REVIEW: TMI by PATTY BLOUNT

Category/Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication Date: 8/6/13
Format: eARC
Pages: 336
Source: Received from publisher for review
Rating: 3 stars

Best friends don’t lie.
Best friends don’t ditch you for a guy.
Best friends don’t post your deepest, darkest secrets online.

Bailey’s falling head-over-high-heels for Ryder West, a mysterious gamer she met online. A guy she’s never met in person. Her best friend, Meg, doesn’t trust smooth-talking Ryder. He’s just a picture-less profile.

When Bailey starts blowing Meg off to spend more virtual quality time with her new crush, Meg decides it’s time to prove Ryder’s a phony.

But one stupid little secret posted online turns into a friendship-destroying feud to answer the question:

Who is Ryder West?
/

I'm going to start this by saying that I never had a truly healthy relationship with a best friend until a little over a year ago. In high school, my girlfriends and I were basically a train wreck most of the time. We weren't "bad", it was just drama. I would love to say I was completely innocent, but I had my moments. The reason why I'm sharing this in my review? TMI brought back some of the painful moments of friends and high school. It made me sad and it made me cringe. So I'm thinking the author probably did exactly what she set out to do.

I spent much of the first half wondering if TMI is the story of a girl who wants to much control and worries about her friend too much, or the story of the dangers of befriending people online. I guess it could be both, and I would like to think I'm fairly intelligent when it comes to themes, but I had a hard time pinning TMI down for a while.

At TMI's mid-point, the story picks up focus. It's a sad situation in which two girls with a lot of issues let emotions and hurt feelings take control, causing everything to spin out of control. I liked that I felt a sense of where the story was headed. And I hesitate at saying this, because I genuinely do believe an author should be able to tell their story, exactly the way they want, but I also must go with my feelings. I'm not saying TMI goes beyond the realm of possibility, but at times it felt like there was too much drama, too many intense and crazy scenarios for me to get completely on board. But then again, things have changed a lot since I was a teen, so maybe what happens isn't too much at all.

As for the characters, I often felt conflicted. Now, I know that Meg and Bailey made bad choices. And I may be waaaay beyond my teen years, but I remember what it's like to be a teen. I made bad choices, and I don't know any teen who didn't at least a few times. So with this in mind, I didn't read TMI with a notepad, chronicling every bad choice Meg and Bailey made. I tried to remain a bystander, and let them tell their story. (Now excuse me while I climb off my soapbox.)

Having said that, these girls were completely frustrating, especially Megan. And it's not that I can't see where she was coming from, but still, frustrating. I did adore Chase. The boy had the patience of a saint. I honestly left the story happy with how it ended up, but still scratching my head over how it all went down.

Honestly, I think this should be chalked up to me not being a perfect fit for TMI. The story had valuable lessons. As an adult, I have hindsight on my side. I think a teen's opinion on TMI would be invaluable. 

  

Favorite Quote:

 

  "Forget it. I'm done, Megan." He shook his head again. "I'm...I've given you time and space and...and--all the patience I could squeeze out, but shit! It's not enough. It's never enough."  

 ~eARC, 52%

 

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About the author
Technical writer by day, fiction writer by night, Patty mines her day job for ideas to use in her novels. Her debut YA "Send" was born after a manager suggested she research social networks. Patty adores chocolate, her boys, and books, though not necessarily in that order.

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