Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story) brings on the laughs with an unlikely hero recruited from our world to save the World of the Other Normals.
Fifteen-year-old Perry Eckert is not excited by the "normal world." Perry, a role-playing game enthusiast, would much rather indulge in Creatures & Caverns all summer than attend Camp Washiska Lake, where his divorced parents hope he'll become "emotionally mature" around normal kids. Once he's at camp, though, a red-skinned, yellow-haired being named Mortin Enaw from the World of the Other Normals enlists Perry's help in a matter of universal importance: their princess is in the clutches of Ophisa, "a horrific mutant beast that combines insectoid and reptilian, with a hundred ten eyes and poison fangs, as tall as a tree." In order to save her, Perry's task is to kiss a real girl at camp, though he'd prefer to battle Ophisa in the Badlands than attempt his "decent romantic kiss" with Anna.
Vizzini's gaming-obsessed hero interrupts his adventure with hilarious returns to Camp Washiska Lake to complete his mission with Anna (though he'd really rather kiss Ada Ember, Mortin's elf-eared, full-lipped intern) and to face universal problems of adolescence by developing social skills. The brief, page-turning chapters in this imaginative novel will provide escapism even for gamers who rarely take a break for books. --Adam Silvera, reviewer and former bookseller