Den verkade lovlig men.... nej. ( )

3.75 stars.

Guy In Real Life follows two characters, Svetlana and Lesh, who meet one night when one accidentally runs the other over while on a bike ride home. Svetlana is into tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons, while Lesh is into heavy metal music. Throughout the book, the two grow closer and Lesh begins to become interested in gaming (both MMORPGs and tabletop games)

I thought the premise of this book was a really great idea, and I loved the beginning, but some parts in the middle were a little flat for me. The book was told in dual perspective as well as a few "video game character" chapters thrown in there, which were used to show Lesh's progression in the MMO computer game he became engrossed in. I thought these were really cool because I've never really seen anything like that in a book before (other than when fanfiction was incorporated in Rainbow Rowell's "Fangirl") and they were important to moving along the plot of the book.

I also really liked the cover of the book and the title. Once you get into the book, you find out what the title means, and if you look closely, you can see that the first letter of each word of the title spells "G.I.R.L." (Girl)

The only problem I had with this book is I didn't really connect with the characters much (not because they were into gaming. I enjoy different types of gaming as well) but because they just seemed really two dimensional to me and there were definitely times when I felt like Lesh was really immature and just couldn't make up his mind about his feelings or what he wanted. And I understand that he's 16, and 16 year old boys are indecisive. 16 year old girls are indecisive too. It just kind of bugged me a little.

The end of the book was a little bothersome as well. I felt like things were only semi wrapped up and everything was rushed. It definitely had an abrupt ending.

Overall, I still enjoyed this book and would recommend it for an easy read! ( )

So you read "Eleanor and Park" and you're looking for something similar. Look no farther, as I have your next read right here! Steven Brezenoff's "Guy in Real Life," is an excellent companion to "Eleanor and Park." Lesh is into heavy metal and black dusters. After a Labor Day metal show, he drunkenly smashed into Svetlana...no worries, he's walking and she's riding a bike. Even though he knows nothing about her, Lesh is captured by her. After being grounded for drinking at the show and coming home drunk, Lesh's best friend Greg talks him into trying the MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game) he's into. After tying out a character Greg creates for him, Lesh secretly creates another character based on Svetlana and starts playing with two other characters he's met online. Here's where the fun begins. You see, Lesh's playing a girl, when really he's a G.I.R.L. (a guy in real life, get it?). Things get more complicated when Sevetlana starts sitting with him at lunch and he starts to get to know her. She's into a different geekdom than he is: Classical music, Bjork, embroidery and being the Dungeon Master for her school's role playing club. Add another player, who has a crush on Lesh's character online and a boy with a crush on Sevetlana in real life, and you have the makings for a fun story.

Lesh's and Sevtlana's stories are told in alternating chapters, with the occasional chapter by Lesh's version of Sevetlana inside the MMORPG. Tensions build as the story gets going...there is the "Will they or won't they?" between Lesh and Sevtlana, the tension caused by both Lesh's and Sevtlana's families and the added layer of suspense added by the choices both Lesh and Svetlana make as they negotiate the halls of their high school. Will the gaming club survive as a legitimate school club? What will happen if Svetalan finds out about Lesh's character?

While the writing isn't as engaging as "Eleanor and Park," "Guy in Real Life" satisfies that need for something like "Eleanor and Park." The subplot about Lesh's online crush was handled well, although (SPOILERS AHEAD!) I found it a bit hard to believe that this online crusher actually lived in the same city and was able to deduce who Svetlana really was and mistake her for playing herself in the game a bit much. The author did a fairly good job of planting hints, but Svetlana's real life crush was too much of a red herring for me to get around. I also loved that the setting of St. Paul got to be so much of a star, as the city often suffers in comparison to it's big sister, Minneapolis. All in all this was a satisfying read that I really enjoyed. Definitely a great realistic novel to start off your summer.

Julie K. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

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For those readers familiar with Brezenoff’s earlier YA novel *Brooklyn, Burning*, this one might come as a bit of a surprise. Much lighter in tone than *B,B*, *Guy In Real Life* (or G.I.R.L.) tells the story of a goth guy and a quirky gamer gal who meet cute and experience all of the awkward charm of adolescent romance.

Set in St. Paul, MN, the story is co-narrated by Lesh, a sophomore, and Svetlana (or Lana), a sophisticated senior. They couldn’t be more different if they tried, yet despite their mutual reluctance, they are drawn to each other. Their courtship is quite chaste by YA lit standards, but Brezenoff captures well the chemistry between his two protagonists. Lesh struggles with some identity issues (the novel’s title refers to his masquerade as a female elf named Svvetlana in an MMORPG) and he is torn between his desire to be Svetlana and his desire to be with her, but this is by no means a novel about queered genders, which is one of the primary themes of *Brooklyn, Burning.*

It’s really just a simple and charming romance spiced up by dashes of teen angst and melodrama. ( )