One excerpt:
"I entered my room, shut my door, and turned up my stereo, blasting My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade album. I'd heard it a gazillion times, but I still loved Gerard's passionate voice. It was as if he totally understood all my pain. If only he went to Hannah Dustin [High School]. We'd be soul mates, for sure." (Gamer Girl, 71)
This passage demonstrates the transformative power of art, specifically the music of the punk pop band My Chemical Romance, on Maddy, the teenage heroine of Mari Mancusi's work Gamer Girl. Maddy's natural creativity is stifled by the middle-class, suburban conformity and rigid social hierarchy of her new high school, and she believes that not even her family is capable of truly understanding the heavy emotional toll this takes on her spirit. Music, as well as art and the elaborate fantasy worlds she constructs both on her own and through online role playing games (RPGs), provides Maddy with the escape she craves--yet at the same time it fuels her fertile imagination and ultimately gives her the power to establish her place in this new society on her own terms. Indeed, she feels so intimately connected to music that she refers to Gerard Way, the lead singer of her favorite band, as though the two are actually on a first name basis. She confidently asserts that, if she knew Way personally, they would be "soul mates," suggesting that she relates to this band not just emotionally, but on a deeply spiritual level as well.
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