You don’t have to be weird to enjoy this one (but it helps)

Hey, 10 more books this year and I’ll hit a quintuple cannonball! Considering I have about half of the rest of the days this year off from work — I think it’s doable.

“The internet is amazing because it connects us with one another. But it’s also horrific because . . . it connects us with one another.”

I remember seeing Felicia Day in Dr. Horrible, but I thought she was the same chick who played Saffron in Firefly (she’s not — that’s Christina Hendricks), so I was only slightly aware of who she really was. I’d never heard of The Guild at the time, although I certainly have by now. I loved her hacker chick on Supernatural though — total nerdy badass. My video game tastes have remained unchanged since sixth grade — Diablo and The Sims, and I ignore everything else — so I’ve never played World of Warcraft or any of the many other video games mentioned in this book. My point is: you do not need to be a gamergirl/Guild fan to love this book — because I loved this book.

Felicia had an…unusual upbringing. Her parents moved around a lot, but pretty much exclusively in the South. In an attempt to keep her kids out of terrible public schools, Felicia’s mom decided to home school them — though she rarely actually did it. As a result, Felicia had a lot of freedom growing up, and filled it with books and video games. She also didn’t have a lot of interaction with other kids — other than on the internet. She knew when she was young that she wanted to be an actress, so she moved to Hollywood — where doors slammed in her face and she drowned her sorrows in marathon video game sessions. Eventually, through working her ass off, she created the persona and empire that she has today. She also delves into how hard that has been on her — as a perfectionist, she’s driven herself into the ground working on her projects. She’s very open and honest about the mental health issues that arose, as well as the trauma that resulted from GamerGate.