Homerooms & Hall Passes, by Tom O'Donnell
Book cover: Homerooms & Hall Passes, by Tom O'Donnell
Okay, so I’ve read plenty of books about people who play Dungeons & Dragons (or some other tabletop role playing game) and then get catapulted into the very realm that they’re imagining.
You know, like in Ned Vizzini’s The Other Normals, or Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry or Joel Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series. (If you know of more recent ones, let me know—I really do seem to have a soft spot for these stories.)
So, in Homerooms & Hall Passes, Tom O’Donnell does the opposite—he tells a story about a group of gamers from a fantasy realm who get cursed and catapulted to OUR world.
The only way to break the curse? To pass all of their eighth grade classes… in subjects that they’ve never studied… AND not get kicked out of school.
All without, you know, MAGIC.
Or, for that matter, weapons!
(The only other story with a similar set-up I can think of off the top of my head is from the podcast Hello From the Magic Tavern, in which the folks from that fantasy realm play a version of D&D called Offices & Bosses. No catapulting to our world that I know of there, although I’m way behind in listening, so who even knows what they’re up to at the moment.)
Anyway, Homerooms & Hall Passes is a whole lot of fun.
• I loved that the one character who puts no effort into his character’s backstory—he literally names his character ‘Stinky’, if you’ve done any gaming, you’ve absolutely played with someone who’s done something similar (OR MAYBE YOU’VE DONE IT??)—has to deal with said lack of backstory, including the fact that in this new world, his name is literally STINKY.
• Some of the secondary characters are pretty two-dimensional and stereotypical, but it mostly works because they’re all supposed to be based on NPCs from the gaming module? (I admit to getting a little crabby about the Mean Girl character, but that’s mostly a Me Problem, I think.)
• My favorite character was easily, EASILY Thromdurr the Barbarian, who plays Douglas the Nerd in game, so suddenly has to deal with being Douglas the Nerd in real life, which… is difficult for him. Both because he is suddenly expected to not just understand, but EXCEL at algebra, but also because he’s supposed to not smash things when he’s upset? Also he talks in ALL CAPS a lot, which for whatever reason is something that always makes me laugh. Second fave was Vela the Paladin, as she was appropriately obnoxious in all the ways that paladins tend to be. (I say this as someone who loves playing paladins.)
Easy going, emotionally low stakes, funny, AND there’s a sequel that I’ll be reading soon.