DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read, acquire, and share this book with readers. It’s so unique to find a book set in the gaming world especially for young women interested in gaming and I’m so excited to share my full thoughts and review here very soon.

An easy but thought-provoking YA read with some great humour, especially from the younger characters. The usual YA sassiness but an underlying seriousness tackling online abuse, misogyny, bullying and class differences. I flew through the book and thoroughly enjoyed it plus I learned about Asian traditions, food and their schooling systems. Kiki is a fantastic character and the way she was gaslighted and started to lose her confidence was brilliantly portrayed but lightly done so as not to ruin the flow of the story. Highly recommended.

I love gaming and as a female gamer there's not often respect so I was excited to read this romance book with the theme of a girl gamer

"Dimples appear in his cheeks. He has dimples? How dare he"

In true Jesse Sutanto fashion, i was HOOKED by the end of Chapter 1. i bloody love this author. I loved the Aunties series, i LOVE Vera Wong and now I love this book.

𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿
What is there not to love about the cover. it screams Jesse Sutanto. Although the artwork is a bit different to her usual style. Love the colour combo!

𝗧𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀
Gamer Girl, set in Indonesia, bullying, social media, cultural expectations, sexism! Theres a lot going on but it all worked so well together.

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀
Kiki is the main character and i liked her! shes confident and fun but she really struggled and i loved how that was written. theres a lot of vulnerability in this book.

𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
There is SO MUCH banter in this book. i was chuckling and snorting quite a bit. lots of references that Asians will roll their eyes at and it just feels SO FRESH!

and guess what? right at the end i realised that is the second book, so now i need to go and read the first lol

𝗔𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗱?
they said the L word too quick, ew i hate that. i would have preferred not to hear that at all in this type of book. and i was a bit mad at how much Kiki lied, but.... character development?

𝗙𝗮𝘃𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗲
“That first day I saw you in class, the moment I saw your face . . . I felt like I’d come home.”

I have read several books by the author before, but never for this age range. I must say that, despite not being the target audience, I really enjoyed this story. There are quite a few expletives in, so it is probably aimed at late teens, but it’s still an enjoyable read. Jesse’s books are always filled with strong women facing hard situations, and this book is no exception. Our heroine moves from an environment where she’s queen bee to being cast as the crazy outsider, and bullied by all. The story held my attention throughout, and I will be keeping an eye out for more books by this author

This is a delightful novel about online friends who end up at the same school, and covers issues of bullying, toxic staff behaviour and how girls end up behaving to carve out a space in the gaming community online. As ever, this is a fantastic book from Jesse Sutanto.

Kiki is a rebel and a gamer (and a good one at that). When her parents make her change school, she is devastated. If school were a game, she is right back at Level 1 and has lots of hazards and challenges to face if she is to be as popular as she was at her old school. To make things worse, her best friend online is in her class but because of the harassment she faced on line, he thinks that she is a boy!
As well as being an entertaining read, the book also deals with some tricky subjects: bullying, bias, misogyny and sexism - a great YA read.

JESSE SUTANTO HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!!! i am truly obsessed with her. no matter what she writes i WILL devour it. she could write about someone just having breakfast and i’d gobble it up!!!!!

I probably wasn’t the target audience for this book. I am a sixty-year-old woman who does not particularly like romances, doesn’t like gaming, and avoids chiclit like the plague, BUT I loved this book! I was captivated from the start and could not put it down.
The main protagonist is a teenage girl called Kiki, whose parents have made her change schools from her beloved, liberal Mingyang school, where she was popular with staff and pupils, to the ultra-strict Xingfa school, where all the wealthy Chinese in Jakarta send their offspring. Kiki’s first day at school is a disaster – and it gets worse.
Kiki’s main hobby (when not eating cake or texting with her female friends) is playing the online team game Warfront Heroes. She had received a lot of on-line trolling and abuse when she played as a girl, so switched her identity to the male Dudebro10 - end of abuse. Online she has a wonderful friendship with Sourdawg, a gamer boy who likes baking sourdough bread. Sourdawg believes Kiki is male. Kiki believes Sourdawg is in Singapore, so they will never meet. But, then it turns out they are at the same school in Jakarta.
Who on earth could Sourdawg be? Does Kiki have to keep her online identity secret? Can she? And how can Kiki make friends with her classmates at her new school when they have quickly labelled her as #CrazyKiki.
There are some wonderful characters in this book – some loveable (including Kiki), and some entitled, misogynist dirtbags.
The book is a comment on the place of females in Asian society, and the pressure to conform, and for families not to lose face. It also deals with the insidious effects of bullying. At the start of the book, Kiki is a confident, happy, loveable young woman. But, as the bullying increases, she loses much of her confidence and joie-de-vie. Only once she reaches rock bottom, and with the intervention of some of her genuine friends, can she break out of this downward spiral, and fight back – very effectively!
I don’t think this book needs a sequel – the situation with Kiki, Sourdawg and those in her year group has reached a very satisfying conclusion. However, I’d love to see a spin-off series on juniors Eleanor Roosevelt Tanuwijaya and Sarah Jessica Parker Susanti (is it really a surprise that mega-rich parents give their children ridiculous names?) and their bid for world domination (read the book and you will see what I mean).
I really highly recommend this book to everyone. Even if you think it might not be for you given the blurb – try it! You may be very pleasantly surprised.

I just love Jessie Sutanto’s writing. It’’s fun and fresh and makes me smile. I was first introduced to her writing via Vera Wong but then decided to explore her books for Young Adults for my school library and I wasn’t disappointed.

Funny and fresh with loads of sass mixed in with Indonesian culture. This book deals with misogyny in both real life and in the on-line gaming world; bullying; and how to cope when it seems everyone hates you.

Kiki is a strong and amazing female protagonist but for me I just adore the Lil’ Aunties

I have read several books now by Jesse Sutanto and she's fast becoming one of my favourite all time authors. She can write several genres so perfectly! Cosy mystery, tense thrillers and now YA romances. Loved this!

Apparantly this is book 2 , carrying on where book 1 left off. However it is a standalone as well. Kiki is in Jakarta and is happy with life: she has some friends, plays fantasy war games online and online chats with her friend and game partner, Sourdawg.
But Kiki's parents decide that she is getting too modern and needs to learn discipline to fit into traditional Chinese culture so enrol her in a new school.
What a culture shock for Kiki. How will she survive?
Loved this book, Captures Asian culture and the characters leapt from the page. So great to have a female gamer as well.
Recommend for age 9 upwards

This is the first book I have read by this author, I really enjoyed it. A nice lighthearted easy to read story. With some good funny parts. Recommend.