TBH, This Is So Awkward (TBH, #1)

by Lisa Greenwald

[Leah]

TBH, This Is SO Awkward is one of the quickest books I’ve ever read – it took me half an hour or so, and it was exactly what I expected from a book told entirely through text messages. It’s a tiny bit hard to decipher some of the texts that are sent due to them being shortened (I have no idea was BFFAE means Best Friends Forever…?) which I’ve said before annoys me, if only because these lasses must have smart phones? Therefore auto-correct! Though it may be miles easier for 8-12 year olds to decipher, I might just be too old. XD.

I feel like TBH, This Is So Awkward could have been so much more – it touches on bullying, but kind of skirts around it, and I felt like Gabby, Cece and Prianka were pretty mean to Victoria – sometimes name-calling isn’t just bullying, but even just ignoring somebody is bullying and I just don’t understand why they were ignoring Victoria? Was it because she was the new girl? Because they didn’t like her? There was no reason and it just kind of ruined all of the girls’ characters, because there was no logic to them ignoring Victoria and it all just got brushed under the carpet – there were no real consequences. Because of the short nature of the novel and the fact it was told via text messages meant there was a lack of context, and you didn’t really get to know the girls, and all you really saw was them ignoring Victoria and Victoria feeling left out and the girls looking like jerks.

I’ll probably pick up the second book in the series – it’s worth half an hour of my time, to see if the girls learnt anything, but I feel like considering this is a book marketed at 8-12 year olds it’s giving them the message that if you don’t want someone to be part of your group, it’s OK to ignore them, when that’s entirely the wrong message. As someone who was bullied at school by her friends, I wanted better consequences for the girls because silence can be just as bad as name-calling. It was a quick read and maybe I’m just looking at it with more of a critical eye as an adult than as a kid, but IDK. It feels like it’s sending the wrong message to impressionable pre-teens.