NetGalley Review: Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth
Hey all, Sam here.
I am so far behind on all of my book reviewing, and my book writing….and just life in general it feels like. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so hard on myself, but I look back at the history of this blog to when I actually was posting like 10-12 posts each week and getting all sorts of views and likes and comments, and now I don’t really get anything (and yes, part of that is because I haven’t been as active with posting or with checking out other blogs). I just need to figure out a better balance with my life so I can get my reading and writing and blogging and housework/job/life all done.
Anyway, I have read quite a few awesome books in the last couple weeks and I really want to talk about them, so I’m sitting here while David plays some “Star Wars: Jedi Survivor” and trying to prep up a handful of posts to show up on the blog in the next week or so.
Today’s book review is for an upcoming release, coming out in the US on May 28th, so you can definitely pre-order it now.
My Thoughts
From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Atlas Six (under the penname Olivie Blake) comes Twelfth Knight, a grumpy/sunshine YA romantic comedy and coming of age story about taking up space in the world and learning what it means to let others in.
Viola Reyes is annoyed.
Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself.
But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched.
As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…
Rating: 5 stars
This book currently holds the place of my favorite read of the year, and honestly it is going to be tough to beat. I was so swept away by this story, finding the concept and the story and the characters to be so interesting and relatable (to me anyway–I love geeky protagonists).
First off…this is a Shakespeare reimagining. If you haven’t read “Twelfth Night,” you’ll still be able to follow, but it does follow the general story line of the play. If you haven’t read the Shakespeare, then if you’ve seen the movie “She’s The Man,” then you’ll still know the basic story overview.
Where this adaptation really gets me is all the inclusion of tabletop gaming and online gaming. So TTRPGs similar to D&D play a part in this story, but the main gaming inclusion is MMORPGs (the online game included in this story is based on Arthurian legend, which is also very cool).
Viola is such a relatable character for me. Seriously, I understood her viewpoint when it came to opinions on TTRPG gameplay and character decisions and…it actually hurt because it so resembled actual scenarios I have been through in previous gaming parties.
Jack and Viola and Olivia and Sebastian and…well, all of the characters felt so real and distinct, and I DID NOT want to stop reading about them, even with all their complicated teen drama as they go through so many staples of the end of high school and planning for what comes after.
I’ll also be completely honest: I have not been in as much of a YA mood lately. While there are still some YA releases that still sound rather intriguing to me, and that I really do want to read, for the most part, I’m migrating more to just adult fantasy reads. But, when I do still pick up YA, I never lower books for the supposed immaturity of characters…because the characters are teens; they aren’t meant to be mature, reasonable, rational, whatever adults. I expect them to be balls of emotion and hormones and drama.
I also realize that I am not the target audience. I am a 35 year old woman, so these books are meant for someone half my age…but since YA was still a newer section in bookstores and libraries when I was that age, I can still remember wanting books targeted for that audience, and I can allow my inner teen out to indulge in these stories that I wish I had back then.
I could seriously gush about this book for such a long time. I absolutely LOVED it, and I absolutely cannot wait to have a finished copy on my shelves. Honestly, I might actually end up reading it again when my hardcover arrives.
I can’t believe this is my first Alexene Farol Follmuth/Olivie Blake book. I own several Olivie Blake books but I haven’t read them yet. I need to move them up on my TBR, for sure.
As I said before the review, this book will be released in the US on May 28th. If it sounds interesting to you, then there’s still time to pre-order.
That is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
