Lately, I’ve been on a middle grade nostalgia odyssey. I’ve always loved reading middle grade and still love it as an adult. There’s just something so poignant and profound about well-written middle grade fiction that YA and adult fiction just can’t capture in the same way—plus, it’s often allowed to be whimsical and funny to boot. But there’s something especially special about many of the books I read and loved during the years I was actually in the “recommended age group” for middle grade. I remember this being the time when reading was the most magical for me, when I started picking out books to read for myself and discovering my own tastes and preferences as a reader. 

As I’ve been rereading many of the middle grade books I remember loving in late elementary school through middle school, I’m disappointed to realize that a lot of them objectively just weren’t that great, even with the nostalgia factor making me predisposed to love them again.

Some of them, however, still hold up, and are so much fun to read and reread no matter how old I get.

One of these books is Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde. I don’t remember how I first discovered it, and I’ve never read anything else by Vande Velde. But it’s one of those books that I feel doesn’t get enough appreciation for how engaging, clever, and laugh-out-loud funny it is. Heir Apparent is also this perfect blend of science fiction and fantasy. It’s got elements of both but isn’t entirely one or the other, since it’s set in a virtual reality fantasy game. I still think of it as my “fourteenth birthday book” because I got it as a gift for my fourteenth birthday, and, coincidentally, the book’s main character is also turning fourteen. (At the time, I felt very connected to her teenage snarkiness.) It’s been a favorite ever since, and I’m always excited when I get to pick it up again.

Happy(?) Birthday…

One Saturday afternoon, Giannine Bellisario heads to her local Rasmussen Gaming Center to redeem a birthday certificate that will allow her to play through one of their incredibly lifelike virtual reality games. She chooses the game Heir Apparent, ready to outsmart the game’s characters and be crowned King. Plus, there are some super cute guys in the game promo. What’s not to like?

But Giannine gets more than she bargained for when a group of protestors, believing Rasmussen’s VR games to be magic and therefore evil, break into the gaming center and damage the computer equipment while she’s still hooked up to it. 

Now Giannine is trapped inside Heir Apparent, unable to safely leave until she successfully completes the game. Should be simple enough…except that, while there are infinite ways to beat the game, there are also infinite ways to mess up and die. Giannine will have to find a magic ring, appease a barbarian army, resolve some peasant unrest, get rid of a legion of ghosts, slay a dragon, earn the loyalty of the underpaid castle guards, and avoid getting sabotaged by her murderous royal relatives who are hoping to be crowned themselves. Should be simple.

Oh, and if she doesn’t finish the game quickly enough? The damaged computer she’s hooked up to could overheat and kill her. In real life this time. 

Time for a Speed Run

Heir Apparent’s premise is simple with high stakes—beat the video game before the clock runs out. But I’m always amazed at how complex and layered the plot is given that it’s supposed to be set in a VR game. Just when it seems like Giannine is getting somewhere and might make it through the lifetime she’s on, another unforeseen problem shows up that totally throws her off, in a way that never feels contrived—mostly just makes me wish I could play a game that is as immersive and complex. Giannine’s an average gamer, so she keeps making lots of mistakes that get her killed. (I find this very relatable.) 

But, really, a lot of the problems facing Giannine are people problems. She has to pick allies that get along with one another and are advantageous to furthering her cause to become king. She has to solve problems in the kingdom and defend her castle against enemies. And she has to resolve most of the major obstacles within the game’s three-day time limit so she can be crowned king. I also loved how most of the characters felt like video game characters that the game developers intentionally made to be weird (anyone remember that lady in Breath of the Wild who knocks you down to half a heart if you step on her flowers too many times?) This did mean that they were a little one-dimensional at times, but I mostly found that funny and appropriate to the video game setting.

Arguably one of the best things about Heir Apparent is its seamless blend of fantasy and science fiction. There are plenty of books that do this in one form or another, but there’s something so entertaining about a main character from a world not too dissimilar from our own interacting with characters in a fantasy virtual reality game. Giannine’s snarky inner thoughts are anachronistic for the world of Heir Apparent, which makes it that much funnier when she’s reacting to weird characters or treasury-stealing royal advisors.

And, although Giannine’s in-game deaths mean she has to start the whole game over, the setting and the plot never feel repetitive. As Giannine gets better at Heir Apparent, more and more of the repeated game intro scenes are summarized, with more detail and weight given to new experiences the farther in she gets. It really added to the feel that Giannine was in a video game, especially for anyone who’s gotten a pesky Game Over screen (though, thankfully, I’ve never had to start a game completely over when I die, except in stinking Majora’s Mask….)

Even though it’s been years since it was published, I haven’t read another book that’s quite like Heir Apparent. I wish someone would make it into a movie. But then again, that would probably ruin its magic, so on second thought, maybe not.

Who to Read With

This is a good book to read, discuss, and just laugh through with anyone who is a middle schooler or older and who also loves video games. Because Heir Apparent (the game) takes place in a medieval fantasy setting, there are some gruesome deaths. Nothing is described in gory detail, but people do get stabbed/beheaded/poisoned/shot with arrows/etc. Giannine herself gets killed many times, but she doesn’t feel the pain of those deaths, just a fizzy sensation that sends her back to the beginning of the game. There were also a couple of mild swears (d-word, h-word, and a-word) but nothing too crude. Ben and I both enjoyed rereading this one, and it will definitely be fun to introduce to our kids when they’re old enough.

Listen Together

I love it when a book I loved as a kid also has a good audiobook so that I can experience it again in a new way. The audiobook version was a lot of fun, and the narrator did a great job bringing to life Giannine’s salty commentary and giving different voices to the various characters, which I always appreciate.

Heir Apparent is available on Amazon, Audible, or Bookshop.org. Buying through Bookshop supports indie bookstores during the pandemic (and, incidentally, we have noticed that the books we order through Bookshop are *always* in pristine condition, unlike books we order from other places that are new but still sometimes have scuffing on the covers.)

What are some books you’ve enjoyed revisiting from your childhood? Let us know in the comments!

And if you’re looking for another amazing middle-grade sci-fi read, check out our review of The Lion of Mars here.