Speaking of colliding worlds...

Dungeons and Drama
By Kristy Boyce
Publisher: Delacorte Press (January 9, 2024)
Paperback: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 0593647017
ISBN-13: 978-0593647011
Reading age: 14+ years, from customers
Lexile measure: 690L
Grade level: 7 - 9

Publisher’s Blurb:

Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.

Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.

But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...

My Thoughts:

We see a lot of books about girls who hope to make it big as the star of the show. I love that Riley doesn’t want center stage. Her love is behind the scenes.

However, her love for the stage gets her in trouble, and her punishment is, basically, constant parental supervision. Which means afternoons at her dad’s game store. She’s not a fan of the store or, really, her dad, since he split from her mother. She doesn’t think he’s very interested in her life.

There are some of the usual tropes: hate to love, fake dating. We pretty much know what to expect. But the tropes are executed well.

The teenagers act like typical cliquey teens. Riley looks down her nose at the RPG crowd, and Nathan doesn’t seem to have much use for her dramatic flair. One of the things I really loved about this story is how the groups learned to work together. Once Riley realized RPGing was really just acting, she embraced it—and brought in a friend. Both groups are enriched by their ultimate mingling.

Riley finds a whole new support group from the regulars at her dad’s gaming store. And she learns a lot more about her dad. They develop a closeness that had been lacking from their relationship.

Another think I really appreciated is the storyline of kids advocating to keep a program they love in their school—especially an arts-based program. So many programs are cut, and Riley works really hard to remind school administrators of the value of the drama program she loves. But she can’t do it alone—friends from both of her groups come through to help her make it happen.

The adults in this book are not painted as clueless or oppressive, just typical parents and teachers. Another plus!

 Possible objectionable material:

Dungeons and Dragons like RPG and LARPing. Same gender couple. Teenage hijinks—including sneaking behind parents’ backs. Parent/child drama. Divorce. Parental health scare. There might have been some minor cursing, but I didn’t make note of anything in particular.

 Who might like this book:

D&D fans, drama lovers, romance fans, coming-of-age fans. I think either gender can appreciate the story. The lexile level is lower than the suggested grade range, and that's okay--sadly, many teams are not where they should be.

 Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

A Multiverse of Possibilities

 

The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee
By Ellen Oh
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers (January 23, 2024)
Hardcover: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 0593125940
ISBN-13: 978-0593125946
Reading age: 12 - 17 years
Grade level: 7 - 9

 Publisher’s Blurb:

Mina has become the hero of her own story. Literally.

When Mina Lee woke up on Saturday morning for SAT prep, she did NOT expect to:

1. Nearly be fried by a superhero who turned out to be a supervillain.
2. Come face to face with Jin, the handsome boy of her dreams.
3. Discover a conspiracy involving the evil corporation Merco that she created.

And it’s all happening in her fictional world. Mina is trapped in the story she created. Now it’s up to her to save everyone. Even if it means losing Jin forever.

 My Thoughts:

Inspired by the groundbreaking A-Ha! Music video for “Take on Me”, this book combines webcomics, art, teen romance, loss, physics, and multiverse theory, simultaneously mocking and embracing the tropes.

 Mina, a Korean-American girl whose mother died a few years ago, is struggling as her senior year begins. Her father doesn’t want her to go into art—her mother’s profession—and seems to be erasing her mother’s memories from their lives. To prove that she has what it takes to be a successful artist, Mina decides to publish a webcomic. Her first attempt is boring. She doesn’t want to embrace the typical tropes—like love triangles—and her friends give her some tough love.

 Her second attempt is…inspired. The characters jump into her mind, including a grown-up version of a childhood friend who died.

 And this is where the multiverse comes in.

 Oh gives us just enough scientific explanation for us to willingly go along for the ride, without sciencing us to death.

 What I really enjoyed about this story is that the alternate universe characters know that they are not who they were before the comic started. They don’t know why they are suddenly compelled to do things that are outside their previous norm. Mina, shocked that she is responsible for their unhappy circumstances, helps them to fight against the compulsions that she created, while trying to fix the problem and allow them to be themselves again. By doing this, she learns the lesson herself—she needs to stand up to her father about her choices for her future.

 The solution to the problem is maybe a little frustrating. Mina is able to bring the tools she needs to fight her bad guys to life just by drawing them. It does make the eventual escape from them a bit too simple. On the other hand, Mina is also called on to make a great sacrifice—an understandable and needed one, but heartbreaking nonetheless.

 The final solution toward getting her back to her own reality was a little to close to The Wizard of Oz for my comfort.

 There were a few continuity errors in my ARC. Mina is lactose intolerant, but she eats cheese sticks and things with butter. On the other hand, when she orders a milkshake, she only dips her French fries in it because “that’s the only way I can have a milkshake.”

 Overall, I felt like the story was engaging, the dialogue and description were solid, and the characters who were supposed to be believable, were believable.

And…did Oh leave the door open for a sequel?

 Possible Objectionable Material:

Some violence of a comic-book nature. An over-the-top villain who does medical procedures on teens. Teenage cursing—mild. Teenage making out, also mild. No sex. A same-gender couple.

 Who Might Like This Book:

Fans of webcomics and comics in general will probably find this an enjoyable read. Although the protagonist is female, I think it will be equally engaging to boys.

 
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.