andreacaro's review
3.0
This book might have been a 4-4.5 star read for me, but there was some excessive slut-shaming and I just couldn't deal. The format is weird. The book is really fucking weird. Stylistically, it was excellent. I don't think I'll ever read another book quite like this one.
psykobilliethekid's review against another edition
5.0
This was really good! And I'm not just saying that because I met the artist at MagLabs đ. This brought back a lot of memories from high school and from life right after high school for me, so I could relate to what the characters were experiencing. An easy read with an enjoyable plot, I highly suggest this for those that want a sense of nostalgia of high school, video games, and friendships.
aly36's review against another edition
4.0
This book brings back memories of this time in my life. I enjoyed the story and the characters were believable for me. A new twist on a story that seems familiar. I enjoyed the different take on it. *I received this book for free and this is my honest review*
maggersann's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. The entire time I read this book I kept saying to myself "I've seriously never read anything like this before." I dare you to make a comparison. Post-High School Reality Quest turns Buffy's life into a game where every situation give her a chance to respawn and change her fate. Laced within the game are moments in the present (or so you think) where Buffy is in a psych ward. I kept flipping pages furiously to find out if it was real or if it was all in her head like the doctors kept telling her. If you're a lover of video games, psychological thrillers, and some dark humor to sprinkle on top, Post-High School Reality quest is the one for you!
rainbowblight's review against another edition
2.0
This would have gotten a higher rating if the rather abrupt ending hadn't left me feeling confused and duped. Turns out it was an angel. Or it was all a dream. Who the hell knows?! The only thing I do know is that I read the final pages in disbelief, feeling that what I had believed to be a unique, retro-cool story about growing up and mental health was in reality a thinly veiled Christian manifesto.
On retrospect, some parts of the novel make a horrible new kind of sense when viewed from this perspective. When Tristan is in the hospital and asks Buffy what she believes in, after a lot of thought she finally admits that she doesn't know. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Tristan is struggling with suicidal thoughts. "What do you believe, Buffy? What keeps you going?" After Buffy and her friends find Tristan hanging in his garage she will "...replay this conversation in your mind, over and over, asking yourself why you didnât say somethingâanything else, if there was anything you couldâve said that wouldâve made things different." Now I'm wondering if the author was implying that Buffy could have saved him if she'd talked about her belief in God, which is frankly disturbing. There are other little things, too. Buffy's life is falling apart while she consistently refuses to attend church with her parents. Would things have worked out better if she had spent her Sunday mornings on a pew? The college's chapel is a safe space. The ESOL student who describes having a religious vision "...looks so relaxed, as if nothing could ever go wrong enough to make her freak out."
This is all fine of course, but at least make it clear that's what I'm getting from the get-go so I can make an informed decision about whether or not I want to read religious fiction. Hence, I was duped and those last pages ruined the book for me.
Which is a crying shame because up until then, this book was all sorts of awesome. I loved that the narrator was like a text parser from a text adventure game. Stroke of imaginative genius. It even got me interested in checking out Zork. I got eaten by a grue. The retro feel and Buffy's love of old computer games really scratched my Outrun itch.
Buffy was a likable character and her struggles with confusing social situations rang true. I thought her treatment of the other characters was sometimes a bit too harsh. Merrill had an alarming violent steak but he did love Buffy and wasn't treated fairly by her while they were dating. Sephora had an eating disorder and problems of her own which Buffy was largely oblivious to. I'm aware that Buffy realising she wasn't the only person in the world to be in pain was probably one of the main points of the novel (although really, who knows?), but while she does feel vaguely sorry for her at times, Buffy never really treats Sephora kindly and the eating disorder is never discussed or dealt with in any level of detail.
Treatment of mental illness is another of the book's problems. Tristan kills himself, Sephora is bulimic, Aquitane is a borderline alcoholic and who knows what's wrong with Alice? The last time we see her she's face down on her desk surrounded by broken glass with dried blood on her chin. Buffy leaves and does nothing. I understand that the story is told from Buffy's point of view and we're deep inside her own paranoid, private bubble, but these are issues that seem too important to be so casually brushed aside and forgotten. Even Buffy's own mental state is never dealt with satisfactorily. She's lackadaisical about seeing her doctor and taking her meds. They say her brain scan looks strange and they're not sure exactly what's wrong with her. None of this is talked about again but that's okay because it was an angel in her head all along and when she runs away from home and screams at it to leave her alone, it complies. Maybe she really was crazy. Maybe I read this book all wrong. Maybe that should have been clearer for simpletons like me.
Now I'm off to read Microserfs, a book mentioned by the author in the acknowledgements. Let's hope it's not actually a Buddhist pamphlet disguised as a commentary on 90's geek culture.
On retrospect, some parts of the novel make a horrible new kind of sense when viewed from this perspective. When Tristan is in the hospital and asks Buffy what she believes in, after a lot of thought she finally admits that she doesn't know. Unbeknownst to her at the time, Tristan is struggling with suicidal thoughts. "What do you believe, Buffy? What keeps you going?" After Buffy and her friends find Tristan hanging in his garage she will "...replay this conversation in your mind, over and over, asking yourself why you didnât say somethingâanything else, if there was anything you couldâve said that wouldâve made things different." Now I'm wondering if the author was implying that Buffy could have saved him if she'd talked about her belief in God, which is frankly disturbing. There are other little things, too. Buffy's life is falling apart while she consistently refuses to attend church with her parents. Would things have worked out better if she had spent her Sunday mornings on a pew? The college's chapel is a safe space. The ESOL student who describes having a religious vision "...looks so relaxed, as if nothing could ever go wrong enough to make her freak out."
This is all fine of course, but at least make it clear that's what I'm getting from the get-go so I can make an informed decision about whether or not I want to read religious fiction. Hence, I was duped and those last pages ruined the book for me.
Which is a crying shame because up until then, this book was all sorts of awesome. I loved that the narrator was like a text parser from a text adventure game. Stroke of imaginative genius. It even got me interested in checking out Zork. I got eaten by a grue. The retro feel and Buffy's love of old computer games really scratched my Outrun itch.
Buffy was a likable character and her struggles with confusing social situations rang true. I thought her treatment of the other characters was sometimes a bit too harsh. Merrill had an alarming violent steak but he did love Buffy and wasn't treated fairly by her while they were dating. Sephora had an eating disorder and problems of her own which Buffy was largely oblivious to. I'm aware that Buffy realising she wasn't the only person in the world to be in pain was probably one of the main points of the novel (although really, who knows?), but while she does feel vaguely sorry for her at times, Buffy never really treats Sephora kindly and the eating disorder is never discussed or dealt with in any level of detail.
Treatment of mental illness is another of the book's problems. Tristan kills himself, Sephora is bulimic, Aquitane is a borderline alcoholic and who knows what's wrong with Alice? The last time we see her she's face down on her desk surrounded by broken glass with dried blood on her chin. Buffy leaves and does nothing. I understand that the story is told from Buffy's point of view and we're deep inside her own paranoid, private bubble, but these are issues that seem too important to be so casually brushed aside and forgotten. Even Buffy's own mental state is never dealt with satisfactorily. She's lackadaisical about seeing her doctor and taking her meds. They say her brain scan looks strange and they're not sure exactly what's wrong with her. None of this is talked about again but that's okay because it was an angel in her head all along and when she runs away from home and screams at it to leave her alone, it complies. Maybe she really was crazy. Maybe I read this book all wrong. Maybe that should have been clearer for simpletons like me.
Now I'm off to read Microserfs, a book mentioned by the author in the acknowledgements. Let's hope it's not actually a Buddhist pamphlet disguised as a commentary on 90's geek culture.
stephbookshine's review against another edition
4.0
*I received a free copy of this book with thanks to Meg Eden, author and organiser of the Nerd Girl Books blog tour. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*
Post High School Reality Quest is Young Adult coming-of-age story with a difference. The majority of the book is written in video game âtext adventureâ style.
The ânarratorâ addresses the explanatory and descriptive passages in the second-person, aimed at the main character, Buffy, who responds with text prompts as she attempts to navigate the âgameâ of her life.
This is, at heart, a story about transitions â child to adult, friend to lover, sane to⌠well, er â as Buffy struggles to grasp, not only her own place in life and in her relationships, but her perceptions of reality itself. And the reader is right there alongside her! Is Buffy schizophrenic and hallucinating voices in her head? Or can she really âsaveâ her progress at crucial moments and reset to a previous save if things go wrong? Why can she only save or reset at certain points and not on demand? Is the narrator her own mental process at work, or something more invasive? And is it there to help and guide (as it claims), or⌠?
Some of these questions are answered as the story progresses, and others are left to the reader to draw their own conclusions.
There is humour here, as Buffy and the âtext parserâ banter with each other in a sardonically affectionate way, but there is also all of the sadness, anger, displacement and drama that often accompanies the teenage years, when every problem seems insurmountable and the application of liberal amounts of alcohol often only exacerbates the instability.
I really identified with Buffy (or rather, my teen self did!) and felt achingly sad for her obvious loneliness, even when surrounded by friends, and I empathised with her lack of a clear direction and purpose in life. I have sometimes thought my own life would be clearer and more simple if there were a defined âwinning scenarioâ that I could aim for!
I would recommend this book to teen and young adult readers (and above), especially gaming fans. It deals with serious issues around peer pressure, depression, social isolation, mental illness and suicidal thoughts in a sensitive, yet direct way, and the format is fresh and exciting. Well worth a slot on your memory card.
You are in a psychiatristâs office.
> No, Iâm not.
Iâm sorry, I donât understand âno, Iâm not.â Who do you think theyâre going to believe? The narrator, or the character who is here because she was found living in a telephone booth on the other side of town, talking to herself?
â Meg Eden, Post High School Reality Quest
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2019/07/14/blog-tour-post-high-school-reality-quest-meg-eden/
Post High School Reality Quest is Young Adult coming-of-age story with a difference. The majority of the book is written in video game âtext adventureâ style.
The ânarratorâ addresses the explanatory and descriptive passages in the second-person, aimed at the main character, Buffy, who responds with text prompts as she attempts to navigate the âgameâ of her life.
This is, at heart, a story about transitions â child to adult, friend to lover, sane to⌠well, er â as Buffy struggles to grasp, not only her own place in life and in her relationships, but her perceptions of reality itself. And the reader is right there alongside her! Is Buffy schizophrenic and hallucinating voices in her head? Or can she really âsaveâ her progress at crucial moments and reset to a previous save if things go wrong? Why can she only save or reset at certain points and not on demand? Is the narrator her own mental process at work, or something more invasive? And is it there to help and guide (as it claims), or⌠?
Some of these questions are answered as the story progresses, and others are left to the reader to draw their own conclusions.
There is humour here, as Buffy and the âtext parserâ banter with each other in a sardonically affectionate way, but there is also all of the sadness, anger, displacement and drama that often accompanies the teenage years, when every problem seems insurmountable and the application of liberal amounts of alcohol often only exacerbates the instability.
I really identified with Buffy (or rather, my teen self did!) and felt achingly sad for her obvious loneliness, even when surrounded by friends, and I empathised with her lack of a clear direction and purpose in life. I have sometimes thought my own life would be clearer and more simple if there were a defined âwinning scenarioâ that I could aim for!
I would recommend this book to teen and young adult readers (and above), especially gaming fans. It deals with serious issues around peer pressure, depression, social isolation, mental illness and suicidal thoughts in a sensitive, yet direct way, and the format is fresh and exciting. Well worth a slot on your memory card.
You are in a psychiatristâs office.
> No, Iâm not.
Iâm sorry, I donât understand âno, Iâm not.â Who do you think theyâre going to believe? The narrator, or the character who is here because she was found living in a telephone booth on the other side of town, talking to herself?
â Meg Eden, Post High School Reality Quest
Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpress.com/2019/07/14/blog-tour-post-high-school-reality-quest-meg-eden/
diamondxgirl's review
4.0
A unique take on the transition that happens after high school. Gamers who love quest games (and even those who are not!) will appreciate classic elements written into a book that explores the journey from teen to adulthood and all of the complications that follow.
Fans of At the Edge of the Universe will love this!
Fans of At the Edge of the Universe will love this!
cozykrysti's review against another edition
3.0
Post-High School Reality Quest has one of the most unique storytelling structures that I've experienced in a novel. The way the story is written is a throwback to text adventure games, which was fun and original.
Despite the video game elements and entertaining writing style, this book has a lot of very serious and sometimes dark elements to it. This book delves into a lot of different and very difficult mental health issues including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.
The story also focuses in on that sometimes difficult transition from teen to adulthood and the emotional upheaval it can cause. From making decisions that ultimately impact the rest of your life to discovering truths about the friends you thought you knew, Meg Eden pulls no punches when it comes to incorporating serious themes into this story.
I did find the end of the story a bit confusing. The closing line in particular made me question what I thought I had been reading throughout the rest of the book, but that may have been the point, or very well could have just been me being a bit oblivious.
Overall, I think this book is very well-written, and I do feel that fans of text adventures and classic video games will really enjoy the references sprinkled throughout.
Despite the video game elements and entertaining writing style, this book has a lot of very serious and sometimes dark elements to it. This book delves into a lot of different and very difficult mental health issues including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.
The story also focuses in on that sometimes difficult transition from teen to adulthood and the emotional upheaval it can cause. From making decisions that ultimately impact the rest of your life to discovering truths about the friends you thought you knew, Meg Eden pulls no punches when it comes to incorporating serious themes into this story.
I did find the end of the story a bit confusing. The closing line in particular made me question what I thought I had been reading throughout the rest of the book, but that may have been the point, or very well could have just been me being a bit oblivious.
Overall, I think this book is very well-written, and I do feel that fans of text adventures and classic video games will really enjoy the references sprinkled throughout.
nixwolfwood's review against another edition
4.0
When I first started reading it my mind registered something was weird, I had to reread the first few pages a couple of times, but it wasn't until I was a few pages in that I realized what was going on. The book is in second person. As someone who regularly games, that pleased me. I ended up immediately messaging a few of my other gamer friends and told them they should check it out... and this was before I'd actually gotten into the book.
Read more here:
https://www.platypire.com/j-hooligan/post-high-school-reality-quest-by-meg-eden
Read more here:
https://www.platypire.com/j-hooligan/post-high-school-reality-quest-by-meg-eden
krystimuggle's review against another edition
3.0
Post-High School Reality Quest has one of the most unique storytelling structures that I've experienced in a novel. The way the story is written is a throwback to text adventure games, which was fun and original.
Despite the video game elements and entertaining writing style, this book has a lot of very serious and sometimes dark elements to it. This book delves into a lot of different and very difficult mental health issues including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.
The story also focuses in on that sometimes difficult transition from teen to adulthood and the emotional upheaval it can cause. From making decisions that ultimately impact the rest of your life to discovering truths about the friends you thought you knew, Meg Eden pulls no punches when it comes to incorporating serious themes into this story.
I did find the end of the story a bit confusing. The closing line in particular made me question what I thought I had been reading throughout the rest of the book, but that may have been the point, or very well could have just been me being a bit oblivious.
Overall, I think this book is very well-written, and I do feel that fans of text adventures and classic video games will really enjoy the references sprinkled throughout.
Despite the video game elements and entertaining writing style, this book has a lot of very serious and sometimes dark elements to it. This book delves into a lot of different and very difficult mental health issues including schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.
The story also focuses in on that sometimes difficult transition from teen to adulthood and the emotional upheaval it can cause. From making decisions that ultimately impact the rest of your life to discovering truths about the friends you thought you knew, Meg Eden pulls no punches when it comes to incorporating serious themes into this story.
I did find the end of the story a bit confusing. The closing line in particular made me question what I thought I had been reading throughout the rest of the book, but that may have been the point, or very well could have just been me being a bit oblivious.
Overall, I think this book is very well-written, and I do feel that fans of text adventures and classic video games will really enjoy the references sprinkled throughout.