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A review by manwithanagenda
User Unfriendly by Vivian Vande Velde
adventurous
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.75
I had been such a fan of 'Heir Apparent' growing up, I was surprised I'd never heard of, let alone read, the companion books featuring the Rasmussem Corporation. I tracked down a copy of 'User Unfriendly' and discovered early on, that I actually had tried to read this. I just had the good sense at 12 to put this down and walk away. The original cover brought back the memory. The plot is simple: a group of friends and a mom use a pirated copy of a Rasmussem game and have a terrible time when it starts glitching.
The book barely introduces us to the main character, Arvin Rizalli. He wakes up in a stable in-game and we receive a long list of the people huddled in his "hacker" friend's basement den. We receive no information about them other than a couple references to grade level, two are a couple, and one of them is his mom. Why is his mom in his friend's basement den? At the end of the book we have a reference to her "begging" him to let her play the game with them, but it was weird. That long list of names ends up not mattering because there's an odd choice to have most of the characters have secret identities. Their digital selves look completely different from their physical bodies and they call each other by their character names. Arvin speculates about identities, and it just adds to the general confusion. Oh, right. One of the many characters is actually Giannine from 'Heir Apparent', for what it's worth.
The book isn't that long, but it took forever to get anywhere and the very little of the humor landed. There was one good bit about the other party having zero issues in catching up to the lead. 'Heir Apparent' at least had some knowing gamer winks and playfulness, but 'User Unfriendly' just makes a couple of tabletop game references. Arvin's self esteem issues don't make me feel for him, they just make me want to skip ahead a few paragraphs every time. The glitches also don't seem that severe, except where Arvin's mom is concerned, and there is no sense of urgency until the last few pages. Read with caution.
Rasmussem Corporation
Next: 'Heir Apparent'
The book barely introduces us to the main character, Arvin Rizalli. He wakes up in a stable in-game and we receive a long list of the people huddled in his "hacker" friend's basement den. We receive no information about them other than a couple references to grade level, two are a couple, and one of them is his mom. Why is his mom in his friend's basement den? At the end of the book we have a reference to her "begging" him to let her play the game with them, but it was weird. That long list of names ends up not mattering because there's an odd choice to have most of the characters have secret identities. Their digital selves look completely different from their physical bodies and they call each other by their character names. Arvin speculates about identities, and it just adds to the general confusion. Oh, right. One of the many characters is actually Giannine from 'Heir Apparent', for what it's worth.
The book isn't that long, but it took forever to get anywhere and the very little of the humor landed. There was one good bit about the other party having zero issues in catching up to the lead. 'Heir Apparent' at least had some knowing gamer winks and playfulness, but 'User Unfriendly' just makes a couple of tabletop game references. Arvin's self esteem issues don't make me feel for him, they just make me want to skip ahead a few paragraphs every time. The glitches also don't seem that severe, except where Arvin's mom is concerned, and there is no sense of urgency until the last few pages. Read with caution.
Rasmussem Corporation
Next: 'Heir Apparent'