Review of Lauren Myracle's ttyl

Lauren Myracle’s ttyl was published in New York, New York in 2006 by Amulet Books, which is an imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.. This novel has a simple, realistic insight into the lives of three high school sophomore girls who communicate through instant messaging(IM). Although this book is based on real life, it is a fictional novel. Since ttyl is written in IM form, there is no narrator telling the story. Ttyl is an easily accessible book. ttyl is classified in the genre of realistic fiction. It would probably be found in the young adults section of a library. The novel is meant for an older audience, because the protagonists are teenagers and the things they say are what teenagers talk about, so it probably wouldn't be wise if a ten-year-old read ttyl. This book costs on average about $10 a copy. The paperback printing of ttyl has 229 pages. ttyl is the first novel in the Internet Girls trilogy, followed by ttfn and l8r, g8r.
Lauren Myracle did a marvelous job at creating actual problems to get teenagers addicted to her books. ttyl covers problems that 16 year old girls face every day. Between boy problems, popularity contests, rumors and broken promises, there is nothing that isn't covered in ttyl. To someone who grew up without computers and IM, this book may be a little difficult to follow, but to the teenagers who read it, ttyl is miraculously written to show the true struggles of high school.
Instant messaging is the communication that is popular today. IM is the quick way to communicate with someone through the computer. As soon as the person sending the message presses enter, the receiver automatically has a window pop up on their computer screen. Instant messaging also cut out the number of emails typed because IMs are quicker and shorter. People who use IM, typically shorten what they're saying to acronyms in order to communicate quicker but still get their point across. Such as the title of Myracle's novel; ttyl, shortened for talk to you later. Other examples would be shortening words like you to just the letter u or okay to k. There are many ways to talk on instant messenger.
This novel is a great example of the new technological evolutions of the twenty-first century. Myracle did a fantastic job of writing a book in IM form although people have never heard of a book being written this way. ttyl started it's own sort of genre with the new nature of the book. The closet already existing genre would probably be a play because there's dialog and actions in the IMs, but the book can't be classified as a play because there are no real actions or speaking, the girls just sit in front of the computer and type. Instant messages are letters on a computer and since the entire novel is composed of IMs; ttyl can also be classified as an epistolary novel.
Myracle was brilliant in writing the perfect novel for it's type. Ttyl describes the sophomore year of a high school girl very well. She captured every problem in it's own unique way, thus creating an admirable book that many teen girls will pass on to each other. Not only did she capture the essence of high school, she created the flawless example of an epistolary novel of the new generation of communication through creating a story of only instant messages.
I would recommend this novel to preteen and teenage girls who enjoy talking to their friends. As a sophomore in high school myself, I found that ttyl described my life incredibly well considering the fact that it is just a book. The things that Zoe, Maddie and Angela go through in ttyl are the things that my friends and I face on the a daily basis, so I passed the book on the all of my friends and they all enjoyed it as well. I don't believe that guys would find this to be very interesting, because it has great details of the lives of three 16 year old girls; lives full of drama, crying and romance. I would also say that children under the age of about thirteen should not read this because of the language and topics of conversations that the girls in ttyl use. Some adults would probably not enjoy it either for the same reasons that teen boys wouldn't, although, if the reader is interested in a new, meta-fictional storyline, ttyl is a great novel to read.

My First Post

Now that I am contributor to this blog, I thought I would introduce myself before I started posting reviews, opinions, etc.

My name is Greg and I'm a senior in High School this year. And yes, that means that I'm graduating in less than a month. WOOT! I'm going to be an English Major at the Honors College of Texas Tech University this August, and I am thrilled to be a part of this blog. All of the people that I've seen associated with the Texas A&M Commerce English Department seem incredibly friendly and kind.

I enjoy reading and writing to the fullest extent. In fact, I am a librophile (one who has a deep love for books) and a librarian. I'm an assistant librarian in my hometown and I'm gonna have to say that that is the best job imaginable. What could be better than working while surrounded by thousands of books? If you enjoy literary matters as much as I do, then we'll get along swell. [I don't think that anybody uses the word "swell" anymore, and so I just made myself sound like a ninety-year-old English gentleman....oh well]

I hope to be a Professor of English/Writer someday. Books I enjoy include: Angels and Demons [Dan Brown is a genius], Along Came a Spider [James Patterson is also incredibly awesome], Blink [Ted Dekker has his moments], and The Midnighters Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. My favorite classics include: The Fountainhead [Ayn Rand's books make me question everything I thought I knew], The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, Brave New World, and Alas, Babylon [I love those last two for their Apocalyptic Themes.] Two of my all-time favorite books are You Don't Know Me by David Klass and Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, but almost no one has ever heard of those books.

If you were able to read this entire post then I applaud you, and I hope to post my first opinion/review soon. Feel free to post responses to anything I post.

Thanks for reading!

Greg