Title/Author: Don't Call Me Baby by Gwendolyn Heasley
Publisher/Date published: HarperTeen, April 22nd 2014
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Goodreads summary: All her life, Imogene has been known as the girl on THAT blog.
Imogene's mother has been writing an incredibly embarrassing, and incredibly popular, blog about her since before she was born. Hundreds of thousands of perfect strangers knew when Imogene had her first period. Imogene's crush saw her "before and after" orthodontia photos. But Imogene is fifteen now, and her mother is still blogging about her, in gruesome detail, against her will.
When a mandatory school project compels Imogene to start her own blog, Imogene is reluctant to expose even more of her life online... until she realizes that the project is the opportunity she's been waiting for to tell the truth about her life under the virtual microscope and to define herself for the first time.
So I was actually really excited to start this book because reading about a girl whose the star of her mother's blog just sounds really interesting and I'm always interested in reading a book that has blogging in it. Let's just say that Don't Call Me Baby wasn't really what I'd expected. Some of my thoughts on the book:
-Imogene's mother is HORRIBLE! I mean, WTF, seriously? You can't post all these embarassing things about your daughter on your blog and expect her to be ok with it. Seriously. And why the heck isn't her dad doing something about it? I really felt that Imogene's grandmother was the only adult who actually had some sense, she was cool.
-I disliked that blogging is put in such a negative light, because well, not every blogger is the same and we're not all in it for the fame and money and just, UGH ok. I was annoyed. I get that Imogene didn't like her mom blogging about her, but blogging isn't evil.
-I did think that Imogene and her best friend made some valid points about privacy and the internet and how parents should really not put their kids' whole lives up on the internet for everyone to see. And sometimes I wish I could unplug for a while and just live in the moment, I did that while I was on Mallorca last year and it was awesome.
-I was REALLY not digging the boy. I mean, he's all like 'don't be so hard on your mom cause at least she's paying attention to you' and I was like DUDE UNCOOL! And also: unrealistic. What teenager would tell another teenager that it's ok for their parents to post about them in full detail?
-I didn't really like how it was resolved towards the end, there was all this drama and then it just ended with a bit of a fizzle.
It was a pretty quick read, but it wasn't as much fun as I'd expected and some things really annoyed me, which was a disappointment as I'd heard good things about Gwendolyn Heasley's other books.
My rating: 2 stars
Haven't read the book, but the idea of a Mother putting her daughter's life online is creepy. As a blogger I try to keep most personal things off my blog.
ReplyDeleteYeah I didn't like this book . Blogging double standard with mom & girls :(
ReplyDeleteOh no, I thought this was good. Your review might be the third one I've read, and all of you almost said the same thing, that this was not good. And what about that ending? I like endings to be memorable, and not rushed, because it will linger on your mind longer.
ReplyDeleteElla @ The Filipina Booknote
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