{Synopsis} – Audacious author Lauren Myracle accomplishes something of a literary miracle in her second young-adult novel, ttyl (Internet instant messaging shorthand for “talk to you later”), as she crafts an epistolary novel entirely out of IM transcripts between three high-school girls.
Far from being precious, the format proves perfect for accurately capturing the sweet histrionics and intimate intricacies of teenage girls. Grownups (and even teenage boys) might feel as if they've intercepted a raw feed from Girl Secret Headquarters, as the book's three protagonists–identified by their screen names “SnowAngel,” “zoegirl,” and “mad maddie”–tough their way through a rough-and-tumble time in high school. Conversations range from the predictable (clothes, the delicate high-school popularity ecosystem, boys, boys in French class, boys in Old Navy commercials, etc.) to the the jarringly explicit (the girls discuss female ejaculation: “some girls really do, tho. i read it in our bodies, ourselves”) and the unintentionally hilarious (Maddie's IM reduction of the Christian poem “Footprints”–“oh, no, my son. no, no, no. i was carrying u, don't u c?”).
But Myracle's triumph in ttyl comes in leveraging the language-stretching idiom of e-mail, text messaging, and IM. Reaching to express themselves, the girls communicate almost as much through punctuation and syntactical quirks as with words: “SnowAngel: 'cuz–drumroll, please–ROB TYLER is in my french class!!! *breathes deeply, with hand to throbbing bosom* on friday we have to do “une dialogue” together. i get to ask for a bite of his hot dog.'”
Myracle already proved her command of teenage girl-ness with Kissing Kate, but the self-imposed convention of ttyl allows a subtlety that is even more brilliant. Parents might like reading the book just to quantify how out of touch they are, but teens will love the winning, satisfyingly dramatic tale of this tumultuous trio. (Ages 13 to 17) –Paul Hughes
{My thoughts} – This book is about the lives of three tenth graders. Zoe {zoegirl}, Madigan {mad maddie}, and Angela {snowangel}. Zoe has a teacher named Mr. H that she seems to be highly interested in and he shows special interest in her – he even invites her to something called Friday Morning Fellowship at his church. Madigan appears to be bullied or mad fun of by this other girl in their grade named Jana. And Angela appears to be the only one in the {winsome threesome} that has a major hang up with guys.
Madigan is also obsessed with online quizzes. She is constantly taking them and having Zoe and Angela take them as well. The quizzes are interesting to say the least but they also help to show more of the personality in which the girls have hidden in their IM conversations. They help to show more of who the girls really are deep down inside things that in most cases are not displayed appropriately when all you have to go off of are words on a screen.
I have to say that I love the references that it makes to my teenage or earlier years. There are references to {7th heaven}, {lizzie mcguire}, {that 70’s show},{gilmore girls}, and {kim possible}.
It’s easy to like this book as it deals with situations most high school students deal with. The are of dating, being accepted by others, trying to just fit in, best friends, family drama, the desire to be liked by those that appear to be better then you, finding your own way, and trying to hold onto everything that has meaning to you. It’s hard to accept that things change and once you reach high school things will certainly take a turn for better or worse and you won’t always remain close to those you were before hand. It’s difficult when your forced to grow up even when your not ready to.
It nice to be able to read a book that has the ability to relate to you in one way or another let it be through past, present or future endeavors. The biggest issue I had with reading this book is that it’s written in the form or IM and as we all know I am not a fan of the diary formatting for a book either, so this isn’t at the top of my book to read list. It still seem to have a nice story line that is easy to follow and well thought out.
{reason for reading} – I bought it some time ago and never got around to reading it completely through. The first time that I had tried the IM format bothered me so much I threw it back on the bookshelf. I decided since I owned it I would give it another go and I’m not as disappointed in the book as I had thought I was going to be.
Final Conclusion: 4 Star Rating.
