Walking in Two Worlds
Author: Wab Kinew
Publisher: Penguin Teen Canada
Bugz is caught between two worlds. In the real world, she's a shy and self-conscious Indigenous teen who faces the stresses of teenage angst and life on the Rez. But in the virtual world, her alter ego is not just confident but dominant in a massively multiplayer video game universe.
Feng is a teen boy who has been sent from China to live with his aunt, a doctor on the Rez, after his online activity suggests he may be developing extremist sympathies. Meeting each other in real life, as well as in the virtual world, Bugz and Feng immediately relate to each other as outsiders and as avid gamers. And as their connection is strengthened through their virtual adventures, they find that they have much in common in the real world, too: Both must decide what to do in the face of temptations and pitfalls, and both must grapple with the impacts of family challenges and community trauma.
But betrayal threatens everything Bugz has built in the virtual world, as well as her relationships in the real world, and it will take all her newfound strength to restore her friendship with Feng and reconcile the parallel aspects of her life: the traditional and the mainstream, the east and the west, the real and the virtual.
This novel is the most dynamic mashup ever. Consider the characters:
Feng is a Mandarin-speaking Uyghur teen, an ethnic minority in China all too familiar with devastating treatment and racism. He has just moved to a First Nations reserve in Canada, where he’s trying to fit in.
Bugz is an Anishinaabe teen, a minority in Canada all too familiar with devastating treatment and racism. She lives on this same First Nations reserve in Canada, where she struggles with her self-image as it relates to her weight, in stark contrast to her online confidence and status as a virtuoso gamer.
Naturally, the two become romantically drawn to one another, never mind that they’re arch-enemies in a gaming world where they spend most of their time participating in intense battles. It’s a place where gamertags are forever “rising to the heavens,” and memes, avatars and noobs are the vernacular.
Feng: “The Alternate Reality world is a filter to make yourself look better, or whatever, and make the world around you more fun. But Virtual Reality is where the missions and clans and a never-ending universe of possibilities takes place. The ‘Verse started as open-source. Hackers built it ages ago after the governments took over social media. Way back, during the pandemics… What’s smart is they distributed it all across a blockchain. No central servers, no central authority. In the Floraverse, reality is a blockchain.”
Not intrigued yet? Add moments of cultural insight involving sacred sites, the northern lights, sun dancers, sweat lodges and powwows. Glimpse the ominous draw and tension of gang life – called “clans” here – along with other teen issues such as cutting, misogynistic behavior (treating girls as second-class citizens) and suicidal thoughts.
Now stir in magic realism via the pair’s virtual world, including an underwater saber-tooth panther-snake, giant bulletproof Thunderbirds, special submarines and aircraft, and more.
An observer able to parse the nanoseconds from the milliseconds would’ve seen the individual laser beams, bullets, fire-tipped arrows and buckshot closing in on Bugz from nearly every one of the 360 degrees around her. As the fire raced toward Bugz, the giant underwater serpent she’d summoned shot up from the depths below, smashing the burning canoe to embers and tossing the young woman high into the air. Bugz grabbed the supernatural being’s horns as it continued to climb in altitude. The gunfire and projectiles rammed into the monster’s ascending body and ricocheted off like sound waves from a metal wall.
It’s cleverness wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. It’s also author Wab Kinew -- celebrated journalist, hip-hop artist and television host -- taking us all on a masterfully-crafted wild ride.
Sometimes the reader will wonder which world the characters are in: real or digital. The transitions are not always clear. Get used to the discomfiting confusion; it’s purposeful.
We at YAdudebooks normally don’t review novels with female protagonists, unless they have a male co-protag. We thought Feng was her equal cohort when we ordered a review copy, but just for the record, Bugz is the more prominent character. Never mind. It’s still an excellent read for guys. Especially if they’re gamers open to examining the nexus between the real world, digital world and spirit world.
- P.W.