Who We Are In Real Life by Victoria Koops is a YA contemporary romance novel that follows two geeky teens finding each other, and themselves, in a small town.
Synopsis
Darcy is a city girl who just moved to the small prairie town of Unity Creek with her two moms. It feels like she left all the good things back in the city, her friends, her boyfriend, and her tabletop RPGs. Not only that but now her family has to deal with homophobia from their new neighbours. Then, she meets Art. A kind quiet kid who invites her to join his Dungeons & Dragons game.
As for Art, he’s mostly happy to stay out of the spotlight at school and only really steps into it at his group’s weekly D&D game. Then Darcy comes along and throws his life into wonderful chaos. Suddenly, he’s got something worth fighting for. But that something puts Art in conflict with his conservative father, an influential figure in town. When Darcy and her friends want to start a queer-straight alliance at their high school, Art’s dad stands in their way. Can Arthur stand up against his father’s efforts to stop them?
Meanwhile, in game, Darcy and Art’s D&D characters join forces to fight corruption and save the people of Durgeon’s Keep! Fantasy and reality collide in this wonder-filled novel.
Review
This one was a really sweet read! I love Dungeons & Dragons so when I heard about this book I had to get my hands on it!
To start, the first chapter had me a little worried that I wouldn’t like it. Darcy uses a lot of D&D and pop-culture references and it got on my nerves at first. I wanted to yell “Speak normally!” But then I remembered what I was like at sixteen, having lunch in the music room, and playing D&D with my friends on weekends. Wow, I am officially an uncool adult.
After that realization, I fell in love as the novel flipped back and forth between real life and the world of the D&D game. Art’s reserved, stay-out-of-trouble mentality matches Darcy’s loud, “Don’t mess with me” personality. I love the way they rub off on each other as the story goes on. Darcy opens up to Art and softens up, while Art learns to stand up for himself and his beliefs.
The cute romance between Darcy and Art is so sweet! It ended up reminding me of my own high school sweetheart and me! It feels natural as they flirt in all their geekiness. Art taking Darcy’s hand and using very chivalrous language to woo her just screams teenage nerds and I love it.
My only real complaint for this book is that I wish it was longer. More time was spent on building up Art and Darcy’s relationship than the founding of the QSA and Art standing up to his dad. I wish it was a little longer and Art’s dad was a bit of a bigger antagonist. It felt like Darcy’s ex-boyfriend was a bigger threat than the dad.
As a lady in her mid-twenties, I’m definitely a little outside the target audience for this book. I recommend this for teens and maybe early twenties. Although, if you love tabletop RPGs and cute first loves, you’ll definitely like Who We Are In Real Life.
LGBTQIA+ Rep
I’ve been talking about what seems like a straight relationship this whole time, so you’re probably asking yourself, “Where’s the LGBTQIA+ rep?”. Hold your horses! There’s plenty of queer rep in this book! First of all, Darcy has two moms. Boom, major queer rep, normalizing queer families. Second, Darcy is bisexual. It’s important to remember that bisexual people exist and to say that it isn’t queer rep because she dates two boys in the book is bi erasure. Bisexuals are still bisexual, even if they are in straight-passing relationships.
There also exist other queer kids in Unity Creek. Mack, who is genderfluid and maybe demisexual, Rainbow, who likes girls, and Wyatt, who’s a Cree two-spirit. It’s a lovely cast of characters that cover the LGBTQIA+ spectrum! It’s also a great book because it’s so relevant to the small-town queer experience. Cities are pretty safe for queer folx these days, but when you go outside of them, it can be a scary place for those who are visibly queer. Who We Are In Real Life does an amazing job of portraying the struggles of being queer in a place that is less than welcoming.
Victoria Koops’ debut novel is overall a fantastic queer read, if a little short. As a fellow Canadian, I’m so glad and proud to be able to read this queer book and see it on bookstore shelves. If you want to check out the book it can be found on Indigo, Amazon, and locally in Canada through Shop Local.
Follow Victoria on Instagram and Facebook @victoriakoopswrites, so you're in loop when she releases her next super cool novel!
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