GIRL (in real life) BY TAMSIN WINTER

What do you do when your entire life is put on YouTube, even the really embarrassing bits, and you’ve had enough? Eva Andersen is in Year 8 and that is hard enough. Even when she asks her parents to stop Vlogging and Instagraming they don’t get the message.

Eva’s life is a mess of filming, wearing and using products supplied to her brand. Her bedroom and wardrobe and what she eats are all curated by her parents and every day they think up more things to post. They are getting more intrusive and more embarrassing by the day. At school Eva’s grades are suffering as well as her friendship with Hallie who now prefers to sit with Gabi. The only friend who sticks by her is Spud, the science geek from next door.

When a new girl, Carys, joins her class, Eva volunteers to buddy her. Carys has been excluded from her last school for some unspecified cybercrime and Eva finds in her,  a friend who understands her problems.

Together they come up with a plan to show Eva’s parents that she’s not happy. Can they get away with infiltrating the family Vlog site? Will it be enough?

Tamsin Winter’s novel is a wonderful modern-day tale. It sheds light on how the internet and the glamour of fame are not all they claim to be. The insights into the damage caused by a life exposed on the worldwide stage are humourously told and give the reader another angle to see the consequences of constant exposure. Winter’s characters are real and Eva’s best friends, endearing. The themes of friendship, Internet obsession, finding oneself are all interwoven through this light but heart-felt novel.

 

 

 

For Ages: 11 - 14 years

Number of Pages: 352

Published: July 2021

Themes: Friendships, obsession and finding yourself.

Rating: 3.5/5

 

 

 

Georgina Gye