In Real Life is a book which tries to be too many things at once. It wants to be a book about feminism and a book about workers’ rights at the same time, but neither concept is nearly as fleshed-out as it ought to be. The message is muddled and, at times, contradictory. Its tone is confused as well – the “gamer girl” gimmick is too patronising for older audiences, but the swearing and the heavy themes it alludes to make it unsuitable for young readers.

Before I go on to discuss the writing further, I’d like to mention that Jen Wang's artwork is wonderful throughout. The colour palettes and the line weight make this graphic novel a pleasure to read, even if I found the story itself a little disappointing.

The book begins with an introduction. There are some really good ideas in there so it’s a shame they weren’t handled as well as they could have been; the story is too fast-paced, meaning there’s no time to dwell on the “sticky, tough questions” the writer, Cory Doctorow, wants us to consider. Everything just kind of happens. Ideas are thrown together but not given space to be properly explored, resulting in a flat story with a lot of wasted potential.

Every problem is approached with a detached and somewhat dismissive attitude. Girls always choose male avatars in their games? Clearly it just hasn’t occurred to them to play as girls. Factory workers in China are being exploited? Clearly they’ve never heard of unions. It’s a naive approach to say the least. The reasons why someone might play as a man (eg: to avoid online harassment) or work in poor conditions (eg: because they desperately need the money) just aren’t considered. The story does play into the white saviour trope.

In Real Life is ambitious and well-intentioned, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing. It's not a bad book but it certainly could have been better. For that reason, I’m giving it three stars.