Gamer Girl, by Mari Mancusi
Mancusi, Mari (2008). Gamer girl. NY: Dutton Juvenile. 224 pages.
When fifteen-year-old Maddy’s parents divorce and Maddy, her eight-year-old sister and their mother move in with their grandmother in New Hampshire, Maddy is crushed to leave her Back Bay Boston brownstone, private school and gang of friends. After a disasterous first day at school–in a funny scene, Maddy’s grandmother makes her wear a unicorn sweatshirt and “Mom jeans” instead of the punky first day of school outfit she had planned–Maddy decides that most of the denizens of her new high school are not really worth knowing. Although she is eventually given permission to wear her own clothes, the damage has been done, and Maddy finds herself the high school popular clique’s target for teasing. One member of the popular crowd seems sympathetic–and crush-worthy–though he never seems to break away from the thrall of the cool kids. A new online role-playing game provides respite for the manga-drawing teen, and Maddy develops and online crush and weaves the imaginary narrative into a manga she’s creating based on her own life.
I can’t help but think I’ve read this story before. I’ve encountered characters like Maddy in a lot of YA fiction–semi-disaffected alterna-teens who rage lightly against what Maddy calls “Aberzombies”–and her eventual discovery of her online crush’s identity (hint: he’s from her town and goes to her high school) is pretty predicable (think You’ve Got Mail). While the School Library Journal review of the novel touts the “manga and gaming themes” as unique selling points, I can’t help but think of these as just so much trendy decoration meant to distract readers from a recycled plot. The end of the novel, which finds Maddy attempting to enter a manga-writing contest even after her slaved-over manga has been destroyed by the popular bullies, is particularly far-reaching. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will tell you that it features a last-minute save by some new friends and a young, helpful teacher. Gag.