First off the artwork in this graphic novel was incredibly stunning. I loved the contrast in colors. When you were reading about being in the videogame colors in this graphic novel were intense and vivid Technicolor, but when you were reading about the real world, life looks drab and bland and incredibly beige. I felt like the colors mimicked the main characters perspective of real life. In the story Anda recently moved to the middle of no where, away from all of her friends. To Anda life is boring and depressing, but her video games are her sanctuary, her "happy place," so that's why there is such a huge contrast in color throughout the novel. It was beautifully done. As for the plot of the novel, it was in my opinion lacking a little bit of "development." At the beginning of the novel there was a huge introduction leading up to the story, trying to further explain the premises for this novel, but to me it wasn't very concise,,, and I felt like it wasn't well explained. I felt like I was missing "the big picture" that the author was trying to convey with this graphic novel because I didn't fully understand the introduction and what exactly she was hinting at. I think this was meant to be a very impactful graphic novel about the gaming industry, but I just could not comprehend it fully with how short of a graphic novel this was. I feel like this graphic novel should have been expanded to maybe fit more of what the author wanted to convey into the plot. I think this book was very "surface level" and if you skipped the introduction completely, you might not even realize this was meant to be a political and thought provoking read. I really liked this graphic novel and the plot line, but I think I completely missed "the point" that this book was trying to make. If you are really into gaming maybe you can understand what exactly the author was trying to say, but since I don't play a lot of online video games, I didn't have a clue and left this book feeling like I needed to do some more research in order to fully understand this view point on the gaming industry. I honestly wish I had just skipped the introduction to this graphic novel, because I think that's what left me feeling confused.

I loved this book. On the surface the story is about Anda, a shy teenager who is inspired to become her true self when she starts playing a MMRPG (massively-multiplayer role playing game.) As Anda becomes more confident, the choices that she makes in her real life, as well as the game, have serious consequences. The story delves into behavioral economics, social relationships and political activism as Anda develops online friendships and learns about a world outside of her own. I read a lot of criticism online, complaining that this novel didn't dig deep enough into these topics. I think though, that this book can be a great introduction into these issues. It's well written and engaging and may inspire gamers to pursue their own social justice. Also, I love Jen Wang's illustrations.

Jen Wang's beautiful artwork brings to life a story about child labor, cultural differences, and female online gamers. Doctrow chose an incredibly complex topic and tries to explain it through the world of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game and in my opinion, only half succeeds. It's an interesting way to present this incredibly serious and complex subject matter of child labor, lack of health insurance, as well as class and ethnicity struggles in China. I like how Anda's gaming leads her to feel more empowered in real life. I admire her wanting to help Raymond and the other gold farmers obtain better working conditions. I just don't feel like this story was able to delve deep enough into a very complex situation without leaving a lot of unanswered questions. I feel like the subject matter was glossed over and it's been crammed into a fairly quick read that ends rather abruptly. I would have loved to have seen a much longer book with more of the topic and characters fleshed out.

Anda loves the escape and community in an online game, where she feels more herself. Anda’s love for her favourite online role-playing game is complicated when she befriends a player who is breaking the rules of the game for a livelihood. I love Jen Wang’s art (the reason I picked up the book honestly, because I loved Prince and the Dressmaker so much). It was an interesting story, I’m not really in the gaming world and didn’t have any preconceived notions or knowledge on the world, so it was quite interesting seeing an aspect of that world portrayed and learning about it. I enjoyed it, although it seemed a bit shallow of a story, that could have been longer and been more in-depth. I would definitely call it a graphic novella rather than a novel. Overall a fun read, I’m sure even better if you’re a gamer in that world, but could be universally liked.

Beautiful illustrations and a very sweet story about friendship.

The illustrations were beautiful, but the story wasn't my type. It seemed like the authors were trying to promote the readers that talking to random people on the internet is ok, as long as you help them.

A lovely graphic novel for anyone who loves gaming or coming-of-age stories.

Online gaming, school, friendship, empathy - all of the things that get tested in the chaos of these days and times. This is a story beyond my own childhood of play-alone platformers, mechanical keyboards and CRT screens. I’m happy to see artists address online gaming in an approachable, warm way like this.

I loved the art of this tale; I loved that friendship supercedes boss-fight rivalry as life gets weird, fast. This is an easy story to become immersed in, and a quick one to finish. While the ending felt too simplistic and tidy to my jaded adult self, I remember that kids don’t need complicated messes of endings to absorb something good. Not at the age they play online these days, anyway. I recommend for younger people, obviously, but if you want lovely scenery and a human main character to briefly relate to without getting too bent out of shape about how realistic everything is or must be, have a look.

A provoking look at the ethical stakes and tensions of roleplay, gaming, and economics.

I love how this book showcased a character unlike any I've ever seen in Graphic Novels! This is one Nerd-Tastic story!