Jane Shilling is 15 year old and pretty much hates her life. So she escapes into one of her alternate online lives, of which there are many. Her mother died last year, her father drinks and she is pretty much invisible at school so she balances her different personas. One is an emo, goth boy who likes to blog about dark feelings, another is an angry woman who likes to pick fights online but mostly she is Rachel online. Rachel, who likes to write fan fiction for her favorite sci-fi show.

Jane hates her therapist at school and hates her teacher when she tries to send home notes about her missing 27 homework assignments. Why do they care? What business is it of theirs? She begins to become friends with some online people but finds it tricky when none of the things she reveals is true. A boy at school tries to be her friend but Jane can’t understand why he would want to and is he really a skee-ball champion?

I found this book to be funny and touching in surprising ways. The cover definitely underwhelms and I wish it would get a new one just so it would draw some actual readers in. I always like when books use multiple mediums to tell stories and the use of IM’s, emails and journal entries definitely worked for me. Through this medium we were able to tell at a glance which of Jane’s online personas were “talking”. I loved reading Jane’s actual journal entries because her venting about her school was one of my favorite parts of the book.

The surprisingly touching parts came in the forms of the IM’s. Both the therapist and Jane’s friends had conversations that were insightful and real. I know some older people might find it hard to read the IM’s because they were in “text speak” that teenagers use, but since this is a young adult novel I thought it was very appropriate and right on. I would recommend this book to any young adult reader.

I received this book via Netgally in return for an honest review.

4 stars

~Clio

Buy it Now 4 to 16 Characters