Read of the Week: Don’t Call Me Baby by Gwendolyn Heasley

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.

Don’t Call Me Baby is a sharply observed and irrepressibly charming story about mothers and daughters, best friends and first crushes, and the surface-level identities we show the world online and the truth you can see only in real life.

 

So, can I just start off by saying that we need to be setting more books in sunny Florida? Yes? I may hate it down here in Miami, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of this state is half bad. Also, have any of you ever been to Naples? It is, like, so beautiful. So much nicer than Miami, at least. It’s so much prettier and not half as crowded. I also have an aunt who lives there and I would gladly swap my place here in Miami for a place up in Naples if I had the chance.

Hey, check that out, it’s an empty beach. When will you ever see South Beach looking like this? I don’t know, maybe after five consecutive shark attacks. In one day, that is. I could really rant about my distaste for Miami endlessly, but I promise, that is not the point I’m trying to make, but, what I am trying to draw attention to is how amazing is was that this novel is set somewhere in Florida with appearances of real roads, neighborhoods, hotels, and much more. One of the best reading experiences for me is knowing that bits and pieces of places in the book are true; it just makes everything so tangible.

As a current Naples native, Heasley did a great job of portraying the laid back beach town, though I will voice my one concern: just because we live in Florida does not mean that all these schools have pools. Yes, I know, but you thought, and you figured, but, no, it just isn’t true. Only a handful of private schools in South Florida have pools, and this is me being lenient because I can only name one. Also, our lockers are not outdoors. In fact, most of our renovated high schools don’t actually use/have lockers anymore. Moving forward, Gwen’s way of going about the novels scenery is what mainly kept me interested in her story, because while the characters were all humorous and insightful, I felt that overall her writing was too premature for my personal liking, but considering Imogene’s age, it did fit well.

Don’t Call Me Baby also, ironically, happens to be extremely thought-provoking in the technological day and age we live in. Just how much time spent on social media and blogs is too much? What’s meant to stay private and what isn’t? The war between Imogene and her mother was very slapstick but a kind of situation I can imagine is familiar to anyone who has a parent with one foot stuck in the Internet portal.

Anyone looking for a sunny getaway with a hint of truth at the root should be sure to pick up Don’t Call Me Baby.

Rating: 8/10

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