As a queer person who grew up roleplaying online (and who still does!), I was immediately hooked by Out of Character’s premise. It’s so rare to see “internet” friends acknowledged as real friends in traditionally published books, let alone the unique and passionate niche that roleplaying circles can provide. On that front, Out of Character delivered wholeheartedly. While sometimes severely lacking in necessary depth and driven by frustrating amounts of miscommunication, this is a charming contemporary YA read my younger self would have adored with all their heart.

Main character Cass is obsessed with a book series called Tide Wars and devotes a significant amount of her time to roleplaying as the series’ protagonist, Captain Aresha. Determined to protect her safe space and avoid ridicule, Cass keeps her roleplaying a secret. But after her mom abandons her and she gets swept up into a whirlwind romance with one of the coolest girls in school, real life gets to be way too much to handle. And if that wasn’t enough, her developing crush on her best friend and roleplay partner Rowan Davies might be the thing that tips everything out of balance.

This book felt so authentic to the teenage roleplaying experience, including all its Discord drama and mixing of real life and roleplay feelings. I loved seeing the interactions between Cass and her online friends. It was wonderful to see a fat, lesbian protagonist who suffered zero conflict due to either of those labels and/or identities.

The love triangle, for better or for worse, felt excruciatingly realistic. As much as I wanted to sometimes give Cass a loving talking to about honesty and boundaries, her decisions and uncertainty made teenage logic sense. Even for those of us with a bit more life under our belt, romantic emotions can be complex and hard to sort out, and Cass struggling with authenticity was painfully relatable to points in my own past.

I did feel some of the literally traumatic moments were too glossed over; the subplot with Cass and her mom comes to mind, from the opening scene of her just peacing out of the family home with one sentence before driving off into the sunset and the subsequent interactions. I think the novel would have been stronger as a whole if the whole subplot had been removed, as it wasn’t given enough space to be impactful.

Out of Character does a lot well: its love letter to nerdy fandom roleplaying, its wholehearted acceptance of queerness, and its tackling of the complexities of dating both on and offline. If you want an emotional, sweet, fast contemporary read, this one is worth picking up.

Thank you to HarperCollins and Edelweiss for an advance review copy. All opinions are my own.