Real Life, Vol. 1 by Disney Publishing

Real Life, Vol. 1 Reviews

• 
  Rod Brown

  Lifeless. A committee of people in an Italian Disney subsidiary or licensee sat down and created a teen property. It has social media, emojis, chibis, hashtags, and diversity. They only forgot soul.
  
  Three girls who barely know each other get detention together. They create a social profile for their amalgamation of a dream boy. A day later said boy shows up at school. Instead of being freaked out or putting in much beyond a token effort to find out where he came from, the girls start competing to see who gets to kiss him first. And this goes on for over 300 pages. As can be expected by the #1 on the cover, the final chapter is more the barest hint at the mysteries behind the enigmatic boy than a conclusion.
  
  The art isn't bad, but I never got used to reading the blue lettering in all the word balloons.
  
  And I certainly never got used to reading those words in blue. Maybe it makes more sense in Italian or if I were Italian? Honestly, when I was reading Disney Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge and Mickey Mouse comics regularly (which was well into my 30s), I always dreaded the Italian stories they crammed in between the magnificent Carl Barks and Don Rosa reprints. These don't seem to be the same creators, but I think there is some disconnect between what Italian comic book writers think is funny and what I find funny. I rarely laughed then, and I didn't laugh now.
  
  I cannot believe how much of my real life I wasted reading this.
• 
  Rebecca

  I actually really liked this story a lot. I also think a lot of my younger female teen readers will also like this title. It has vibrant colors, a social media based story line, and some pretty interesting characters that are believably woven together against the backdrop of high school life.
  
  One thing that I can't get behind, is that there is a racist image in the panel on page 41. One of the characters states "I'll destroy you! I'll annihilate you! I'll make sure you have a semester so horrible that you'll spend the next one in Alaska fishing salmon!" This statement is not in itself racist, but the adjoining image is of the other two main characters dressed as what the reader is supposed to perceive as Eskimo clothing, with slanted eyes, and buck teeth while ice fishing. It is too similar to racist portrayals of Asian characters to be anything but a racist image.
  
  This made me REALLY sad (and then subsequently mad) because this is published in the US under the Disney name as a Disney comic. And Disney is so intentional about everything that they do ... that this was simply a super poor choice to not be edited out.
  
  I would have rated this higher ... had it not been for the appearance of that image on page 41.
• 
  Ardin Patterson

  Initially when I purchased this book a few years back, was drawn in by the art style and the fact that there was a diverse cast of character’s. I also thought the synopsis sounded really good. My TBR continues to grow daily…so it took me until 2021 to actually read this book.
  
  Now, I want to start off by saying that yes, I liked the idea but I have some critiques because I was disappointed by how certain things were implemented. My main critique is is with the diversity, the same thing that I was excited about.
  
  The book follows three girls, Amber, Alice and Andrea, who all have a crush on Thomas, a guy who seems to have popped out of thin air who looks exactly like the fake profile they made on Real Life, an app that’s almost like a combination of facebook and instagram. Amber is black or mixed race with black. I was never really sure as she has red hair and green eyes and the reader’s only see her mom. Alice is white, blonde hair and blue eyes and then Andrea is Asian, specifically Japanese as her last name is Tanaka.
  
  As I mentioned when I first saw the cover of this book, I was excited because it gives the illusion that these three girls are a close knit group of friends. They’re all happy and smiling together doing this really cute group pose. However, when I started reading it quickly became clear that these three girls were merely playing into negative racial stereotypes, mainly Amber and Andrea.
  
  I’ll start by discussing Amber. Amber falls into the mean black hottie trope, which is used so often in television that it gets on my nerves. I have yet to watch a show where the black or mixed girl is portrayed as shy or gentle or clumsy. I wanted to like Amber but every time I thought “she’s not that bad” she did or said something that seriously rubbed me the wrong way. All I kept thinking was how it sucked that this rude, bratty girl was the only representation of a black female character in this entire book. If she was contrasted by another character who was well-to put it plainly-nice it wouldn’t have bothered me as much. Another thing that continued to happen with her character, is that her complexion changed constantly. I don’t know about anyone else, but my skin colour doesn’t magically change because I’m mixed race? If I suddenly went all pale, I’d definitely go check in with a doctor or something. The inconsistency with her skin tone was extremely frustrating. In the first chapter alone, there are several instances where her and Alice are the exact same colour.
  
  Next Andrea, who was equally messy. Of course, the Asian girl is the honour student. She's grades driven, super smart and a proud nerd. Like I haven’t seen that a million times. At least she has a secret love for art. I preferred her character a little more than Amber’s and it was only because there were other Asian female character’s that she could be contrasted with. If those other girls weren’t there I would have went, “Oh look the Asian Nerd Trope.” Sadly, there were points where Andrea, like Amber was just…mean.
  
  Lastly Alice, who ends up being the most likeable character. She’s the one that I found myself rooting for, why? Because she was nice. She’s the target of bullies at her school. Mainly cyber-bullying and her brother who attends the same school, doesn’t do anything to stop it. He’s actually annoyed by her and treats her like a burden. Her parents want her to play volleyball for her dad’s team. She’s good at it; it’s about the only thing she’s good at, however she has a love for theatre and wants to act in the school play. Alice is portrayed as a hopeless romantic, hopeless klutz and a hopeless dork…and yet, you like her character because you HOPE things will turn out well for her in the end.
  
  Alice is also contrasted by other female character’s who look like her, and males too. Contrast is important when you have a diverse cast. Why? Because not all people are the same. Not all jocks are the same. Not all nerds are the same. Not all theatre kids are the same. The. Contrast. Is. Important.
  
  This story is set in England and from what I’ve heard it’s very multicultural, so for two out of three leading ladies to fall into these typical racial book/film tropes is ridiculous. There’s no excuse for it. It’s no wonder the book received 3.5 stars on Goodread’s. Like, this story could be really good but it’s hard to ignore how these girls were basically created by using a checklist. Not only that but there was also racist imagery in the book of one of the girls with buck teeth and slanted eyes, dressed as an “Eskimo” in Alaska. That’s a huge nope. How did that get the green light in 2018?
  
  There’s no excuse for how Amber and Andrea are portrayed, nor for that imagery. It’s frustrating seeing these negative, racial stereotypes used constantly.
  
  I’m not saying that I think Alice should have been portrayed differently, I’m just saying that it would have been nice if the writer’s actually give Amber and Andrea a chance! I really tried to like them. I did…but by having these two girls just act as stereotypes, it really took away from the story. I don’t even know if I want to read the rest of this series. I’m so disappointed.
  
  I don’t care if it was 2018, this book fell into the category of diversity baiting…and I can’t even express how much I hate that. Proper diversity is showing a variety of character’s of different backgrounds who compliment and contrast one another. They don’t play into racist stereotypes, they are 3 dimensional. These character’s actually get backstories, have families and hobbies…like, why is Amber so mean? There was no reason other than “She’s the Queen Bee.” Really? That’s it? It’s not a defense mechanism? She just bosses people around and acts like a spoiled brat because she can? Andrea, likes to study and everyone’s always talking about how she’s going to get the Nobel Prize some day. She’s so smart! People call her a nerd. Like at least they gave her the whole bit about her mom trying to set her up with all these random guys but still…”I don’t have time for boys. I have to study.” Seriously?
• 
  Stephanie (steph.n.sketch)

  It's an alright graphic novel. I can definitely see this book in a teenage girl's hand. The vibrant colors and art style really stand out, and I thought it flowed beautifully. The story itself is somewhat lacking, and some of the forshadowing doesn't make sense.
  
  I don't think the character relationships followed through. It felt a bit too cliche at times, though I could relate to Keats pretty well. I think the message it's trying to send is a good one though, so overall I gave it 3 stars.
  
  I think it just needs a bit more...life. Real life?
  
  Also note there is a tiny chibi racist pic on one page in this book. I would advise not to draw would-be Eskimos with slanted eyes and bucked teeth. -_- c'mon Disney.
• 
  Judith

  6th/7th Grade - 3 teens, who have nothing in common, receive detention together. Instead of working, they create a fake profile on Real Life of their dream guy. They are pretty shocked to find Thomas Anderson, their dream boy, at school the next day.
  
  This story was pretty long and slightly confusing. The illustrations were amazing, but the characters got on my nerves some. Instead of focusing on the mystery of why Thomas Anderson is a real person, they all start hoping to be the one he kisses. That being said, I think this series will be very popular with 6th/7th graders.
• 
  Thea Martin

  3.5
  
  It's a cliche high school drama but what happened to the 3 girls really intrigued me. Like by the ending I was like, "wake the heck is really happening". The three main girls are so different from each other. All from different high school cliques. I'm not exactly sure who I'm rooting for yet. But I love them as friends. It's so realistic but it's really not. Like the exaggeration of not being able to live without our gadgets and the internet. And of course, the "perfect" guy... :p
  
  The art is beautiful. I love the format and you can easily identify the different characters.
• 
  Addie Newman

  I was immediately drawn to Real Life based on the character art. Each character has a completely different feel, yet it is also cohesive to the rest of the story. The first volume depicts the lives of Amber, Alice, and Andrea as they try to understand, and get to know the new mystery transfer kid, Thomas. Although this book was heavily inside the romance love triangle trope, I thoroughly enjoyed the development and drama with regards to the friendship between the girls.
• 
  Jennifer

  This is a cute beginning to a series that has a fresh social commentary on social media and teens. This is more like a collection of Manga volumes (and the story is told very similarly to manga storytelling) so some of the arcs took longer to get through, but I am excited to pick up volume 2 and see where this story goes especially now that they are friends!!
• 
  Jewels

  This was a cute story that reminds me of the quirkiness of Disney's Freaky Friday. I'm curious as to how the sequel will turn out while I'm waiting for some of the main plot to be explained, but other than that, this is worth recommending for teens that like Disney and graphic novels.
• 
  Alice Rachel

  The art was beautiful. Five stars for that.
  The storyline was dreadful. One star for that. It was fine at first, but the girls' obsession with Thomas got really annoying really quickly. There is so much more to being a girl than obsessing over some boy.
• 
  Jennifer

  2.5/5 This was another hard read for me. Reading this western manga was incredibly difficult through comixology. I rely on guided view to help my reading process and focus in on key scenes. But this manga was not optimized for this feature and thus, reading through proved difficult to get into the story. Half the time I was trying to figure if I was reading the dialogue in the right order because my brain has been programmed to read manga in a certain way and graphic novels in a certain way and there’s in between. I liked the representation in the page, and I thought each girl was unique but each still managed to read two-dimensional. There was a weird disconnect between the story and the characters and perhaps it’s because it was trying to too many things at once.