About the Book
From the acclaimed author of Brooklyn, Burning comes Guy in Real Life, an achingly real and profoundly moving love story about two teens that National Book Award-finalist Sara Zarr has called wholly original and instantly classic.
It is Labor Day weekend in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and boy and girl collide on a dark street at two thirty in the morning: Lesh, who wears black, listens to metal, and plays MMOs; Svetlana, who embroiders her skirts, listens to Björk and Berlioz, and dungeon masters her own RPG. They should pick themselves up, continue on their way, and never talk to each other again.
But they don't.
This is a story of the roles we all play--at school, at home, online, and with our friends--and the one person who might be able to show us who we are underneath it all.
About the Author :
Steve Brezenoff is the author of the young adult novels The Absolute Value of -1, which won the IPPY Gold Medal for young adult fiction, and Brooklyn, Burning, which was named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book, was a Best Fiction for Young Adults selection by the American Library Association, and won the ForeWord Book of the Year Gold Medal for young adult fiction. Born on Long Island, Steve now lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Beth, and their son and daughter, Sam and Etta. His main is a Blood Elf monk, but he's been known to run a Night Elf priest from time to time.
MacLeod Andrews is an actor, voice actor, and Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator who earned the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2018. He has starred in a number of independent short and feature films and is a member of the Rising Phoenix Repertory Company in New York City.
Arielle DeLisle is an Earphones Award-winning narrator, voice actor, and commercial producer. She has recorded more than sixty audiobooks, including dystopian young adult titles and Michael Wallace's Righteous series.
Review :
Guy in Real Life is a remarkably original, addictive novel that illuminates the roles we play for others and, ultimately, ourselves. A must-read for anyone who questions who they truly are, and who they could be.
-- "Nova Ren Suma, author of Imaginary Girls and 17 & Gone"
Brezenoff successfully immerses readers in the characters' progression from awkward acquaintances to adorably besotted teens. In addition to alternating between their perspectives, he also spends time within both the digital and analog RPGs, exploring sexism and gender stereotypes, while highlighting the way that both types of games are often driven by a novelistic kind of storytelling (even if some gamers skip past those scenes). An idiosyncratic romance that offers plenty of cultural food for thought.
-- "Publishers Weekly"
Brezenoff's novel works on many levels, and its depth and humor will appeal to many readers. Told in the alternating voices of Lesh, Svetlana, and their online personae Svvetlana and Kugnar, the story deftly navigates the real and virtual worlds of the characters...Their sweet-natured romance isn't overly saccharine and offers a charmingly awkward look at first love, and the supporting characters, particularly Svetlana's friends, are well developed and just as quirky as the main protagonists.
-- "School Library Journal"
I suppose Steve Brezenoff will have to grow up one of these days and forget what it was like to be sixteen, but let's hope it doesn't happen too soon-at least not to the part of him that can write a book like Guy in Real Life.
-- "Pete Hautman, National Book Award-winning author of Godless"
In a voice full of authentic grit, poetic verve, and real emotion, Steve Brezenoff weaves a tale that feels both wholly original and instantly classic. Another fantastic book from a writer I envy and admire.
-- "Sara Zarr, National Book Award finalist for Story of a Girl"
Sulky metal head boy meets artsy gamer girl. Awkward teenage love ensues...The juxtaposition of live, real-time role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons against the detached anonymity of MMORPGs, plus a playfully thoughtful exploration of gender identity and politics, gives the novel depth and heart that will appeal to audiences beyond the gaming set. This is not the teen love story you've read a thousand times before.
-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"
The gaming motif adds an intriguing layer, as Brezenoff uses it to explore issues of gender identity. Unhappy with Kugnar, his brutish warrior avatar, Lesh creates an elfin version of Svetlana and begins to enjoy playing the game as her, even when that means attracting virtual male attention...Has he created this character because he wants to be with the real Svetlana or because he wants to be her? There is, he realizes, no simple answer.
-- "Chicago Tribune"
The overall effect of the novel...is of marvelous fantasy sequences interspersed with the messiness of real-life romance. Lesh's predicament-that he loves becoming Svetlana as much as he loves Lana-is presented sweetly and believably. Like his easy evocation of gender-free characters in his Brooklyn, Burning, Brezenoff deftly handles one teen's experience of gender dysphoria.
-- "Booklist"
