ttyl

Internet Girls #1

by Lauren Myracle

It's time for a new generation of readers to discover the phenomenally bestselling and beloved series, told entirely in messages and texts. With a fresh look and updated cultural references, the notorious list-topping series is ready for the iPhone generation. First published in 2004 (holy moly!), ttyl and its sequels follow the ups and downs of high school for the winsome threesome, three very different but very close friends: wild Maddie (mad maddie), bubbly Angela (SnowAngel), and reserved Zoe (zoegirl). Through teacher crushes, cross-country moves, bossy Queen Bees, incriminating party pics, and other bumps along the way, author Lauren Myracle explores the many potholes of teenagedom with the unflinching honesty and pitch-perfect humor that made this series a staple of young adult literature.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Chick Lit, Banned Books, Romance

249 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Lauren Myracle is the author of numerous young adult novels. She was born in 1969 in North Carolina. Lauren Myracle holds an MA in English from Colorado State University and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. she has written many novels, including the famous IM books, ttyl, ttfn, and l8r, g8r.

Her first novel, Kissing Kate, was selected as one of ALA's "Best Books for Young Adults" for the year 2004. It was named by Booklist as one of the "Top Ten Youth Romances" of the year, as well as one of the "Top Ten Books by New Writers." Her middle-grade novel, Eleven, came out 2004, followed by its YA sequels (Twelve, Thirteen, Thirteen Plus One) .

Reviews

[karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

holy f*ck - i h8 this book! *shakes walker and geriatric meds at sky*

this book is like when you find someone's diary at work (not a co-worker's diary - that would make you a jerk) and you idly flip through it until you remember that most people are fucking boring and their innermost secrets are totally dull and most likely misspelled.

people like virginia woolf or anais nin can have their diaries published because they are either very intelligent and insightful or super sexy. these girls are just superficial.

so, these aren't diaries, but IMs, but the end result is the same. the format of this book sets it apart as "unique", but it doesn't change the fact that these characters are utterly trivial and a book that is only IM's of teenage girls, with no interior monologues or action sequences or descriptive passages is more like a trap than a novel. it is just all teen dialogue. vapid, vapid teen dialogue.

my reaction to this book is probably a result of my extreme old age. i do not text. i did not have a computer in high school, no gaggle of giggle parties in some chat room - in undergrad, i used my computer to write papers and play endless games of apeiron. if i wanted to talk to someone, i would walk over to them and use my mouth (LGM)

so, i am most certainly not the target audience for this book. but i can't see how young people who spend all day texting and instant messaging would want to read the instant messages of strangers/characters in their leisure time. and how this blossomed into a series is beyond me. i mean, gracious. kids these days...

a few things rescue this from being a one-star book. the energy is good - it is really fast-paced and takes about ten minutes to read. the characters have discrete voices - even though they each get their own color ink in the book, the reader can tell without that device which character is speaking. so - cheers on voice. also, the parts where two girls are "talking" about the third one behind her... keyboard?? display device?? is that the modern day equivalent of talking behind someone's back? whatever - there is a spot-on well-intentioned cattiness that i certainly remember from my own high school days.

cute idea, but i am the wrong audience,like with musicians on the subway. I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE YOU MONEY BECAUSE YOU ARE ANNOYING ME.

and please reconsider that last name. srsly.

come to my blog!

[Kelly (and the Book Boar) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/



3.5 Stars

When I first started TTYL I figured what the powers-that-be thought of as “offensive” material was the fact that the entire thing was written in text format . . . .



Any “adult content” - and trust me when I say I’m using that term for lack of anything better because really the “controversial” subject matter was regarding a teacher who might have been a . . . .



And realizing that wanting to be popular might not end up being all you thought it would be because sometimes you find out this about your new “friends” . . . .



It was all delivered in very much a PG-rated way. The real story here was simply the daily goings on between three besties for the resties told via text. You have naïve, sweet little Zoe . . . .



Snarky Maddie . . .



And always-has-her-eye-on-a-new-potential-crush Angela . . .



There’s not much else to say. Well, except to the people who want to ban books. Scootch up real close so I can tell you something . . . .



This book was about as benign as it could get while still having a bit of real-life issues thrown in. It was cute and relatable, but definitely not something that would change anyone’s life. I would put money that most kids who read this will only have a vague recollection of it once they are grown (unless they have an eidetic memory). Wanting this banned just shows what a giant asshole you are.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up this book for a couple of different reasons. The first being that the idea of it being written entirely in IM form was somewhat interesting you me, secondly, it is a challenged/banned book and was a challenge selection for me. With that being said, lets get on to the book.

I thought this book was pointless, drawn out, and completely and utterly useless. The main characters were nothing special; one was boy crazy, one was religion obsessed, and the other was just well crabby. Obviously throughout the book each one had their own version of a mini-crisis, but even that did not make the book meaningful.

I can understand why some schools might have a problem with the book (as some of the topics were a little bold for the genre). However, overall I feel as though there was no real heart to the book, the IM conversations were random and never really resolved anything properly. The ending was just that, and ending. Nothing happened, nothing was resolved, and essentially the book was just over. I was left flipping through the last few pages scratching my head while I wondered if my copy was missing pages.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

SnowAngel: Hey
madmaddie: hey
zoegirl: I am here to you no
madmaddie: Yea, we no *sed in annoyed voice
madmaddie: LOL! i am just kidding grl!
SnowAngel: Hey, this year was one wild ride huh?
zoegirl: yea, with maddie partying so much and taking off her shirt and all.....
madmaddie: yea, and zoey ALMOST going all the way with the way with Mr. H yummmmmm
madmaddie: luckly, i was there to save you! Just think, and in a hot tub to....
SnowAngel: Enough Enough! Gosh grls!
SnowAngel: You guys act like the whole world revolves around you! Besides, what about me and perfect little bus boy..... =(
madmaddie: Face it Angela, he was not worth it!
zoegirl: Yea, cheer up! sides, i never thought that he was that cute........
SnowAngel: WHAT!?!?!
madmaddie: hehe
madmaddie: as much as I like to here you guys bicker, you have to remember where this god Zoey and I last time................
zoegirl: Yea, she had really mean messages....
madmaddie: I meant the hot tub, but ok...
SnowAngel: Girls, Girls!!
SnowAngel: Lets talk about this at my house....
madmaddie: MOVIE NITEEEE!
zoegirl: YEY!
zoegirl: I am going to bring my favorite P.J's!
madmaddie: and maybe you can bring Mr. H to.......
zoegirl: and maybe you can bring jenna......
SnowAngel: AND MAYBE YOU TO CAN GET YOUR BUTS OVER HERE!
madmaddie: right. cya in 5 mins!
(madmaddie is offline)
zoegirl: Give me 10
(zoegirl is offline)
(SnowAngel is offline)

[Debbie Pitts · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was disturbing on many levels. Not only did it force me to re-live the shallow insecurities of teenage girlhood, but I had to endure the "shock jock" attemtps by the author to reach immature minds where they are. I don't think anyone younger than eighth grade should be exposed to the language and sexual content of this book and I think even parents of high school girls should read it and use it as a teaching tool with their young girls. On the positive side, I think the writing of this story through instant messages between the girls was a stroke of genius and there were some positive lessons to be learned from the story, but I think the language and childishness of the girls' language and behavior cheapened the book's value. Yes, you could argue that "that's how girl's talk." But that doesn't mean we have to condone it by having this on the middle school library shelves. Funny how parents are so careful about what their kids are watching on tv or in the theaters, but don't think to check on what they are reading.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are amazingly addicting. I've probably read each one at least ten times, mostly because they're hilarious, but also because they're my "go-to" books for when I'm super stressed and need to read something stupidly-good.

[Nshslibrary · Rating 1 out of 5]

Teenagers, usually pictured as selfish, savage party animals, binge drinking and experiencing pregnancies by the time we are sixteen, seem to be a popular topic in the media. The way Lauren Myracle portrays girls of the age of 15-16 is ludicrous and unrealistic. Angela Silver, Zoe Barrett, and Maddie Kinnick are three under aged girls in the 10th grade. Experiencing a high level of drama, the main characters are subjected to a variety of commotion that most modern teens would not reach until reaching college. The novel, TTYL, includes a portion of pedophilia, drinking, cyber-bullying, and nudity. I would infer that older audiences would admire this book for its level of “lifelike” scenarios and dialogue. However, I have never directly encountered any human being with the intentions of misspelling half of all their words on instant messaging in high school. Near the end of the book Maddie’s two friends discuss about how a girl named Jana sent pictures of “maddie dancing on the table, and she was naked from the waist up”(176) after a frat party with alcohol. The “winsome threesome” (2) gossip about their school mates constantly and are subjects to peer pressure and insecurity. Although this is a quality that is very realistic with teenagers today, the characters do not show any purposeful quality. They seem like very shallow characters and I find it very hard to relate to such falsely developed personalities. I personally take offense to the fact that Myracle pictures teenagers of my age as small-minded creatures and that she has the nerve to distribute the idea. TTYL by Lauren Myracle seemingly expresses what the media feeds to its viewers about stereotypical teenagers, the novel is just as superficial as the character development, and it’s crafted with dialogue that is unrealistic and overly exaggerated.

[Elle (ellexamines on TT & Substack) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story entirely in IMs sounds gimmicky, and maybe it is. Okay, yes it is. I can't deny some of my enjoyment of this was the entertaining drama. But hidden behind the drama is an entertaining coming-of-age story.

The strength of the characters elevates this book to a better space. Over the course of the series, these characters develop and get far more interesting. Zoe is a good girl with hidden depths. Maddie is a bad girl with hidden depths. And Angela is a ditzy girl with hidden depths. These three characters subvert their original character archetypes in a nice way. Throughout the books, their friendship dynamics change, but they stay just as connected to each other.

The shortness of each one is a plus. This is a series you can blow through without getting bored and annoyed. Yet you still get some enjoyable coming-of-age drama.

It's not exactly high literature, but I ended up really enjoying this story.

[Becky · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book....I would never recommend this to my students. Young adult literature is usually to have some redeeming quality. It is partially to instruct teens on how to deal with issues they face. However, this book teaches no lesson other than do what you want to do, despite others' warnings. The teens in these books make bad choices, and there are no consequences to their actions. The IM style, while trendy, is not condusive to engaged reading. The reader is not immersed in the life of any of the charcters. Stay away.

[Noah Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't think I'd like this one as much as I did, but I did...so sue me! I had wanted to read this book (I use that term loosely on this effort) for a while now, especially since I recently saw that AOL was shutting down its iconic instant messaging service later this year on December 15th. Maybe ttyl brought me back to a simpler time and that's why I liked it. I remember being fifteen and being on AIM constantly. Situating your buddy list was actually exciting at one point in time, but now all our attention-hogging phones have made everything streamlined and we don't really need these "archaic" platforms to pontificate. Shame. Anyway, author Lauren Myracle did a fantastic job with making their texts look teen-like and authentic—besides having the three young ladies utilize several correct comma placements and some choice em dash implementation. I HIGHLY doubt that girls in their sophomore year of high school would ever be bothered to execute proper punctuation and whatnot. I know many authors who don't do any of that stuff correctly, for crying (typing) out loud! That's the only thing that took me out of it whatsoever. There should've been more flubs throughout! But with all that being typed, this was a fun trip down memory lane...to when things were just a little less stressful and were certainly not as technologically advanced as everything is today. Rest in peace, AIM. We won't exactly miss you, but we will remember you for how groundbreaking you were at the height of your powers. One last thing, if Mr. H was so cool and hip...as Zoe once thought to be the case, why wasn't he hitting on a woman his own age? Lame. Mad glad he didn't get to taste the cake!

[evie · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty little liars if they weren’t being tortured by a 😭😭 i’m lowkey interested and wanna read the next one lmao

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book because it was adapting IMing to the novel format, great idea -- poorly implemented. If the story is told purely by IMs then it has to be dialogue driven, instead this is an event driven plot. There is no character development in the dialogue, so we never witness the girls change we only hear about it second hand.

I gave it plus one star for sticking to pure IMs, but this is really a one star book.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

lol,its cute and totally inapropriate

[Leslie ☆︎ · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s been years since I read Dante’s “Inferno,” but I’m confident there is a circle of Hell in which sinners are eternally damned to read Lauren Myracle’s “ttyl” over and over again.

For what sin would this be a fitting punishment? Homicide? Arson? Not replacing the toilet paper roll? That’s up for God to decide. Regardless, I would rather be drowned in the River Styx than read this “book” again.

“ttyl” is about three fifteen-year-old girls whose names I’ve already forgotten even though I finished the book last night, so I had to refer back to it. There’s Zoe, whose only personality trait is that she’s being groomed by her teacher, Maddie, who hates everybody until she doesn’t, and Angela, the dumbest, most selfish, most obnoxious character in all of fiction.

“ttyl” starts with our main trio insisting they’re going to be best friends forever, no matter what, because they’re not like *other* friend groups that drift apart over time — which immediately signals to the reader that they’re going to have a falling out by the end of the story. Lauren Myracle isn’t subtle about her use of irony.

The rest of the book recounts average teen girl drama — so-and-so breaks up with so-and-so, so-and-so’s mom is overbearing, so-and-so is being creeped on by her teacher, etc. Despite our main trio making some of the dumbest decisions I’ve ever read in fiction (e.g. Angela stalks her ex, both in person and online, even though he could not make it clearer that he doesn’t want her), if this book were told like a regular fiction novel, I’d probably have given it a higher rating.

My biggest issue is the format. “ttyl” is told entirely through the text messages (or IMs, or DMs — it doesn’t matter) between three characters. This format fundamentally doesn’t work. The story of the book — the thing that makes a book entertaining — happens off-screen and is only recounted to the reader after the fact. Why should the reader care about an event they themselves weren’t an active observer of?

For example, Zoe spends the entire book bitching about how much she hates a girl named Jana. We the audience have no incentive to care about this because we never *meet* Jana and aren’t given the opportunity to judge her for ourselves. We’re only being *told* what happened instead of being *shown* what happened *as* it happened. We aren’t actually reading a story. We’re being *retold* a story through early-2000s teenspeak that’s so obnoxious it makes me want to rip my teeth out of my head and swallow them one by one. It’s like Myracle prompted ChatGPT to simulate a text conversation between three teenage girls using only Buzzfeed’s entire publication history for reference.

Because this is the most scathing review I’ve left on Goodreads so far, I feel I should include a disclaimer: I’ve never written a fiction novel. Any attempt I make at this point in time would almost certainly be a colossal failure. Additionally, I strongly believe there is no such thing as a bad book, or bad music, or a bad painting, etc., because the result of any creative endeavor is inherently subjective. But, man, did this book challenge my beliefs.

I read “ttyl” because it features on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 most contested books in the United States, which my best friend and I are tackling together. Here’s my message to any and all librarians, school directors, and principals: stop removing bad books from your catalogue, because it means someone who wants to stick it to the man (like me) will inevitably read it, and it will ruin their day.

[Beth The Vampire · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an assigned reading for my Writing for Young Adult uni course this semester.

This is not going to be a long review, because honestly, there's not much to talk about.

The story of three friends, Maddie, Zoe, and Angela, is told completely in the form of sms messaging. They all have their own personalities; Maddie is the rebel, Zoe the goodie-goodie who goes to church, and Angela is obsessed with boys. Maybe this is meant to represent the typical teenager. But what is showed is that they are typically boring. First world problems abound!

I was a teenager, a long time ago now, so maybe it's my age talking, but man could they make mountains out of molehills. And even your friends can be bitches to you when your a 15 year old girl. It was fucking annoying. Throughout the whole book nothing really happens. Why not address some issues that are important to adolescence instead of toeing the line? There were no pertinent questions raised that would really challenge a young reader.

That's why it took me about a day to finish this book because nothing of importance happens. And the solution to the major issue, Zoe being seduced by a Catholic teacher at her school, was so childish. This is a major problem, and what it's just going to stop because her friends played a prank on him? If he is a predator he will keep going or move on to another girl, but we'll just treat this light and fluffy.

The way it was written was an interesting experiment, but it took a while to get used to, and to make sure you knew who was who and what day it was. I ready this on my kobo ereader, so all the characters were in different colours or bold, and while this is fine, to stop confusion, you need to make sure the formatting is great, but there were times characters were in the wrong colour and things like that. And because it was written in this way, while the teenage speak was very accurate (and annoying because they have a shorter word for EVERYTHING!!), is lacked a level of engagement. I wasn't attached to any of them at all, and this is because I felt like we only saw the surface and didn't delve any deeper.

In the end, this book was simple, and didn't really have a point.

Ha! And I said this review was going to be short!

[Meghan · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, a couple of days ago, I picked up this book because the author's coming to my local bookstore in a couple weekends.

And I wish I hadn't.

I'm fifteen, in tenth grade, so I think I'm supposedly the target audience for this book, because that's how old the characters were. Well, I absolutely hated it.

Honestly, "true to life"? This is nothing like the current lives of a couple of teenagers. Besides anything related to that creepy stalkerish teacher, there was no talk of grades/homework or activities. It seems as though the author doesn't seem to know this, but today's teenagers don't have the TIME to pour out of their souls IM-ing about...absolutely nothing.

They were constantly on IM and all they talked about were a) boys, b) their friend not talking to them, c) a creepy teacher, and d) a road trip. For around 200 pages! There was no plot whatsoever, not that there usually is in IMs, but honestly? To make this book interesting something should've happened to the girls that was actually worth talking about!

The other thing that was terrible about this book were the characters. They were just so...annoying. They sounded like and behaved like 12 year olds.

However, I didn't have any problems with the girls' behavior and language because, honestly? Most teenage girls are worse than that. I'm not, but I'm the exception. I respect the author for getting that ONE thing right.

[emerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Damn you. WHY do you plant these things in my head?

[Marissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. After reading this I wanted to just throw the book across the room. I picked this book up because I thought the idea of writing a book entirely in im was interesting. I read this when I was 15. I could not find a plot then and I cannot find a plot now. A few events happen that are discussed over im (the creepy teacher, and their friend not talking to them for example) but there was no real plot and these little events did not add anything to the story.

I guess the climax of the book would be when the girls are talking about what happened to their friend and the creepy teacher. They all got together to help their friend and then laughed about it on im. The incident with the teacher was what bothered me the most. All the reader got to see was the three girls talking about the event in past tense and then laughing about it. I had no sympathy for the girl. I feel that this kind of a scene could have been done well in im but this book is not an example of it.

The character development was poor and I was unable to connect with any of the characters. I was a 15 year old girl at the time who liked to im and I still did not care about the characters. The book was supposed to be about friendship but I found it pointless and a waste of time.

The book was also very quick to read. Save your money.

[Mummy Cat Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

Saw some pages of this book on fb that someone posted. This book isn’t appropriate for any age. Sad that this is geared towards children.

Content: horrible language, use of many different words for sex and sexual talk between friends.

[Nella ☾ of Bookland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was revolutionary for middle school me. I loved (and still love) the writing style.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ug, I can't believe this book got published! I picked it up because when I saw it was on the banned book list I was curious. I've seen so many of my 6th grade students read it, but I really wish I could discourage them.

This book was on the banned list due to content not appropriate for young adults. I think the content may be fine for high school students, but it is definitely not something 6th graders need to be reading. The book is dedicated to The Beers Bros. That should say something right there.

The entire book is told in instant message format, but it could have at least have been done with some class. The ENTIRE book is written with "typical" text formatting. There is not one bit of grammatical integrity at all. As a writing teacher, I can't stand this. Good reading should include some modeling of appropriate use of language.

Parents, I strongly urge you to preview this book before allowing your young teenager to read it! I don't believe in censorship, but I do believe parents should know what their children are reading and make informed decisions. I will be honest.... I didn't read past the first few pages because I was so turned off.

[Mohammed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got bored reading the first couple of pages that decided to stop.
but i hate getting a book but not reading it so i decided to continue and i was glad to take this decision, Because it turned out OKAY.
I hated most of the decisions the girls made in this book, it made me angry tbh.
But i liked the dialogues, and i got excited at the end of the book.
3.5

[Gary Butler · Rating 2 out of 5]

6th book read in 2015.

Number 406 out of 434 on my all time book list.

Follow the link below to see my video review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l33s6...

[mimi (depression slump) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is not only a collection of texts sent by 14 years old, but the example of how bad the publishing world has become in the last couple of decades.

↠ 1 star

[Jillfill · Rating 3 out of 5]

if you know, you know. 3 stars for this series purely for nostalgia but omg i can’t believe i read this book series in elementary school and thought nothing of the subject matter

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is funny and very easy to read. The IM's are not confusing, you don't have to think hard to know who's talking. The fonts and colours are very helpful. But just the characters are easy to distinguish. When you do this kind of thing you have to make sure that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who's who because then you lose the reader. So each character's got to be an individual. And that was well done with this book. One's into her teacher and is into religion too. The other seeks popularity and ends up getting burned. While the last is just boy crazy, and almost over the top. So if you're looking for something that isn't too personal and deep. Because the IM format doesn't give much insight into the minds of the characters. That's the book for you.

[Katie (Kitkatscanread) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3. 5 stars

This one was a weird book for me.
I like how it's structured like an instant messenger.
Reminds me of the good old days with MSN messenger haha.
I liked how we learned about the 3 girl's lives just through this way.
There's no main protagonist which made it interesting.
Three best friends dealing with normal high school problems.
I did find it intriguing and couldn't put it down.
Look forwards to seeing what happens in the next installment :)

[Doe · Rating 1 out of 5]

WHAT NONSENSE LMAO

[Julia Rosenthal · Rating 2 out of 5]

sometimes it’s best to remeber a book through nostalgic colored glasses

[Jenna Bellar · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s so bad lololol but I’m simply going to read the rest of them