Blurb:
| In this twisty, fast-paced YA thriller, a dangerous game becomes all too real when Marina and her friends are framed for murder. When Marina Chan ran from her old life, she brought nothing with her-not even her real name. Now she lives in fear of her past being discovered. But when her online gaming team is offered a tour of their favorite game company, Marina can't resist accepting, even though she knows it might put her fake identity at risk. Then the creator of the game is murdered during their tour. Whoever killed him plans to frame Marina and her friends for the murder unless they win four rounds of a dangerous game. A game that requires them to lie, trespass, and steal. A game that could destroy everything Marina's worked so hard to build…. A game that she might not survive. |
It’s Only a Game is a story about parental abuse,
found family, and video games, all wrapped up in a murder mystery.
The beginning of the book really
grabs the reader and makes it clear this is going to be a gripping narrative.
At the start, all we know about main character Marina Chan is that she’s a
runaway teen living illegally in a Chinese restaurant/game café, and that she
must hide her identity from everyone. That means no school, no ID or paper
trail, and no letting anyone get too close. The only relationships Marina has
are with the owners of Bette’s Battles and Bao, who kindly allow her to live
there, and her three online friends: RockSplice (Rock), Dreadnaughty (Dread),
and Syldara (Syl). Marina has a MASSIVE crush on Syl. The four of them met
through a PC game called Darkitect, a combination MMORPG (short for massively
multiplayer online role-playing game) and level designer where Marina plays
under the alias Nightmar3 (Night for short). Their favorite level designer is a mysterious
programmer named Cíxĭ (pronounced like tsuh-SHEE), who took her name from an Empress
Dowager who ruled China during the late Qing dynasty. I like that Cíxĭ’s name has the accents when Marina
says it, indicating that she uses the correct Mandarin inflections, as compared
to her non-Chinese friends who pronounce it as Cixi (without the accents).
After beating an especially
challenging level she designed, the four gamers score exclusive invites to one
of Cíxĭ’s new levels. As
thrilled as Marina is at the prospect of playing a new level designed by the
elusive programmer, she’s even more excited knowing that tomorrow she’ll be
meeting her online friends in real life for the first time on top of getting a
tour of getting a tour of Apocalypta Games (the creators of Darkitect). Things
couldn’t be better. Meeting her friends
for the first time goes exceptionally well, and Rock, Dread, and Syl
immediately accept Marina as one of their own.
Rock is a slender Indian American guy whose
parents run security for Apocalypta Games. Dread is a tall, white guy, and the
oldest, who interns at Apocalypta. Finally there’s Dread’s cousin, Syl, a
gorgeous and glamorous Black girl who’s the girly-girl to Marina’s tomboy. I
love that Syl’s character enjoys girly things, like makeup, dresses, heels, and
stylish nails, while still being very into video games. While the rise in
popularity of Twitch has shown that women who play video games are a diverse
group, I remember when feminine gamers were accused of only doing it for male
attention, and “real gamer girls” were tomboys. While this stereotype has
somewhat changed over the years, women gamers are
still subject to a
great deal of harassment. But the guys in Marina’s gaming group are
completely supportive of the two girls and the friends manage to avoid most of
the toxicity in the gaming world.
 |
| Marina and her crush, Syl |
The tour is great, with the owner of the company, Ethan Wainwright himself, showing the group around. He even invites Marina to contribute her art to Apocalypta’s quarterly magazine, and offers her and her friends exhibitor badges for PAX West. Originally known as Penny Arcade Expo, PAX West, along with the other PAX conventions, is one of the largest gaming conventions in the US, so this is a HUGE deal. Marina can barely contain her excitement and is having the best day of her life, that is, until she and her friends find the body. What follows is a page-turning murder mystery that tests the limits of Marina’s newfound friendships.
Marina’s mysterious past is slowly
revealed over the course of the book. She lived with her overprotective mother,
but never knew her father (her mother says he was a “bad man”). We know she must
hide who she is, but we’re not sure why. We also discover that Marina suffered
from emotional abuse. Trauma from her past has made her private and slow to
trust, as her mother made sure Marina was completely dependent on her. The
Confucian concept of filial
piety (Xiao) an important aspect of Chinese culture, seems to play a role
in Marina’s abuse. Chinese American reddit user CauliflowerOk7056
argues in his college essay entitled “Beat
Him till the Blood Flows”: How Confucianism and Traditional East Asian Culture
Can Enable Child Abuse that, in addition to poverty, a major contributor
to Chinse and Chinse American child
abuse is filial piety. In it he states “Sadly, as well-intentioned as
Confucius’ ideal may have been, filial piety has its issues that can be
exploited to justify child abuse. For one thing, its undue emphasis on strict
obedience from children sets a precedent that can provide some leeway for abusive
parents.”
However, he is quick to explain
that Confucianism in and of itself does not encourage abuse, and even suggest
that children hold their parents responsible. Psychotherapist Sam Louie explains
"As [Asian American] clients talk about the emotional and/or physical
abuse, they will often defend their parents saying something to the effect of,
'They did the best they could,' or 'I knew they still loved me.' It isn't until
more trust is developed that I can confront their inability to see how abuse
can and often does happen within 'loving' households and relationships in
general." One of the reasons it takes so long for Marina to recognize her
mother’s abuse is because her mother constantly tells her how much she loves
her. When Marina asks to go over to a friends’ house, her mother refuses
explaining she “loves
[Marina] too much” to
let her go. Additionally she guilts Marina for wanting friends and successfully
isolates her (another
hallmark of abuse), asking “Am I not enough for you? Am I so bad that you
have to get away from me?”
Asian Americans, especially Asian
American immigrants like Marina’s mother, also underutilize mental health
services creating a “major mental health disparity” according to entitled Use
of Specialty Mental Health Services by Asian Americans With Psychiatric
Disorders. While it’s certainly not an excuse, and plenty of mentally
ill individuals still make great parents, her mother’s mental health may have
also played a role in the way she treated Marina. It's important to note that, while
Marina’s abuse may have cultural elements to it, child abuse is not unique to
any one race or culture, and in fact a research study entitled Child
Maltreatment Among Asian Americans: Characteristics and Explanatory Framework
points out that "The reported rate of child maltreatment among Asian
Americans is disproportionately low” compared to other racial and ethnic groups
(though this may be partially due to under reporting). When calculating the
risks of child abuse, poverty
and inequality are leading factors, along with intergenerational
trauma, stress, isolation, and a lack of a support system.
Yu puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of building supportive relationships, especially when you don’t have family to rely on. I appreciate that Yu believes that online friendships can be just as important as face-to-face ones. As a millennial, I grew up in the early days of the internet when adults firmly believed everyone online was a predator and forming online friendships was new territory. Yet, despite the warnings from overprotective adults, I still formed meaningful relationships with people I met online.
I met one of my best friends on LiveJournal. I would have never known my wife
if she hadn’t joined our friend’s group through Meetup. For a kid who grew up
in a small town who had trouble finding others my age with the same niche
interests as me, the internet gave me a way to feel less alone, just like it
did for Marina. These days 57% of teenagers meet a new friend online, and those
relationships can be just as meaningful as face-to-face
ones.
While you don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy It’s Only a Game it definitely helps since non-gamers are unlikely to recognize some of the references and terminology, which Yu doesn’t bother to explain or elaborate on (I had to look up what AoE stands for). Most of the action takes place within the world of Darkitect so readers who have never felt the excitement and suspense of playing a video game with fighting elements may not get as much out of those scenes. On the plus side, all the gaming elements are likely to appeal to reluctant readers who prefer World of Warcraft over books.
