Hooked on the book - Let's play Review

Hello my fellow Webtoon readers.

Just a quick disclaimer, all the images, artwork and the story line belong to Mongie and her team, any images are available on Mongies Instagram. Also to any readers who haven’t read the series on Webtoon, there may be some spoilers. I have read all of season 1 and 2 so to any people who haven’t, read at your own risk.

I started reading Let’s Play about three weeks ago – I know, I’m late to the party. And like a good Netflix series or Harry Potter book, I just couldn’t put it down. I was reading it in class, before bed, first thing in the morning and I almost got my phone confiscated on several occasions. I was hooked from the first episode.

"The Banner Kids" @mongrelmarie, February 13th 2020

Let’s Play is a featured romance Webtoon which focuses mainly on a character Samara (Sam) Young. Sam is a 22-year-old software developer at Young Technologies, her father’s company which she is set to take over somewhere in the future. Sam has been in and out of hospitals for the majority of her life, and along that journey she discovered her love for gaming which led to her designing and releasing one of her own. Due to her troublesome childhood the majority of Sam’s family is overprotective of her and she has been sheltered to a great many things.

Season one starts out with the release of Sam’s game “Ruminate” – An Indie-style puzzle game which Sam released on a site called Indigineer (Similar to STEAM). Upon the first release of her game Sam has a pretty high rating with the general public. Everything goes downhill for the game developer though when a vlogger/game reviewer on Viewtube (Similar to YouTube) called Marshall Law with a substantial number of followers gives her game a bad review…

If dealing with the horrible backlash by Marshall’s fans isn’t enough for Sam, the fact that Marshall Law himself moves into the apartment next to her surely is.

Image from; @mongrelmarie, May 5th 2019

Throughout the seasons Sam explores more and more about the social world, and she discovers love, heartbreak, self-consciousness, confidence, rage and many more things which she had been sheltered from.

There are ships which are built and destroyed, characters which you fall in love with, comedy, growth, heartbreak, and a great amount of information which all comes with reading Let’s Play. Personally, I think categorizing Let’s Play simply as a romance Webtoon is a bit of an insult to all the other characteristics in it. I know I’ve had to shove a fist in my mouth a couple of times due to the sheer hilariousness of it.

Mongie’s art style in Let’s Play is detailed, but not over the top, classic and new mixed together, and hilariously funny (especially in the chibi moments). The way Mongie writes and expresses the story through her art is one of the many things which makes this series unforgettable and gets you hooked. One of my most memorable laugh-out-loud moments is with the emotions & morals (rage, friendship, lust, patience) when they started saying “Liar”. Whenever they pop up with Sam, there’s a guaranteed laugh moment just around the corner.

While Sam is the ‘main’ character, there are episodes which focus on the other characters. This helps tremendously with background information, story development and just makes you fall in love with all the characters in Let’s Play even more. The episodes with Bowser (Sam’s dog), Link (Read to find out), Angela (One of Sam’s best friends) or Marshall are some of the best. I’ve found myself being able to relate to a whole bunch of items in the stories, and am not ashamed that I’m now trying to find a way to travel through my phone to joining the world of Let’s Play.

Image from; @mongrelmarie, May 7th 2019

Another wonderful thing about let’s play is the people in the comments, so many times I’ve come to the end of an episode and received that “NOOO A CLIFFHANGER” moment, but the people in the comments are a shoulder to lean on with their endless comedy and relatable complaints.

If I have to give it a rating out of 10, I’m pretty sure that I would give it a solid 9.2. Not because anything is wrong with the series, it’s just my personal taste. Like some of the elements of the characters appearance with the art style, and the soul-crushing cliff hangers. I know it takes a while for Mongie to write and design the episodes each week, and the consistency of weekly episodes is wonderful, but me being the impatient and broke human I am, I find that after three days I’ve lost a bit of interest in the story, though by the time the next episode comes around it's not hard to regain that enthusiasm.

Some other series which I have found on Webtoon, which if you’re a fan of Let’s Play you might also like are: SubZero by Junepurrr, True Beauty by Yaongyi, Phase by Jouki, Freaking Romance by Snailords and Cursed Princess Club by LambCat.

To anyone who hasn't read Let's Play, what are you waiting for? Go install Webtoon and start reading today. I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't wait for season 3 of Let's Play. I'm excited and anxious to see where Mongie takes us.

If you have any Webtoons or books that you want me to review, send me a message and I’ll try and post it here. Also thanks to Pringle for reading over the last few weekly rambles and editing it where needed.

Until next week, stay foxy folks.

The Shadow Girl, Fading Out.