“Just City” by Olga Tymofiyeva

Just City

Olga Tymofiyeva
Independently Published (2022)
ISBN 979-8365536807
Reviewed by Jill Rey for Reader Views (1/2023)

Author Olga Tymofiyeva is a scientist by trade. Using her background, professional experience, and own hopes to create a virtual reality game such as the one portrayed in “Just City,” Tymofiyeva has instead crafted a “Ready Player One”- esque read. Admittedly taking four and a half years to draft this book, Tymofiyeva heroically wrote around becoming a new mother and working as a neuroimaging professor at UCSF, all while writing in English, her non-native tongue. All that aside, the concepts and deeper thought this book drags out of its readers are impressive in their own right.

Nathan is in need of $10,000 to enter his idea into a startup incubator competition. Alongside his friends, he agrees to be a tester for his neuroscientist grandmother’s new virtual reality game, Just City. In what he hoped would help him make a quick buck, Just City changes the trajectory of his friendships, his life motto, and his relationships. Through the game, Nathan is placed in the body of a homeless man. This experience changes his perspective, teaching him empathy and causing him to reassess his friendships and views on the world, and ultimately leading him to change directions on his startup idea.

The shift in Nathan as he leaves one friend group and finds another entirely opposite friend group is vast. Readers are shown an entirely different perspective, different culture, and different beliefs and ways of seeing the world. Author Olga Tymofiyeva does an incredible job rooting readers to Nathan’s story. We quickly become engrossed as he is determined to follow his dreams at all costs, even as his views and beliefs begin to expand as a result of the game. However, despite the shifting ground beneath Nathan, Tymofiyeva expertly provides readers with Nathan’s grandmother as the ever-constant reminder of his previously rational way of thinking as he slowly blends his pre-Just City ideologies with those post-Just City learnings.

“Just City” offers a philosophical, relatable, and yet futuristic storyline as readers are taken through the life questions and deep shifts in Nathan’s way of thinking as a result of his grandmother’s virtual reality game. As a reader, I couldn’t help but feel like “Ready Player One” was being revamped into a more thought-provoking and realistic reality. The relationship between Nathan and his grandmother was the perfect complement to the story as Nathan reconsidered deep-seated beliefs and friendships. 

The ride “Just City” takes readers on is an important one. Causing profound reflection and diverse worldviews, Tymofiyeva does a great job of opening the minds of readers and giving us a story we can fully embrace.

Just City

Olga Tymofiyeva

Independently Published (2022)

ISBN 979-8365536807

Reviewed by Jill Rey for Reader Views (1/2023)

5* a philosophical, relatable, and yet futuristic storyline causing profound reflection through diverse world views

Author Olga Tymofiyeva is a scientist by trade. Using her background, professional experience, and own hopes to create a virtual reality game such as the one portrayed in “Just City,” Tymofiyeva has instead crafted a “Ready Player One”- esque read. Admittedly taking four and a half years to draft this book, Tymofiyeva heroically wrote around becoming a new mother and working as a neuroimaging professor at UCSF, all while writing in English, her non-native tongue. All that aside, the concepts and deeper thought this book drags out of its readers are impressive in their own right.

Nathan is in need of $10,000 to enter his idea into a startup incubator competition. Alongside his friends, he agrees to be a tester for his neuroscientist grandmother’s new virtual reality game, Just City. In what he hoped would help him make a quick buck, Just City changes the trajectory of his friendships, his life motto, and his relationships. Through the game, Nathan is placed in the body of a homeless man. This experience changes his perspective, teaching him empathy and causing him to reassess his friendships and views on the world, and ultimately leading him to change directions on his startup idea.

The shift in Nathan as he leaves one friend group and finds another entirely opposite friend group is vast. Readers are shown an entirely different perspective, different culture, and different beliefs and ways of seeing the world. Author Olga Tymofiyeva does an incredible job rooting readers to Nathan’s story. We quickly become engrossed as he is determined to follow his dreams at all costs, even as his views and beliefs begin to expand as a result of the game. However, despite the shifting ground beneath Nathan, Tymofiyeva expertly provides readers with Nathan’s grandmother as the ever-constant reminder of his previously rational way of thinking as he slowly blends his pre-Just City ideologies with those post-Just City learnings.

“Just City” offers a philosophical, relatable, and yet futuristic storyline as readers are taken through the life questions and deep shifts in Nathan’s way of thinking as a result of his grandmother’s virtual reality game. As a reader, I couldn’t help but feel like “Ready Player One” was being revamped into a more thought-provoking and realistic reality. The relationship between Nathan and his grandmother was the perfect complement to the story as Nathan reconsidered deep-seated beliefs and friendships. 

The ride “Just City” takes readers on is an important one. Causing profound reflection and diverse worldviews, Tymofiyeva does a great job of opening the minds of readers and giving us a story we can fully embrace.