The Good War

Using video games as a setting goes mostly unexplored in literature. Most of the time, when I do see it, the story is about how someone has magically gone into the videogame they love to play to become the hero of their dreams. It is a bit cheesy in my mind, but I let it go because if it can get a person to enjoy a book, then who am I to judge?

Then there is the book The Good War by Todd Strasser. This book describes how a poorly funded school manages to receive a grant for top-of-the-line gaming computers. Then the school decides to start an e-sports club featuring The Good War, a realistic WWII shooter with the Allies versus the Nazis. Soon, however, some of the kids tend to take the war game too seriously, as they start speaking in german accents, and wearing Nazi symbols. Can the esports club survive the shenanigans of a few dissident students, or is there something more serious going on beneath the surface?

There are many positives of this book. One is the educational aspect that Strasser advocates for. When it comes to public schools in the United States, they are funded primarily by local taxes of the area that they reside in. In other words, if you have a Cabela's in your town, then you most likely will have decent funding. Whereas if you are in an area like Detroit, then you will have less. This translates to technology that is the best the school can afford. If that is what the students need to get by...well that is another matter entirely. Strasser advocates through this book for digital citizenship. There are still many places in the US where the internet is not common and can be spotty at best. There are still schools that have only enough computers for a single computer lab that must be shared amongst all the students. This book advocates for that change. Strasser shows not only what some schools cannot afford, but also how it can leave behind some students to grow up digitally inhibited in an era where those skills are the ones in demand.

Then there is internet safety. In a world where it is easier to go online than ever (and even how it is required to do so, in some cases) students need to be shown its best uses and its dangers. Strasser shows the reader that just because it is easy and the students grew up with it, does not mean they know how to use it wisely.

Then there are the political lessons that Strasser promotes in this book. While some may be wishing for him to just leave that out of the story, I felt it was good, since you cannot have this kind of a tale without talking about the White Supremacists riots of the past few years. We see the extremes of both sides of the political aisle, with one character representing the extreme left, and another on the extreme right. It is up to the reader to understand that there is a middle ground to be had in this ever-changing world.

All of this means that Strasser works well when it comes to developing a novel that describes the use and consequences of the internet, for better or worse. This is something that few authors even attempt, and should be commended.

But if you thought I wasn't going to complain about this book, you are sorely mistaken.

My two main problems with this book come down to how this book describes educators, and how it lacks any context for The Good War itself.

The educators in this book are incompetent at best, and dangerous teachers at worst.

One example of this would be when the students want to vote on which game to play for the E-Sports club. They suggest The Good War, which is rated M for violence. The teacher looks over ratings for the game and says it is fine. My problem with this is that you are connected, however distantly, to a public school, and if it gets out that you are having them play mature video games, there will be parents complaining.

Another example would be when the headteacher of the club sees students wearing the lightning bolts mimicking the symbol used by the SS. The teacher, after seeing these shirts, decides that she should read more on the topic, but then simply grows concerned, taking no further action. This is a serious mistake. I would have stopped the club right there and given them a lecture on what the SS did. Then I would have sat them down, PowerPoint and all, and explained to them how Germany was fully compliant with what the SS wanted to do, and how the Holocaust was a terrible thing for not just Jewish people, but for many, many others of varying nationalities.

Then there is the relationship between the book and its title. I dislike how for all the talk about how these students are doing at the game, we never actually get to see them playing The Good War. We never get scenes of them in the middle of a battle, and how they manage to win a clutch match because of a fancy trick play in the heat of the moment. There are times when the characters will talk to a teammate about how he should not do X thing in a match, and he feels resentment about it, but we never actually see him doing it. This leaves what could be one of the most exciting aspects of the book for me, as hollow and a seriously wasted opportunity to bring in reluctant readers.

Overall, I admire what the author was trying to do, and the goal he was trying to achieve. I would say that this book might be enough to draw in reluctant readers, but I am worried that there is not enough to keep them there. I give this book a three out of five.