Book Review: Out of Character by Jenna Miller
Hey all, Sam here.
Well…today has been a very eventful day, and that’s why today’s post is up so late. I was awakened at 8am by my phone ringing, which led to me having a job interview at noon (I got the job), and my orientation is tomorrow and then I start next week. And then after that David and I loaded up our car and our friend’s car to get all set up for the local Downtown Summer Market which ran from 3pm to 9pm. Afterwards we had to break it all down before we could head home.
So it has been a very busy day, and since the job interview part was unexpected, I didn’t have the chance to get this post prepped up before Downtown Summer Market.
That basically means….sorry for the late post today. Anyway, let’s go ahead and get started.
My Thoughts
If you asked seventeen-year-old Cass Williams to describe herself, she’d happily tell you she’s fat, queer, and obsessed with the Tide Wars books. What she won’t tell you—or anyone in her life—is that she’s part of an online Tide Wars roleplay community. Sure, it’s nerdy as hell, but when she’s behind the screen writing scenes as Captain Aresha, she doesn’t have to think about her mother who walked out or how unexpectedly stressful it is dating resident cool girl Taylor Cooper.
But secretly retreating to her online life is starting to catch up with Cass. For one, no one in her real life knows her secret roleplay addiction is the reason her grades have taken a big hit. Also? Cass has started catching feelings for Rowan Davies, her internet bestie…and Taylor might be catching on.
As Cass’s lies continue to build, so does her anxiety. Roleplaying used to be the one place she could escape to, but this double life and offline-online love triangle have only made things worse. Cass must decide what to do—be honest and risk losing her safe space or keep it a secret and put everything else on the line.
Rating: 4 stars
Based on the title and the synopsis of this book, I was primed to love it and have it be one of those books that I love and gush about because I’m this kind of geek girl myself. Thankfully this book didn’t disappoint, but it didn’t fully “wow” me either.
For the most part, I did enjoy Cass as a character. I understood her pull towards fandom and how it became this refuge from the chaotic anxiety filled mess that is the “real world.” My big issue with Cass was the way she handled the whole starting to have feelings for my internet bestie/roleplaying partner while dating someone else. I mean, sure, sometimes people don’t handle things well; that’s life and we’re all human and we make mistakes.
But it very much felt like emotional cheating. Yes, Cass had a stronger and deeper relationship with Rowan, and if you put all three girls together as a love triangle situation, I’d definitely have been rooting for Cass and Rowan, but Cass was actually dating Taylor and then kept lying about things like what she was doing when she was roleplaying, and even about her friendship with Rowan.
I will also say that Cass’s relationship with fandom and roleplay was interesting. It’s not a spoiler to say that it was an addiction for her, because it is mentioned in the book synopsis. I’ve actually been there before, going on to the roleplay forums and spending hours and hours writing these scenes and stories with other folks from all over. Yes, granted, mine never turned into something that affected my education or my relationships with friends or family, but still, it was relatable to have that drive to escape into fantasy all the time.
Oh, and speaking of escaping into fantasy and relationships with friends, this book also hit me hard and hurt me because one aspect was a little too close to events I’ve lived through…namely having a friend or a group of friends starting to pursue something else and it leading to them basically moving on from this world and story you’d been building up together. They either don’t respond to messages or they cancel on scheduled plans at the last minute because things came up…and it doesn’t feel great. When you make a plan to get together and indulge in a fictional world together at a certain time, you expect the friend group to follow through. And when they don’t it can really really hurt.
So, I liked this book. Overall it didn’t take me super long to read. And, oh, Cass’s parents–particularly her dad–are both fairly active in this story and parts of Cass’s life, which was nice. It’s a decent glimpse at the relationship some have with fantasy and sci-fi and roleplay. The story and the characters were good and relatable, but in the end it didn’t blow me away like I was hoping it would. I’d still recommend it if it sounds interesting to you. There are sections of the book that are the roleplay scenes that Cass and her friends write together, and some pages are the non-RP conversations the friend group have.
Well that is all from me for today. Weekend Writer is coming tomorrow, and I’m excited to delve into Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody some more. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
