You may now make your first move.
Hospitalized for a lengthy period of time after an incident that left behind a permanent physical and emotional scar, Sean Phillips creates 'Trace Italian', the game of strategy and survival (interestingly, played solely via snail mail) wherein players send in their preferred move as they navigate their way around a world set in a ravaged, future America.
The beauty of this story by John Darnielle lies, not in that amazing twist where the imaginary and the real worlds merge, but rather in the narration of this story. As players Lance and Carrie take their turns into the real world with tragic results, and Sean is called in to testify, the story which had been moving forward starts to regress into Sean's history right back to where it all started. His letter to Carrie's parents which was read out during the trial, held so much sorrow and hope all at once, it gave a very poignant foundation to all the events that came after it.
From an imaginary to the real world, from excited replies to hate mail, this was the undulating, shifting story of a disfigured boy trying to create a 'safe place' in a horribly cruel world.
If there is one complaint I have about this book, it is that it did not go in as deeply as a subject this important warrants. It ended far too soon, and the tortured theme deserved a longer, harder look.
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