#10 of 2012: Tweet Heart by Elizabeth Rudnick
I’ve long set my eyes on this book because 1) I’m on Twitter a lot and 2) I’d like a story revolving on that addictive thing, but have put off buying it because I was afraid I was going to get a “fluff” out of it. Don’t ask me why but maybe it was because of the blurb. Years - yes, two years, tops - and 17,000 tweets later, somebody was nice enough to swap books with me and this came along with the bunch. Finally, I proved myself wrong again. “Fluff” it’s not. It may have used the abused theme of unrequited love and love triangles but I really liked how it was told in tweets, blogs, and emails - something that is v. relevant to today’s wired generation, where almost everything can be done online. It was quite challenging to have no narration, only dialogues among the four main characters - Claire, Lottie, Will, and Bennett - for 200+ pages, because that’s what I’ve been used to for, I dunno, as long as I have been reading. In turn, I had to figure out myself what happened to them IRL, beyond the tweets and email exchanges. So much for judging this book to be “light.”
Yay!s
-Cliche but I always root for the geek/dork to get the girl of his dream and this book has that so HOORAY!
-Clever use of the phenomenon of online communication platforms and how it builds, improves, ruins, distorts relationships among people
-Geeky references to classic movies, Star Wars and Star Trek, and other SyFy stuff!
Boo!
-Story is generally predictable, but you know, still manageable and enjoyable
