A review by chrissymcbooknerd
TMI by Patty Blount
3.0
Bailey and Meg are best friends, despite the fact that they have entirely different personalities. Bailey, insecure and confused in her identity, lives like a chameleon, adapting the likes and interests of whatever boy strikes her fancy at the time. Spontaneous and romantic, Bailey is not intensely worried about her future -- everything will happen, in due time, as it should.. hopefully. Meg, on the other hand, is serious and artistic, fiercely controlling of herself and her emotions. Prone of bouts of melancholy for the purpose of her art, Meg is determined to get the perfect scholarship to the perfect college -- and no boy will interfere with her destiny.
After a messy breakup with her high school boyfriend, Bailey throws herself into her ideas for creating her own video game, going to the internet for inspiration and technical assistance. She soon finds Ryder, a mysterious guy on the internet who seems to be her perfect match in every way. Ryder offers his assistance with Bailey's gaming project and meanwhile manages to captivate Bailey's attention and affection with his frequent emails and texts. He seems like the perfect guy, but Ryder always has an excuse as to why he can't meet up with Bailey. What is Ryder hiding?
Suddenly, Ryder reveals something to Bailey that makes her question the loyalty of her best friend Meg. Surely Meg wouldn't reveal Bailey's deepest darkest secrets to Ryder, right? But, how else would he know so many hidden things about Bailey? After a devious act of brutal revenge, Meg and Bailey find themselves in an entirely new territory. Who is Ryder and what dangers are really in store for a teenage girl who reveals a bit too much about herself to a total stranger?
I can't deny that I loved the concept of this young adult novel -- I'm a sucker for any story that explores the medium of online messaging or texting as a way to integrate parts of the story line. And, with the popularity of the show CATFISH, who can resist a story about the mystery lurking on the other side of the internet? There were so many possibilities for this book, I think, and so many potential lessons to teenagers about the dangers of emotional intimacy with utter strangers on the net.
However, there were several problems I had with the story that really kept me from elevating it to the LOVE level. For one, I just found the characters of Bailey -- and to a much greater extend, Meg -- to be very extreme and unrelatable. Don't get me wrong -- I adore extreme characters, especially those plagued by deep psychological problems -- but these girls were almost TOO much to handle. They constantly referenced their daddy issues, they were very fickle and ridiculously quick to turn on pretty much everyone, and especially the character of Meg just seemed to try TOO hard to present herself as dark and disturbed. I'd like to see a little more relateability to these characters, I think, to make them a bit more likeable to keep me more invested in their stories.
Also, the identity of Ryder felt like a bit of a dud. I guessed pretty early on who was hiding behind the computer, and I was disappointed to find that I was correct. I just feel like it would have been much more effective to infuse a bit more mystery and dangerous into the message here. There really weren't any huge repercussions to these girls revealing 'TMI' to a stranger, which I presumed to be the significance of the title. On the positive side, though, there was a lot more discussion of the evolution of the girls' friendship than what I expected from the description, which was definitely interesting to see. The girls both experienced character growth which led to a pretty happy ending, which is never a bad thing.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to receive an advanced reader's copy of this novel and I look forward to more from this author in the future. TMI had a great foundation to an interesting idea, and I'd like to see more like this one in the future, for sure.
After a messy breakup with her high school boyfriend, Bailey throws herself into her ideas for creating her own video game, going to the internet for inspiration and technical assistance. She soon finds Ryder, a mysterious guy on the internet who seems to be her perfect match in every way. Ryder offers his assistance with Bailey's gaming project and meanwhile manages to captivate Bailey's attention and affection with his frequent emails and texts. He seems like the perfect guy, but Ryder always has an excuse as to why he can't meet up with Bailey. What is Ryder hiding?
Suddenly, Ryder reveals something to Bailey that makes her question the loyalty of her best friend Meg. Surely Meg wouldn't reveal Bailey's deepest darkest secrets to Ryder, right? But, how else would he know so many hidden things about Bailey? After a devious act of brutal revenge, Meg and Bailey find themselves in an entirely new territory. Who is Ryder and what dangers are really in store for a teenage girl who reveals a bit too much about herself to a total stranger?
I can't deny that I loved the concept of this young adult novel -- I'm a sucker for any story that explores the medium of online messaging or texting as a way to integrate parts of the story line. And, with the popularity of the show CATFISH, who can resist a story about the mystery lurking on the other side of the internet? There were so many possibilities for this book, I think, and so many potential lessons to teenagers about the dangers of emotional intimacy with utter strangers on the net.
However, there were several problems I had with the story that really kept me from elevating it to the LOVE level. For one, I just found the characters of Bailey -- and to a much greater extend, Meg -- to be very extreme and unrelatable. Don't get me wrong -- I adore extreme characters, especially those plagued by deep psychological problems -- but these girls were almost TOO much to handle. They constantly referenced their daddy issues, they were very fickle and ridiculously quick to turn on pretty much everyone, and especially the character of Meg just seemed to try TOO hard to present herself as dark and disturbed. I'd like to see a little more relateability to these characters, I think, to make them a bit more likeable to keep me more invested in their stories.
Also, the identity of Ryder felt like a bit of a dud. I guessed pretty early on who was hiding behind the computer, and I was disappointed to find that I was correct. I just feel like it would have been much more effective to infuse a bit more mystery and dangerous into the message here. There really weren't any huge repercussions to these girls revealing 'TMI' to a stranger, which I presumed to be the significance of the title. On the positive side, though, there was a lot more discussion of the evolution of the girls' friendship than what I expected from the description, which was definitely interesting to see. The girls both experienced character growth which led to a pretty happy ending, which is never a bad thing.
I appreciate getting the opportunity to receive an advanced reader's copy of this novel and I look forward to more from this author in the future. TMI had a great foundation to an interesting idea, and I'd like to see more like this one in the future, for sure.