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Gamer Girl

by Mari Mancusi (Goodreads Author)

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 1,990 ratings · 366 reviews

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...more

Hardcover, 248 pages

Published November 13th 2008 by Dutton Juvenile

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I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

2009 ALA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

11th out of 107 books — 105 voters

2010-11 Black Eyed Susan Nominees

7th out of 10 books — 14 voters

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Nov 16, 2012 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Maddy Starr's world has come to an end. Her parents just divorced, and now she's living with her mother and her 8-year-old sister in the unicorn-infested house of her grandmother. Yikes! Could it possibly get any worse?

Yep, it can get worse.

On her first day at her new high school, Maddy is humiliated. As she's about to leave for school, her grandmother declares she will not allow her granddaughter to go to school looking like "a dea...more Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Maddy Starr's world has come to an end. Her parents just divorced, and now she's living with her mother and her 8-year-old sister in the unicorn-infested house of her grandmother. Yikes! Could it possibly get any worse?

Yep, it can get worse.

On her first day at her new high school, Maddy is humiliated. As she's about to leave for school, her grandmother declares she will not allow her granddaughter to go to school looking like "a dead prostitute." When Maddy protests that this is her style and she has nothing else to wear, her grandmother promptly hands over something of her very own wardrobe - grandma-style jeans and a sweatshirt adorned with sparkling unicorns. OMG!

It doesn't take Maddy long to figure out that school is not going to be like it was back in Boston. Arriving in a unicorn sweatshirt is bad enough, but she quickly becomes the victim of a group of popular kids she dubs "The Haters." Lucy, Chelsea, Chad, and the biggest bully, Billy, pretty much consider it their job to make life miserable for Maddy.

One bright spot in an otherwise dark world is the birthday gift Maddy gets from her dad. He gives her a subscription to an online fantasy game called Fields of Fantasy. She has watched him play the game for years and has always dreamed of joining as a real gamer. The game is fun to play and gives her some great inspiration for the manga drawings she enjoys creating. An added bonus comes in the form of an online friendship she develops while playing.

Even if everyone at her new school hates her, at least Sir Leo seems to appreciate and understand her online character, Allora.

GAMER GIRL offers readers a look at popular online gaming, the increasingly popular genre of manga, and a glimpse of the frustration of fitting in and dealing with bullies. Mancusi has created a fast-paced story that will surely interest teen readers. They'll not only be able to relate to the characters, but also be encouraged to explore their own talents and be themselves.

(less)

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May 25, 2009 R rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-and-hated, ya, get-it-away-from-me, got-it-for-the-cover

SERIOUSLY someone stop me from picking books entirely based on their covers. IT USUALLY DOES NOT END WELL.
In this case, I expected a wonderful book and got a cliched story with unlikable characters.

8 likes · like · see review

Apr 30, 2009 Nia added it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I didn't like this book. The plot was way too predictable (she ends up with Chad, which we knew would happen the moment she first meets him, even though he is a "Hater". And it isn't hard to figure out who Sir Leo is...), and the main character was annoying. She cared too much about clothes (she has a problem with people not wearing goth clothes; according to her, everyone who wears Abercrombie is a zombie, this may be true in many cases, but come on, let's try to be a bit more open minded? Clot...more

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Feb 24, 2009 Dawn rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I'm actually between a 2 and 3 star. Though I thought this might be a great book because I play online games and I am into manga, I felt unhappy. Okay, I got it, I wasn't able to really put the book down, but still, it wasn't real.

What I mean by this is that, she's bullied. Yes, you've seen many bullied in your highschool days, but that much? Every single day... I think the author, Mari Mancusi, is fantasizing. Well, I can't be talking because I have not gone through highschool, but I know it's...more I'm actually between a 2 and 3 star. Though I thought this might be a great book because I play online games and I am into manga, I felt unhappy. Okay, I got it, I wasn't able to really put the book down, but still, it wasn't real.

What I mean by this is that, she's bullied. Yes, you've seen many bullied in your highschool days, but that much? Every single day... I think the author, Mari Mancusi, is fantasizing. Well, I can't be talking because I have not gone through highschool, but I know it's not that horrific. Also, sure, we want to feel bad for her and be happy for her to find Sir Leo, but... it's too dream like... What is possibility that the boy she likes is Sir Leo, out of how many channels in that world, can she meet some guy that is from her school?

Also, I believe there are some spelling mistakes, such as on page 140, I believe, the words are "sad" instead of "saw" and page 141, the word "pad" instead of "pay" didn't see that coming, did ya? A published book with spelling errors... I'm guessing the editors are lazying around or something, for I'm finding newer books to have more grammar or spelling mistakes rather than older books, such as the 2001 books are perfectly fine, or course this is an assumption because I haven't read for a while, and this is my second book I've found two mistakes in the text.

It also seemed as if it was coming from a middle schooler rather than a sixteen year old highschooler, I didn't really think highschoolers had that much time to play a computer game eight hours straight.

It felt unfufilling. Though I usually read book series, I have read a one book stories that sates me of my book hunger, this one did not.

Finally, unless I can find other points to make, I felt disappointed. It felt like I could predict what would happen next. Maybe I have a creative mind or something, but this is the second book that's happened to me... The other one was something with a dragon in it and a girl not being able to fly on it because her father forbids her for her mother died... Because her gold or silver buckles didn't hold and she fell to her death. I don't know... Something's not right here.

Please consider these things before rating this book,
~ Dawn Uzumaki(less)

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 29, 2009 Hayden rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fitting-in, teen, chick-lit

The odds of me finishing this aren't looking too good. It reads like more of a marketing plan than a book. I imagine a bunch of suits sitting around at a marketing meeting at Dutton saying stuff like, "I hear the kids are really into gaming these days! Also those weird Japanese comics--what are those called again? Somebody should write a teen book about that crap and use the lingo and stuff. Mancusi, how about you?"

Edited to add: I did finish it, and I'm taking back my second star.

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Jun 12, 2013 Liz rated it 2 of 5 stars

I thought this book would tell the full story to a female teenager who'squiet in real life, but loves video games or something like that. Honestly, as first glance it looked like my dream book. A chance to tell my side of the story.

My dreams were shattered at the dedication page.
The dedication page pushed an awful name onto every female gamer, complete with atrocious grammar, and the notorious "L33T" vocabulary.

Then, when you get into the story, it only gets worse.
The book stars a girl akin to "...more

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May 06, 2013 Nicole rated it 2 of 5 stars

Okay. So I bought this book at our school Book Fair. I was totally bought with the lovely cover. Curse lovely covers! It was just eye catching and there was only ONE on the shelf. I don't know why but I knew I had to buy it.

But I was disappointed. Sadly.

It's not that I didn't like the book. I didn't love it either. I guess I liked it at least a good bit but not something I'd touch or reread for a while.

There were some spelling errors I was itching to write on and correct. But I didn't. It seem...more

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May 01, 2013 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

of course, i picked up this book based not only it being the author of a series i mildly enjoyed, though it had gorgeous cover art so i decided to give it a read.

to be honest, i was disappointed. like others mentioned, there were numerous spelling errors, and i feel like the author has a childish writing style.

the characters are nice, and i enjoyed chad's rebellion against his clique. however, i felt that the plot was very unrealistic because, to be frank, the chances of an online pal being your...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Lexie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Gamer Girl is brain candy. It was entertaining and amusing to read but didn’t require a lot of deep thinking. This isn’t a bad thing at all; sometimes it’s nice to just read for the fun of reading and know that the author won’t require you to learn the entire sociological structure of their world to enjoy the book. Despite the fact the narrator Maddy spends a good chunk of time navigating the fantasy world of Fields of Fantasy (a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game in the vein of Everqu...more Gamer Girl is brain candy. It was entertaining and amusing to read but didn’t require a lot of deep thinking. This isn’t a bad thing at all; sometimes it’s nice to just read for the fun of reading and know that the author won’t require you to learn the entire sociological structure of their world to enjoy the book. Despite the fact the narrator Maddy spends a good chunk of time navigating the fantasy world of Fields of Fantasy (a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game in the vein of Everquest or World of Warcraft), the real world she inhabits is our own, with real-world problems.

From the preppy, “Aberzombie” high school royalty to handling her parents’ divorce, Maddy tells her story as it is. She doesn’t spend time sugar-coating events or her own actions. In her old school, a private school in Boston, she was part of the happy majority of teens who didn’t “conform.” She wasn’t an outsider or goth, but her crowd was more expressive in their creative imaginings. In her new school? Not so much. The majority of the students live in awe (and fear) of four other students–Chad, Billy, Lucy and Chelsea, rulers of the social pecking order and embodiments of all that “popular” kids can be like. Chad is the apologetic, secretly creative cute one. Billy is the jock and bully. Lucy is the cheerleader, and Chelsea is the future politician’s wife. Unfortunately, on her first day, Maddy (or rather her grandmother) manages to piss off Billy, and from then on Billy makes it a point to make her life miserable.

Maddy is artistic and wants to be a manga creator like her idol, Svetlana Chmakova (real life OEL manga-ka of Tokyo Pop’s Dramacon and Yen Press’s Night School), so her conversations include references to well-known series such as Naruto and lesser-known series like Chibi Vampire. For someone like myself, who is immersed in the pop culture of anime and manga, Maddy is perfectly understandable. My sister, who also read the book and is not a fan of anime or manga, was lost almost completely. The explanations Maddy gives to interested classmates are bare bones and don’t pass along just why someone should be interested. You can feel that she is passionate, but you can’t understand why.

The other side of the book, with Maddy playing Fields of Fantasy after receiving the game from her father for her birthday, is given better treatment. Much of what we read about as far as her playing the game are chat sessions she has in character as Allora or out of character as Maddy with either her father, RockStarBob, or a mysterious friend she meets online called “Sir Leo.” Any quests she embarks upon or adventures she has within are explained clearly with little reason for anyone to become confused. Several times throughout the course of the novel Maddy refers to herself as a “true Gamer Girl,” but this is misleading, as Maddy isn’t quite a Gamer by pop culture’s definitions.

Most of what Maddy experiences as herself then become epic battles for her character Allora in her manga (based off both her high school life and her playing life in Fields of Fantasy). She has Allora go from a meek, unpopular, and bullied high schooler to a hero triumphant in a fantasy world, and finally we see Allora deal with the bullies as herself in the “real world.” The adventures almost parallel Maddy’s own trials and serve as an outlet for her frustrations about high school, her father, and her life.

This was a fun read that looked at a couple of subcultures that don’t get a whole lot of positive recognition in young adult novels. It handles the topic of separated parents a little clumsily, and the ending seemed more rushed then thought-out. Hopefully others will read Gamer Girl and be inspired to look into something that might not have interested them before.(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 Jenny Zheng rated it 5 of 5 stars

Think back for a moment, have you ever thought your life sucked? High School sucks. Divorce sucks. Life sucks. Well, at least Maddy Starr, a high school student, totally agrees. Although some might disagree with Maddy, but she has reasons...
Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi is a book of twists and turns. It all began with the divorce of Maddy's parents. She, along with her mom and sister, is forced to live in her grandmother's place also known as the “unicorn museum.” What's worst? She is constantly g...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Christine rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is a book that I would read once, but never again.

I'm not going to lie; I did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted myself to. The main character was a girl that I could easily aspire to become; her life could possibly be an exact duplicate of mine, however, the difference was that her life was too easy.
This book did not do what I wished it would to me emotionally. In most books I enjoyed, there were times when I could emotionally connect with the main character, and we would seem to form...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Grace rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is obviously only for some people, it got mostly ratings of either 1 star or 5 stars . I, personally, LOVED this book, but I do agree with it not being too well thought out, plot-wise. As a writer, there really is no way to please the readers, if everything ends out perfect, people are like "No, why does everything end out perfectly?! That's not how life is!" And they're right. But if (view spoiler) SirLeo had really turned out to be a horrible person like Billy...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Kha added it

I am recently reading this book, written by Mari Mancusi. This book is about a teenager named Maddy. She started a new school, and she already made a bad impression of herself. A group, Maddy called "The Haters", likes to bother and bully her. School, for Maddy, is a place where she can't be herself, and a place that makes her feel like she's living in jail. But, at home, she plays a video game given to her from her dad. She met a boy online named "SirLeo". They fight dragons and they have so mu...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Celise Winters rated it 5 of 5 stars

You can read my full review by clicking here!

Have you ever read a unique book where no matter how hard you try, you can't seem to find anything like it? Gamer Girl would have to be one of those types of books. There's nothing really special in wording that Mari Mancusi uses. But somehow, the plot draws me in. It's different, to say the least.

I read Gamer Girl about three years ago, and at that time, I was a seventh grader. The cover drew me in(I always judge the cover) and when I finished the bo...more

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Jul 02, 2012 WovenMyst rated it 3 of 5 stars

Maddy’s life couldn’t get much worse. Her parents split and now she’s stuck in a small town and at a new school. Most of the time, she retreats into her manga art, but when she gets into the Fields of Fantasy online computer game, she knows she’s found the one place she can be herself. In the game world, Maddy can be the beautiful and magical Allora and have a virtually perfect life. And she even finds a little romance. But can Maddy escape her real-life problems altogether, or will she have to...more Maddy’s life couldn’t get much worse. Her parents split and now she’s stuck in a small town and at a new school. Most of the time, she retreats into her manga art, but when she gets into the Fields of Fantasy online computer game, she knows she’s found the one place she can be herself. In the game world, Maddy can be the beautiful and magical Allora and have a virtually perfect life. And she even finds a little romance. But can Maddy escape her real-life problems altogether, or will she have to find a way to make her real world just as amazing as her virtual one?

Maddy Starr is going through a rough time in her life when she begins to explore the world of online gaming, a rough topic in her family since her parents just divorced in part thanks to her dad’s addiction to Fields of Fantasy, a fictional adaptation of World of Warcraft.

Because of Maddy’s parents’ divorce, Maddy is forced to leave her school and friends in Boston and move out to the country with her unicorn obsessed grandmother who continually remarks on how inappropriate her clothing and interests are. To make matters worse, Maddy is overwhelmingly unpopular at her new school and becomes a quick and easy target for bullies.

Through gaming, Maddy is able to tap into her inner confidence and make new friends. She also becomes a much better person. I was very relieved by this, since the back of the book made me nervous that there was an anti-gaming message hidden within. Fortunately for those of us who enjoy a quick game, the message is more about finding a balance between virtual reality and actual reality than it was a blasting of gaming communities as a whole.

Maddy is an interesting main character, and by interesting I do mean remarkably unlikeable for the first few chapters. Thankfully, Mancusi accelerates her character development very quickly so that we can identify with her before any momentum is lost.

This novel is fast paced and light enough for much younger readers. As a girl gamer, I was thrilled to pick up Gamer Girl, but I have to say that it wasn’t exactly what I expected.Far from being a novel by gamers and for gamers, Gamer Girl possesses an outsider’s perspective into the world of geek culture, but with any luck will interest future Gamer Girls into pursuing further avenues of geekdom.

Maghan Drummond
Wovenmyst.com(less)

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May 15, 2012 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction

The illustrated cover of this charming novel depicts the two faces of Maddy: the shy, dark-clothed nerd, and the beautiful, attractive elf she plays in the online game “Fields of Fantasy.” Maddy is starting at a new high school due to her parents divorce, and finds herself alone most of the time, drawing and reading manga in her spare time. Her father introduces her to the online game “Fields of Fantasy,” albeit with warnings about giving out information online and online personas. Maddy creates...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Gabby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Gabby Watson

Book Review 2
11/2/11

Gamer Girl:
A Twist on Reality

Life sucks. Well at least Maddy Starr thinks it does. But you can’t blame her: her parents just got divorced and because of that, Maddy, her sister, and her mom are stuck living in her grandma’s “unicorn museum”. She’s getting mercilessly bullied by Billy Henderson and the Haters, and it doesn’t help that she’s in love with Billy’s right hand man.
Things start to look up on Maddy’s 16th birthday. Her dad sends her a computer game call...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Jonathan Nonnemacher rated it 2 of 5 stars

Gamer Girl is about Maddy, a teen who along with her mom and sister must move in with her grandmother after her parents' divorce. Maddy must deal with moving to a new school, the continuing fallout from her parents' split, as well as trouble making friends. The main line of plot conflict comes when Maddy falls for someone online - a player she meets on the computer game Fields of Fantasy. Maddy begins to suspect that the knight she's falling for (screen name, "SirLeo") might actually be someone...more

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May 03, 2011 Vanessa K. rated it 5 of 5 stars

THIS BOOOK IS MY NUMBER 1 FAVORITE BOOK! This book was so awesome! For me i loved this book because this book talks about a girl that love japanese manga and anime and she watches the episodes and draw them, it's just like me and other people who love anime and manga! This book really made me smile when i heard very familliar animes in the book. For me, this book was sort of like a cinderella story,have any body heard of the movie "A Cinderela Story"? That movie had the movie star Hilary Duff in...more THIS BOOOK IS MY NUMBER 1 FAVORITE BOOK! This book was so awesome! For me i loved this book because this book talks about a girl that love japanese manga and anime and she watches the episodes and draw them, it's just like me and other people who love anime and manga! This book really made me smile when i heard very familliar animes in the book. For me, this book was sort of like a cinderella story,have any body heard of the movie "A Cinderela Story"? That movie had the movie star Hilary Duff in it, and also the other movie called, "Another Cinderella Story". That movie had the disney star Selena Gomez in it, anyways going back to the subject,It's like she's trying to figure out who the secret person is in her online game, and people in school treat her rudely and call her the name, "Freak Girl" but the only thing that's missing is that she does not have a stepmother! Which is good! When i was in hurry i was looking for a good book and then i found this book, and then i read the inside blurb and then i heard that she draws manga and loves anime. So i thought that this was pretty cool reading a book about anime, it was sort of suprising. This book had a amazing storyline, and that's what made me fall in love with this book! I would love to read this book again and again! But i would also love it if my friends would read this book too! This book is like a any girl's life in elementary, middle, or high school year. But sometimes this book can be really sad at some parts when she gets picked on or something goes wrong, it just has lots a things to a girl's life in highschool. It just takes steps around her life until it gets happier and happier, and then it gets sad again but then something good happens, it's all like a cinderella'a life! I really, really, really, enjoyed this book so much! It makes me feel happy to be talking about this book cause this book is my number 1 of course. WARNING!! IF YOU'RE GOING TO READ THIS BOOK THEN BEWARE! BECAUSE THIS BOOK MAY CONTAIN SOME BAD WORDS AND SOME TALK BACKS! If you are not allowed to read a book that contains those words and talk backing then i suggest you do not read this book! But if you really want to read this book then ask your parents if you can! I gurantee that YOU and other peole wiil absoultely love this book! I swear! This book is very, very good! I hope that you will simply enjoy this book, as much as i did! Find this book in your librarry[I found this book in the girl's book section]! Goood luck!!!(less)

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Apr 01, 2011 Whatchyareading added it

Shelves: christine, contemporary, young-adult

The cover is what grabbed my attention; the title is what kept it.

Gamer Girl is centered around Maddy, a 16 year old girl whose world has crashed down on her. Her parents are newly divorced, her mother moved her and her sister to a new town to live with her unicorn-obsessed grandmother, and (the mother load) the first day at her new school, the “popular” crowd dubbed her ‘Freak Girl’. Maddy escapes her RL1 with two things: drawing (manga is her favorite past time) and Fields of Fantasy, a MMORPG...more The cover is what grabbed my attention; the title is what kept it.

Gamer Girl is centered around Maddy, a 16 year old girl whose world has crashed down on her. Her parents are newly divorced, her mother moved her and her sister to a new town to live with her unicorn-obsessed grandmother, and (the mother load) the first day at her new school, the “popular” crowd dubbed her ‘Freak Girl’. Maddy escapes her RL1 with two things: drawing (manga is her favorite past time) and Fields of Fantasy, a MMORPG2 her father gave her so they could “spend more time together.” (He’s an addict, which I know a little something about.)

Even though the beginning read like a ‘Why does everything bad happen to me?!’ set-up, I kept in mind this was a teenage girl and that’s how the world is to them. (At least, that’s what I was like at that age.) However, things quickly pick up when Maddy starts playing Fields of Fantasy and meets Sir Leo. The flirting between Maddy’s online character Allora (love the name) and Sir Leo is cute and very reminiscent of my online flirting days. (Sigh. I miss those days.)

I liked Maddy. Between the manga (Fullmetal Alchemist FTW3), the game, and repeated references to My Chemical Romance (their music feeds my soul), I recognized a kindred spirit in her that I rarely find in other books. Some people won’t connect to her like I did, and that’s okay. Everybody’s different. All I’m saying is, if I was a teenager, I would want to be Maddy’s friend.

It was a light read, clocking in at just under two hours, and I finished it in one sitting. And while the ending was a bit cheesy (think of any teen underdog movie and you’ll know what I mean), it didn’t faze me. I still grinned stupidly at how everything turned out and wanted to hug the book tightly to my chest when I finished.

So, if you’re a lover of online flirting, manga, or a fellow gamer girl, I think you’ll like this book.

And now I really, really, really want to play WoW4 again.

1 RL = Real Life
2 MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
3 Fullmetal Alchemist is a manga series that became an animated television series with a film sequel. FTW = For The Win
4 WoW = World of Warcraft, a MMORPG that I was addicted to in college.

Reviewed on WhatchYAreading on September 4, 2010.(less)

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Dec 23, 2010 Amanda Edwards rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 9th-grade-sof

Gamer Girl, by Mari Mancusi, is about a 15 year old girl, named Maddy, and that she gets a game from her dad for her birthday. Her mother and father split up, and Maddy and her sister, and mom, have to live at their grandma's house. Maddy has to leave her old friends behind for what her mother and father's relationship had ended. She has to go to a whole different school, in order to make new friends and enemies. So the game that Maddy got for her birthday is named, Fields of Fantasy, and she ge...more

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Oct 16, 2010 Allison Bailey rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book is fabulous!! For me, it seemed to bridge two worlds- my world and the anime girl's world. I personally have nothing against anime- my sister loves it, but I have never gotten into it. However, as a teacher, it's important for me to understand and embrace all kinds of literacy, so I do try to read a wide variety of YA books. This book is about a girl who dresses in black and loves manga and has moved to a new school because of her parents' divorce. She starts playing a... I know I will...more

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Aug 12, 2010 Masquerade rated it 1 of 5 stars

As others have said before me, this is a terrible, cliched story about an "outcast" girl who "no one understands." Speaking as someone who was actually a "geek" or "gamer" female in high school, I am deeply ashamed to think anyone would take the personality or so-called trials of this character seriously. The only saving grace about this book is that it is a short read.

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After her mother's divorce, Maddie is forced to leave her exclusive private school in Boston to go to a (h...more

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Jan 25, 2010 Lucas rated it 1 of 5 stars

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 go...more

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Oct 04, 2009 Jacquelyn added it

This book was overall great it really shows what kind of difficulty it does to be a teenager with divorced parents,
Maddy(main character) is really close with her dad. Her father bought her a Online RPG and is having fun playing with her online instead of just hanging out on weekends. But When time passes and Maddy makes a friend on this game and it turns out to be a classmate from her school the more time Maddy spent talking to this anonymous person the more separated her and her father were. It...more

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Aug 24, 2009 Raina rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminist, realistic, ya

Well, I read it in two sittings (less than 24 hours), so it must have been good.
Maddy has been ripped from her home in Boston by divorce to live in New Hampshire with her mother, sister, and grandmother. For Maddy, this is a true tragedy. She leaves her friends, who are all friendly goths who are into manga, for a land of "Aberzombies." Her grandmother insists that Maddy wear her grandmother's clothes to the first day of school, because she doesn't approve of Maddy's goth-wear, which results in...more

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Aug 03, 2009 Kim rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 12, 2009 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, young-adult

This book was incredibly predictable, but the writing was really good and I cared enough about the characters to keep reading (even though I was pretty sure I knew what would happen). Maddy moves to New Hampshire with her mom and sister in the middle of the school year and immediately gets on the bad side of the popular crowd, who then make it their mission to make her life miserable. To escape from it, Maddy becomes heavily involved in a World of Warcraft-like game called Fields of Fantasy, liv...more This book was incredibly predictable, but the writing was really good and I cared enough about the characters to keep reading (even though I was pretty sure I knew what would happen). Maddy moves to New Hampshire with her mom and sister in the middle of the school year and immediately gets on the bad side of the popular crowd, who then make it their mission to make her life miserable. To escape from it, Maddy becomes heavily involved in a World of Warcraft-like game called Fields of Fantasy, living vicariously through her character online and meeting a fellow online gamer, with whom she happily flirts and completes quests. Of course, a person can't solely live online, so the book then deals with Maddy trying to bring her online coolness to her real life and becoming a stronger, better person who doesn't put up with the haters. And, she's nursing a crush on a guy ho hangs out with the popular crowd but seems nothing like them.

I could totally buy Maddy getting so involved with her game that she didn't want to participate much in her real life; the high school scenes were also pretty real. There are always those kids who pick on others, even if there's no reason for it. The gaming scenes were cute, and I liked the way Maddy begins to find friends and take back her life at school.

What made me roll my eyes a little was how obvious the end of the book was. As soon as Maddy started flirting with another guy in her game, I figured out who he'd turn out to be. I mean, what are the odds someone in this international gaming community would turn out to be someone from her school that she knew? But that always seems to be the case in books. Even when a red herring was thrown out there, trying to make me believe it was someone else, I didn't buy it. Which should give you an indication of how ridiculously obvious it was.

But, even with the book's predictability, I enjoyed it. The story was good, and I don't think I've read another book that deals with the same topic - at least not as well. (less)

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Jan 13, 2011 TheFountainPenDiva rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre-ya-fiction, opinions-books-i-wish-i-hadn-t-read, opinions-books-to-set-fire-to, opinions-character-fail, opinions-good-idea-badly-executed

This book had the potential to be so much more, a real paen to the "pwn you" spirit of geek girls and gamer-girls everywhere (of which I am one), but the author chose instead to rehash every predictable high-school trope prevalent in much of today's YA fiction. Not to mention create the thoroughly unlikable character of Maddy Starr, who was quite obviously Mari Mancusi--another grown woman reliving her high school days--what is the deal with that anyway? First Meyer and now Mancusi and goddess k...more This book had the potential to be so much more, a real paen to the "pwn you" spirit of geek girls and gamer-girls everywhere (of which I am one), but the author chose instead to rehash every predictable high-school trope prevalent in much of today's YA fiction. Not to mention create the thoroughly unlikable character of Maddy Starr, who was quite obviously Mari Mancusi--another grown woman reliving her high school days--what is the deal with that anyway? First Meyer and now Mancusi and goddess knows who else in YA-landia. Not that I have an issue with that, but it would be nice to not be so obvious about it by making the main character the kind of person you wish you had been back then. Think Cameron Crowe's Fast Times at Ridgemont High or the late John Hughes' films. I get the thing about "write what you know", but talk about wearing that adage into the ground. (By the way, author John Rechy--City of Night--has a wonderful essay about why writing what one knows is so limiting and why we shouldn't always fall back on it).

Anyway, the plot (yes, there is one) as I remember it centers around poor 15 year-old Maddy Starr, whose parents are divorced (haven't we read this before somewhere else?), transplanted into a brand new high school surrounded by Haters and Aber-Zombies (okay that was funny since I hate A&F) who call her freak girl because she wears all black, has this thing about My Chemical Romance and Edward Cullen, likes Japanese manga and online gaming. Maddy spends a good portion of the book in her online World of Warcraft knockoff and the other half acting like a maladjusted little brat who somehow becomes uber-popular due to the fact that she's great at drawing manga which somehow attracts the attention of the school's Mean Girl squad. During all of this, Maddy starts falling in love with a too-good-to-be true online character named Sir Leo, which then turns into a totally predictable love interest with the popular guy who secretly is a game-geek too.

There's also a gay male character whose name I wish I could remember because he actually managed to have a relatable personality. He's also the character that the immature and highly judgmental Maddy is afraid might turn out to be her "Sir Leo" online companion and spends a good portion of the book trying to blow him off because he's not the hottie that the 'popular' guy is. Great message to send to girls, Ms. Mancusi. Guess she's a member of the Stephanie Meyer Looks Matter Most Regardless If The Guy Is A Complete Jerkwad fan club as well.(less)

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Sep 08, 2010 Paola rated it 4 of 5 stars

Maddys Life: Not So Rockin. Her parents split and she is stuck in a small town at a new school full of Aberzombie and haters.She has a crush on a cute guy way out of her league and Freak Girl as a nick name. Sometimes its just enough to retreat into her drawing- her manga is totally important to her. But when she gets Field of Fantasy for her birthday, she knows that this is the one place she can finally be her self after the Big D. In the game world Maddy can transform herself from a regular h...more

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About Mari Mancusi

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--vide...more

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Books by Mari Mancusi

Boys that Bite (Blood Coven Vampire, #1)

Girls That Growl (Blood Coven Vampire, #3)

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Quotes from Gamer Girl

“Whatcha doin', Freak Girl?"
---------------------------
"What does it look like, brainiac?" I shot back, even surprising myself with the force of my jab. "I'll give you three guesses. No, wait. Don't strain yourself. Wouldn't want to hurt your head." I waved a flyer in his face, channeling my inner mean girl. "See these? I'm hanging them...on a...wall!" I spoke the last part slowly, as if addressing a dim-witted child. Which wasn't far off the mark, now that I thought about it. "With tape," I added, waving at the dispenser. "You know-sticky, sticky!” — 26 people liked it

“Anyway, I'm sure the guy lives a million miles away."
"Or he could live right in your backyard. You never know."
I nodded, keeping a poker face, even though the idea of Sir Leo living in my backyard was extremely appealing.” — 9 people liked it

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