Level Up

Summary: Dennis Ouyang just wants to play video games. But after the death of his father, four adorable angels appear and force him to take control of his life: clean up, study hard, finish college, and go to medical school. But the angels are rather jealous of his time, and Dennis doesn't think

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they're going to take it well when he decides that med school is just not for him.

Review: This was a fun little book. It had its serious moments, for sure - a book about expectations and being who you want to be vs. who you were meant to be is not going to be all laughs all the time - but it had its fair share of cute and funny and sweet moments as well (I particularly liked Dennis's interactions with his friends once he started med school). I don't know that what it had to say about what parents want for their kids vs. what kids think their parents want, and what kids want for themselves was anything particularly original, but it was presented smoothly and in a very relatable way. The art in this book is simple - pen drawings with not-always-in-the-lines washes of watercolor - but cute, and fits the tone of the book well. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: This book is maybe a little odd in its audience - it's about 20-somethings, but seems like it's geared towards younger readers. But it's a solid coming-of-age story that should be relatable to all ages, particularly if they like video games.

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An excellent story of parental expectations, medical school, and video games. Not to mention some pesky little angels... I highly recommend this one and don't want to say too much lest I spoil anything!

Finding oneself and what one wants to do in light of parental pressures is one of the challenges of late adolescent life. Should you do what you like, following your own passions, or should you follow your parents’ desires and advice, and take a more conservative path? Such is the problem facing

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Dennis Ouyang, who has fallen pretty hard in love with video games, and grows very skilled with them… but whose parents really want him to be a doctor. To study hard, get into the right school, and become the right kind of doctor, that’s what his parents expect. And after his father dies, he has to try to navigate a course between trying to respect his memory and carving out his own life… supported by some angels.

The story here is pretty well-done, and doesn’t go exactly where you think; I think it’s not quite as sophisticated as American Born Chinese was, but it was still pretty interesting, and you get a sense of Dennis’s struggles to walk a middle path. There’s also some good medical humor in there, too, if you like that. The supporting characters are interesting, from Dennis’s mom and dad to the other students. It’s probably on purpose that all the students are from minority backgrounds, as well, and pretty much all different ones.

The art was pretty good, not super detailed, but meant to evoke gaming, in the panel design and probably in some of the sketchiness. It does a pretty good job of carrying the story across, but it’s not overwhelming.

This was an enjoyable and fast little read, but I’d probably try his earlier works first before this one.

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Dennis Ouyang dreams in pixels, even if the games that inspire those dreams remain out of reach. On the eve of his father's death, he buys his first video game console; the ensuing spiral turns hims from academic star to college dropout. When all hope for making his parents proud seems lost, four

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cartoonish angels, set to him by his father, appear to Dennis. They tell him he has an important destiny - as a gastroenterologist. They're willing to do anything to help Dennis along this path, from laundry and cooking to threatening professors to get him reenrolled in college. But he has to give up video games to do it. Faced with their increasing control, and his increasing uncertainty about his "destiny" and how much he should let his father's ghost control him, Dennis must come to terms with his fathers regrets and his own.

Yang creates a complex relationship between Dennis and his parents; unlike many "controlling parent" stories, this tale refuses to cast them as mere obstacles to the protagonist's happiness. Readers familiar with Yang's lauded "American Born Chinese" may be disappointed to find that Yang does not provide the art for this comic, but Thien Pham's simple, loose watercolor illustrations bring a light touch to this tale about expectations, realizing dreams then finding them wanting, and learning not to let parental expectations define your life - neither as a constraint or an excuse.

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An interesting story although I didn't enjoy this as much as some of his others. I liked the framing of it as video game.

Clever and frequently entertaining.

A boy grows up under his father's No Video Games rules, and buys a Nintendo immediately after his father's death. Video games become all-consuming, and it takes four spritely angels to get him back into school, where he loses himself again.

I don't want to say too much and ruin the plot--it's not a

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very long book--but the video games really propel the story, right through the way the main character deals with the angels following him. It's a story I can see many teens identifying with (a desire to play games against parents' wishes; academic performance vs recreational activity; parental expectations), and while it's cute and funny I don't know that it will stick with me.

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I find this book very relatable to children's life, especially children in the city. Gene Yang artfully wrote a story about an Asian American boy who got lost into video games after the death of his father. Yang also depicts many aspects of life that second generation Asian Americans grew up with.

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This is a great book to help readers to understand more about Asian American culture and also to see their struggle of identity.

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When he’s six, Dennis Ouyang sees his first video game, “a beat-up old Pac-Man coin op” in a neighborhood restaurant. His parents won’t let him near it, but as he remembers that night, he thinks, “From then on I dreamed in pixels.” Despite heavy hints, his father refuses to buy him a

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game, instead he gets a chemistry set for Christmas, and overhears his father saying how much bitterness he has eaten so that his son can grow up in America and be a success, not waste his time playing games. But when his father dies unexpectedly next year, the first thing Dennis does is buy himself a game. Gaming becomes his life—until the angels appear!

Yang’s always remarkable storytelling ability is complemented by Pham relaxed simple cartoons and his alternately cute and fierce angels. The dedication to the book says a lot about the creators’ intent. It reads, “…to our brothers Jon and Thinh, both of whom work in the medical field, for being good Asian sons.”

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Dennis Ouyang has a passion for playing video games. And he's great at it too! But then...four somewhat adorable, yet really bossy angels show up, and tell Dennis that his destiny is to become a doctor and that he needs to give up his passion. So...Dennis reluctantly gives his gaming stuff over to

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his best friend, buckles down and studies, heads to medical school and hooks up with a crew to study with. But a crisis of confidence reveals what the angels truly are and Dennis begins to question whether he should follow his passion or his destiny...or an entirely new path.

Gene Luen Yang creates a compelling and captivating story that puts a new twist on two old genres, coming of age and father/son relationships. Gene creates compelling characters that are easy to recognize and relate too, because regardless of your age, race, gender you can recognize some aspect of your own life in Dennis and his dad's. Perhaps you've even had the same types of conversations with your parents (hopefully without the bossy angels standing by.) Thien Pham, a relative newcomer to the field, creates beautiful and captivating watercolor illustrations to accompany the tale. While the illustrations may not have a lot of details or secrets hidden in them, they work perfectly with the story--especially when it comes to the bossy angels.

A wonderful story and well worth adding to any collection.

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I am amazed at Gene Yang's graphic novels! Review to follow shortly...

Dennis Ouyang has always worked hard to do what his father wanted him to do. However when he gets to college he begins to feel tired of always being pushed and loses focus. When he is expelled from college four angels appear to help him get his life together, but is this really the best path for

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Dennis?

Sometimes when you are reading a graphic novel by a writer who changes artists the change in artists makes it feel almost as though the story is being told by a completely different person. That's kind of how I felt reading this through the first time. However upon further reflection I could clearly see that this was definitely a Gen Luen Yang story.

This graphic novel definitely shows how people can feel as if their life choices are being taken away from them. I loved seeing how Dennis was affected by his father's life. I also liked that it showed how an interest that may seem rediculous and time consuming can still have real life applications. However I am still wondering about what kind of message it sends that Dennis ended up where his parents wanted him to be anyway. Not in an I don't agree with the message kind of way, because it clearly illustrates that Dennis needed to find his own way and get there on his own, but more in a hmmmm how can this be interpreted way.

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The art is simple yet very enjoyable in this graphic novel. It's a magical realist plot, and it went a very different direction than I expected. I expected it to be much more about video games and nostalgia; the first section sets this up in a beautiful way that I could strongly relate to. But then

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Dennis abandons the video games he loves and slogs through medical school, and it becomes more about angst and drama between friends... and also, the fact that four angels live in Dennis's place, and care and nag for him to finish his doctorate in gastroenterology. The video games only come in again right at the end.

It's not a bad story by any means--it's touching, really--but it's not what I hoped it would be.

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Dennis Ouyang has always worked hard to do what his father wanted him to do. However when he gets to college he begins to feel tired of always being pushed and loses focus. When he is expelled from college four angels appear to help him get his life together, but is this really the best path for

Show More

Dennis?

Sometimes when you are reading a graphic novel by a writer who changes artists the change in artists makes it feel almost as though the story is being told by a completely different person. That's kind of how I felt reading this through the first time. However upon further reflection I could clearly see that this was definitely a Gen Luen Yang story.

This graphic novel definitely shows how people can feel as if their life choices are being taken away from them. I loved seeing how Dennis was affected by his father's life. I also liked that it showed how an interest that may seem rediculous and time consuming can still have real life applications. However I am still wondering about what kind of message it sends that Dennis ended up where his parents wanted him to be anyway. Not in an I don't agree with the message kind of way, because it clearly illustrates that Dennis needed to find his own way and get there on his own, but more in a hmmmm how can this be interpreted way.

Show Less

Dennis Ouyang has always worked hard to do what his father wanted him to do. However when he gets to college he begins to feel tired of always being pushed and loses focus. When he is expelled from college four angels appear to help him get his life together, but is this really the best path for

Show More

Dennis?

Sometimes when you are reading a graphic novel by a writer who changes artists the change in artists makes it feel almost as though the story is being told by a completely different person. That's kind of how I felt reading this through the first time. However upon further reflection I could clearly see that this was definitely a Gen Luen Yang story.

This graphic novel definitely shows how people can feel as if their life choices are being taken away from them. I loved seeing how Dennis was affected by his father's life. I also liked that it showed how an interest that may seem rediculous and time consuming can still have real life applications. However I am still wondering about what kind of message it sends that Dennis ended up where his parents wanted him to be anyway. Not in an I don't agree with the message kind of way, because it clearly illustrates that Dennis needed to find his own way and get there on his own, but more in a hmmmm how can this be interpreted way.

Show Less

Dennis Ouyang has always worked hard to do what his father wanted him to do. However when he gets to college he begins to feel tired of always being pushed and loses focus. When he is expelled from college four angels appear to help him get his life together, but is this really the best path for

Show More

Dennis?

Sometimes when you are reading a graphic novel by a writer who changes artists the change in artists makes it feel almost as though the story is being told by a completely different person. That's kind of how I felt reading this through the first time. However upon further reflection I could clearly see that this was definitely a Gen Luen Yang story.

This graphic novel definitely shows how people can feel as if their life choices are being taken away from them. I loved seeing how Dennis was affected by his father's life. I also liked that it showed how an interest that may seem rediculous and time consuming can still have real life applications. However I am still wondering about what kind of message it sends that Dennis ended up where his parents wanted him to be anyway. Not in an I don't agree with the message kind of way, because it clearly illustrates that Dennis needed to find his own way and get there on his own, but more in a hmmmm how can this be interpreted way.

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A most sweetly satisfying story about fulfilling parental expectations AND personal happiness. Dennis is a video game aficionado whose destiny is to become a gastroenterologist because his father has always wanted him to be a doctor. A quartet of little guardian angels handles his household chores

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so Dennis can spend more time studying. But is being a doctor really what he wants to do? I picked this up after hearing the author and illustrator at a conference; they were so hilarious. Gene Yang hinted at the terrific ending and how he came up with it. Just great!

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This is one of those stories that can only be told through its chosen medium, an exemplar of the form. I'm not sure I would have thought a "boy comes to term with his father's death through medical school and videogames" story could have been pulled off successfully, but there you go. It's

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heart-wrenching, redeeming, joyful and a little bit crazypants.

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I good YA graphic novel about Dennis, a young man trying to find his way. Does he want to be a gastroenterologist, as his parents always hoped? Or does he want to be a professional gamer? Why do they want him to be a doctor so badly? And what does he really care about in life?

You can change your

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mind, as Dennis learns. And that might bring true satisfaction--it lets you know you HAVE chosen correctly for yourself.

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What a beautiful book about finding one's own way, whatever it may be!

IG360L (illustrated guide)

Loved this (autobiographical?) story of a college kid who just wants to play video games but struggles to live up to his father's posthumous expectations.

Another brilliant graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, Level Up follows Dennis as he struggles between fulfilling his father's wishes for him to become a doctor and his own unhappiness with his life. Video games are one of the few things that make him happy - but they also distract him from his

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studies.

Yang's strength, also seen in American Born Chinese, is the deft way he uses humor and subtlety to convey a message without ever seeming preachy (it's harder than it seems). Level Up uses that same humor and adds a new twist: using Pac-Man as a metaphor for life (no, really, it works!). The art by Thiem Pham is also wonderful, including the way the opening panel of each "chapter" is stylistically similar, like a video game start screen.

Using the mechanics of video games as a metaphor is nothing new - see: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - but Yang adds his own twist, humor, and quiet brilliance to the story.

Well worth a read.

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Dennis Ouyang struggles to live up to his parents' high expectations through college and med school when all he really wants to do is play video games. With a little help from a quartet of seemingly innocent angels, he learns to find his true destiny.

Gene Luen Yang's latest graphic novel,

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illustrated by Thien Pham, tells a story of family loyalty and finding your true calling in beautiful full color illustrations. A touch of magical realism and snippets of med school mayhem bring some lightheartedness to an otherwise somber tale that will particularly resonate with post-collegiate readers.

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A story aimed at my own personal conflicts, albeit more generally. I don't have Asian parents, but they do emphasize the importance of certain degrees/jobs and I do seek their approval. Yang produces a simpler, yet still very effective story with charming art from Pham.