After Maddys parents divorce, shes stuck starting over at a new high school. Friendless and nicknamed Freak Girl, Manga-loving artist Maddy finds...
read full description
reviews
Aug 07, 2010
R
rated it: 
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.
In this case, I expected a wonderful book and got a cliched story with unlikable characters.
0 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Apr 30, 2009
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
3 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Feb 24, 2009
Dawn
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
11 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jan 29, 2009
Hayden
rated it:
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 m More...
Edited to add: I did finish it, and I'm taking back m More...
2 comments
like
(7 people liked it)
Feb 03, 2012
Aenii
rated it:
Where to start?
Well, I picked this book up based on the blurb. It seemed interesting enough, and the cover was pretty enough that I thought, why not? I went in hoping it would work out because honestly, this type of idea usually doesn't read well(1). I had hoped it would be well executed, but alas I was wrong.
And so it ends up being two stars. Not one because one star would mean I felt nothing for this book, or I downright hated it. I felt neither. More so, I was amused. More...
Well, I picked this book up based on the blurb. It seemed interesting enough, and the cover was pretty enough that I thought, why not? I went in hoping it would work out because honestly, this type of idea usually doesn't read well(1). I had hoped it would be well executed, but alas I was wrong.
And so it ends up being two stars. Not one because one star would mean I felt nothing for this book, or I downright hated it. I felt neither. More so, I was amused. More...
Nov 04, 2011
Gabby
rated it: 
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 bir More...
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 bir More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jul 18, 2011
Jonathan
rated it:
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 b
More...
May 03, 2011
Vanessa
rated it:
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 Hila
More...
Apr 01, 2011
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 Fanta More...
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 Fanta More...
Dec 23, 2010
Amanda
rated it:
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
More...
Oct 16, 2010
Allison
rated it:
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
More...
Aug 12, 2010
Masquerade
rated it:
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.
----------------------
After her mother's divorce, Maddie is forc More...
----------------------
After her mother's divorce, Maddie is forc More...
Jan 25, 2010
Lucas
rated it:
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 bo More...
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 bo More...
2 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
Oct 04, 2009
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 w More...
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 w More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 24, 2009
Raina
rated it: 
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 More...
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 More...
Aug 03, 2009
Kim
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Apr 22, 2009
Jennifer
rated it:
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 gra More...
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 gra More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Apr 12, 2009
Sara
rated it: 
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, l
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Jan 13, 2011
Vixenne
rated it:
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 a
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 08, 2010
Paola
rated it:
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 reg More...
Jul 01, 2011
Yvett
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Dec 28, 2009
Grace
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Nov 11, 2011
Nancy
rated it:
When Maddy's parents divorce she is forced to change schools, moving from Boston to a small town in New Hampshire. From day one, things go very wrong. Maddy is unable to make any friends, and attracts the attention of local bullies. Maddy finds a method for escape in the online game Fields of Fantasy, where she is allowed to be whoever she wants, and get back some of the power she has lost.
I picked up Gamer Girl because of its similarities to the web series The Guild. Unfortunately, More...
I picked up Gamer Girl because of its similarities to the web series The Guild. Unfortunately, More...
Oct 28, 2010
Macy
rated it:
After her parents’ divorce, Maddy Starr leaves Boston to live with her grandmother in the suburbs. Starting over at a new school is always tough when you’re fifteen. It’s harder when your new school is full of Abercrombie and Fitch look-a-likes, and your outfit of choice comes from Hot Topic. To make matters worse, Maddy’s first day at her new school is ruined by having to wear a unicorn sweatshirt, her grandmother escorting her to the front office, and that same grandmother embarrassing the sch
More...
May 17, 2011
Michelle
rated it:
I would really give this book a 5 star rating, because it just suited my states. It's just what me and Vanessa do: draw manga and watch anime. my favorite character is obviously Maddy, she's just like me, dark-haired, brown-eyed (even though mine is REALLY dark brown), anime/manga-loving girl. I, myself am also being picked on my someone : Nicholas "Nick" Sivil , tortures me, he blocks my locker- on purpose, makes fun of me and my mom because we're Chinese, calls me CHING CHONG and he
More...
May 11, 2011
Selena
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Mar 20, 2009
Nian
rated it:
His name is CHAD MURRAY? Like, in recognition of Chad Michael Murray, the One Tree Hill star? What a terrible, terrible coincidence. Just, come on - as soon as he cheated on/betrayed Sophia Bush, he's been kicked off my LIKE list to the very bottom. Besides, I’ll always remember him as squinty-eyed-boy.
Gamer Girl (GG) reminded me too much of A Cinderella Story (ACS). So typically clichéd that it made me want to bang my head against the wall. Then moan in agony.
1. Pathet More...
Gamer Girl (GG) reminded me too much of A Cinderella Story (ACS). So typically clichéd that it made me want to bang my head against the wall. Then moan in agony.
1. Pathet More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 03, 2009
Susan
rated it:
The concept is interesting, but there's something about it that just feels a little hasty, and at times--just a little forced in this story about a misfit new kid. I would say the title character Maddy is actually more of an otaku than a hardcore gamer, but an online game she starts to play ends up making ripples in her real life. There are quite a few (rather clunky) references to manga and comic book titles while the gaming is pretty much limited to her exploits with Fields of Fantasy, a World
More...
May 27, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
A cute, predictable story about a girl whose parents divorce and her mom and sister move in with her grandmother. What makes this story different than many similar ones, is the importance a computer game plays to our female main character. Anime loving Maddy finds she can't quite fit in at her new school and ends up finding solace in a computer game given to her by her father. While originally playing the game as a way to contact her increasingly irresponsible father, Maddy meets the kind and ca
More...
Aug 25, 2011
Kelly
rated it:
This was a cute book. The main character, Maddy, has just been cast from her former life and forced to move to a new home, school, and life and is not happy about it. She is relocated to her grandmother's house in New Hampshire with her mother and little sister. She finally feels excepted when she meets Sir Leo in Fields of Fantasy where her virtual self, a gorgeous elf princess Allora, becomes a damsel in distress.
From there the plot becomes predictable, but the journey to the end More...
From there the plot becomes predictable, but the journey to the end More...
