3 stars
A fun story of adventure, friendship, and fighting your way through virtual dungeons.
I wanted to read this because I love Sarah Graley’s art style. I just can’t get enough of her adorable style. In that way, I was not disappointed by this book at all. Great artwork, awesome coloring. Each page was phenomenal.
However, the story itself was a bit lacking. Overall, it was okay, but the pacing was uneven, dragging a bit then picking up speed exponentially. This led to an ending that felt rush and not very satisfying. It just all happened too quickly.
I really liked all of the characters, but their relationships felt a bit vague with awkward dialogue and clunky interactions. The world also wasn’t very hashed out and for all the time Izzy spent in the virtual world, all the reader got were hints of the impact on her life besides her friendship with Eric. How can she just get away with sleeping through school and disappearing for hours on end?
But the idea of the story was good and I enjoyed the twists and turns it took. A good year for young graphic-novel lovers, specially those who enjoy video games, robots, and pizza. (Side note: I really want to go to that space-themed pizzeria. How do I make that happen?)