread feels fresh and lively in Brezenoff's hands; he weaves multiple perspectives (school life, game life, dream life) together in threads that tangle into an inevitable knot, with startling consequences. The realistic dialogue, internal and otherwise, captures the uncomfortably iterative process of adolescent self-discovery as Lesh and Svetlana struggle to figure out who they are and what they stand for. The typical obstacles to true love (tempting teen sirens, parents who just don't understand) are handily and gently overcome, and a subplot involving a jealous suitor peters out unexpectedly early. The juxtaposition of live, real-time role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons against the detached anonymity of MMORPGs, plus a playfully thoughtful exploration of gender identity and politics, gives the novel depth and heart that will appeal to audiences beyond the gaming set. This is not the teen love story you've read a thousand times before. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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June 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 Lesh wears a black trench coat and listens to heavy metal. Svetlana embroiders her flowing skirts and blasts Bjrk. Lesh, with his bad-boy persona, appeals to Lana in a way she would have never anticipated. And Lesh's attraction to Lana is so intense that he creates an elf princess, Svetlana, in a MMO game with Lana's same long blond hair and lithe body. Soon Lesh finds that he can't wait to play the game and assume a female persona. In the swift, action-filled chapters that describe Lesh's game, Lana grows in strength and integrity and gains an admirer. Meanwhile, IRL, Lana copes with her disintegrating after-school gaming club, which plays tabletop RPGs. As with Lesh's online-gaming adventures, Lana's game scripts play out in engaging stories. The overall effect of the novel, then, is of marvelous fantasy sequences interspersed with the messiness of real-life romance. Lesh's predicamentthat he loves becoming Svetlana as much as he loves Lanais presented sweetly and believably. Like his easy evocation of gender-free characters in his Brooklyn, Burning (2011), Brezenoff deftly handles one teen's experience of gender dysphoria.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
Sophomore metal-head Lesh meets geeky and artistic senior Svetlana, and, intrigued by her, does exactly what any hardcore gamer would do: he reproduces her as an elven character in a MMO. Told from the alternating perspectives of Svetlana, Lesh, and their gaming equivalents, this novel presents teens with acutely realistic voices navigating social groups, relationships, and the realities within fantasy worlds.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)