In Real Life: My Journey to a Pixelated World – Joey Graceffa | ARC Review

Pages: 240 Paperback

Publication date: May 19th, 2015

Publisher: Atria/Keywords Press

How I got the copy: Received by Simon & Schuster Canada

Rating:  4 out of 5

Series: N/A

Summary:

A confessional, uplifting memoir from the beloved YouTube personality.

It’s not where you begin that matters.

It's where you end up.

Twenty-three year old Joey Graceffa has captured the hearts of millions of teens and young adults through his playful, sweet, and inspirational YouTube presence (not to mention his sparkling eyes and perfect hair). Yet, Joey wasn’t always comfortable in his skin, and in this candid memoir, he thoughtfully looks back on his journey from pain to pride, self-doubt to self-acceptance.

To his fans, Joey is that best friend who always captures the brighter side of life but also isn’t afraid to get real. In the pages of his first book, he opens up about his years of struggling with family hardships and troubles at school, with cruel bullying and the sting of rejection. He tells of first loves and losses, embarrassing moments and surprising discoveries, loneliness, laughter, and life-changing forks in the road, showing us the incalculable value of finally finding and following your true passion in this world. Funny, warm-hearted, and inspiring, Joey Graceffa’s story is a welcome reminder that it’s not where you begin that matters, but where you end up.

Review:

Joey Graceffa is a YouTube personality and I’m pretty sure if you’re active in the YouTube community (an avid watcher or creator) you most likely know who he is.

I used to watch Graceffa more often when I was younger and now watch his videos sporadically but what I enjoy to watch the most are his vlogs and in saying that reading his book made me feel as I was getting to know him on a more personal level and that was pretty cool.

In Real Life: A Journey to a Pixelated World is very easy to read and (for all I know) very honest. Graceffa opens up about his life as a child and the struggles he had growing up with bullying, making friends, sexuality and his mothers’ addiction.

The now twenty-three-year old expands on his life when it wasn’t so glamorous and how he’s got to where he’s now. Graceffa’s story’s inspirational in many ways and I feel can touch many people who are struggling with any of the things Graceffa has struggled with either when he was young or more recently in his life.

I can’t compare this book to any other books written by YouTuber’s because I haven’t read any other but this one, I can say I felt Graceffa did a nice job at expressing how others see his life and how his life really was were completely different. For example, when his collab channel WinterSpringPro and his personal channel Joey Graceffa kept growing, for the most part Graceffa was still trying to figure himself out and if I’m calculating right, for most of his life still didn’t have many real life friends. Which I feel can help many of his viewer and now readers to get through hard times and know that things can get better! You just have to put yourself out there.

In addition to this book, Graceffa included different type of fun lists and/or How-To’s at the end of each chapter, which were fun. Throughout the book I laughed out loud several times and I got to know more about Joey Graceffa. After reading this book I feel like I need to give Graceffa mad props to all of his self-discovery because it was the thing he struggled with the most.

The only thing I would have added to this book were pictures! It didn’t have to be many but at least one at the end or beginning of each chapter. I believe by adding some pictures it would have made a deeper connection from the readers to the storyteller.

A way to read this book and get the most out of it I would say is reading this with your computer or cellphone close by. In the book Graceffa mentions milestones of WSP and his Joey Graceffa channels growth and I fell that when they mention something about a video they made, to go check it out. The WSP channel is still on YouTube and you can watch all the videos Graceffa mentions from the start!    

In Real Life is written in a way readers at any age can understand and relate too.

I recommend this to Joey Graceffa subscribers/followers. It’s easy, fun and a great glimpse to his real life and thoughts.

Rating:

Thanks for reading,
Alexa Talks Books