Review: Don't Call Me Baby by Gwendolyn Heasley

Don't Call Me Baby
Author: Gwendolyn Heasley
Release Date: April 22, 2014
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: Edelweiss
Review by: Jenn

Synopsis: All her life, Imogene has been known as the girl on THAT blog.

Imogene's mother has been writing an incredibly embarrassing, and incredibly popular, blog about her since before she was born. Hundreds of thousands of perfect strangers knew when Imogene had her first period. Imogene's crush saw her "before and after" orthodontia photos. But Imogene is fifteen now, and her mother is still blogging about her, in gruesome detail, against her will.

When a mandatory school project compels Imogene to start her own blog, Imogene is reluctant to expose even more of her life online...until she realizes that the project is the opportunity she's been waiting for to tell the truth about her life under the virtual microscope and to define herself for the first time.

Don't Call Me Baby is a sharply observed and irrepressibly charming story about mothers and daughters, best friends and first crushes, and the surface-level identities we show the world online and the truth you can see only in real life.

3 stars out of 5 stars

*I received an eARC of this book from the publisher but it did not influence this review in any way.*

         I was searching through my crazy To Be Read pile and I picked up this book. Right from the beginning I was hooked. Imogene, Babylicious, has a funny, sarcastic, and relatable voice, so it was very easy to get sucked into the story. Don't Call Me Baby follows the story of Imogene as she deals with her mom being a mommy blogger and chronicles her every move with her readers. There's nothing that her mom, Mommylicious, won't share and Imogene has reached her limit on embarrassing situations and with everyone knowing everything about her.

Imogene and her best friend, Sage, whose mom is healthy food blogger, are forced to create a blog for their English class. Sage's mom basically controls everything that Sage eats and is obsessed with eating healthy. They decide to retaliate against their mothers and blog about them to show them how it feel to have no sense of privacy and choice. Their blogs end up taking both of them in different directions but it works for them in the end. I

I enjoyed this book. I like that it was a quick and funny read. I like how it explores how much being connected online ends up taking so much time over spending time with the people that are important and how sometimes you just need to unplugged for a few days. I do have to say that while some people may not like Imogene's mom, even I was irritated when she just couldn't see when Imogene wanted to have some shred of privacy, I still like her.

I do think that Don't Call Me Baby is geared towards the younger YA bracket as Imogene is 15 and has that tone of younger crowd. However, I still found it to be enjoyable and it did have some interesting topics that were discussed.