Who We Are in Real Life
Who We Are in Real Life
Strength. Dexterity. Constitution. Intelligence. Wisdom. Charisma.
I repeat the abilities in my head as the flat fields of wheat streak past. Only the occasional dirt road or giant combine interrupts the yellow haze. People would be so much easier to understand if they were characters in a role-playing game with ability scores. ...
I give my one mom, Monica, an eighteen in Charisma and a sixteen in Wisdom and Intelligence...In game, she’d be a traveling artisan, selling beauty remedies and homemade tinctures from the back of a covered wagon. In real life, she’s a short, round woman who needs a step stool to cut, dye and style hair at her salon. ...
Carrie, my other mom, has an epic Intelligence score of twenty – the highest base ability score possible – given that she’s been through all that med school. If she were a character in an RPG, she’d obviously be a healer. ...
Side note: I’m ignoring both of The Moms right now. ...
“We’ve already been through this, love.” Carrie waves her hand at the last-minute boxes and winter coats shoved in the back seat with me. “This is happening, so enough is enough.” ...
“They made an offer we couldn’t refuse,” Monica says. The muscles around her mouth tighten. “You know your mother has always wanted her own practice. She’ll be the head physician at the clinic.” ...
“Aren’t you even a little excited to meet new people?”
“No?” I fold my arms across my chest. “I had perfectly good friends back home.”
Home.
The place we left behind.
Uprooted from her life and friends in the city, Darcy is dreading the move to a small town where she knows no one. She no longer has a group of friends to game with, and so her biggest passion, tabletop gaming, is gone. To top it off, when Darcy starts school, she quickly learns that this small town is not the most welcoming place for queer people: her two moms are a frequent topic of discussion, some people even refuse to be seen by her physician mom, passive-aggressive bullying starts when students find out Darcy is bisexual, and the school doesn’t even have a QSA where Darcy can go to feel safe. Things seem pretty dire until Darcy is paired with Art in a school project and she discovers that he’s a big fan of tabletop gaming and has an active group in town that she can participate in! Darcy eventually meets other queer students in school, and finally she feels like she’s found a place to belong. If only they could start a QSA in school to welcome other students, but, of course, there’s red tape to go through. The students must get approval from the parents’ association which is headed by none other than Art’s homophobic father. As Darcy and Art get closer and start to develop feelings for each other, Art must decide between his family or Darcy, and Darcy must learn how to stand up for what she believes in.
Who We Are in Real Life is broken up into chapters that alternate between three different perspectives: Darcy, Art and their gaming world. The gaming chapters tell the story of Art and Darcy’s characters in their tabletop game, and these chapters demonstrate to the reader the major focus on storytelling that role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons can have. While these chapters don’t necessarily lend much to the story overall, they do introduce a fantasy element to the story which might broaden the book’s appeal. The plot flows well, and, because the characters are sympathetic and engaging, it doesn’t take long to form connections and root for Darcy and Art. The side characters add depth to the story so that, overall, the book is a great contemporary depiction of young adults’ lives in high school, with the extra bonus of having diverse characters and representation from the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
Stephanie Johnson is a graduate of the Master of Library and Information Studies Program from the University of Alberta and is the Director of Devon Public Library in Devon, Alberta.