Review: Don't Call Me Baby by Gwendolyn Heasley

Don’t Call Me Baby

Author: Gwendolyn Heasley
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: ebook
Release Date: April 22, 2014
Source: egalley received from publisher via Edelweiss
Rating: 2.5 Stars
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***I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way changed my opinion of the book. The review below is my open and honest opinion.***

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

My Review:

I grabbed this book because it mentioned blogging and obviously I relate to that. The story is about a girl whose mom runs a very successful mommy blog. Well that was cute and fun when she was a kid, but now she’s starting high school and it’s not okay anymore. Imogene wants privacy, rightfully so. I was very interested in seeing how the mother-daughter relationship evolved over the course of this book.

Unfortunately, I didn’t particularly like this book. It wasn’t terrible, but this book just didn’t do it for me. Part of it was that the voice sounded extremely juvenile. I know the girl is a teenager, but she just seemed especially immature for me. Younger readers might be okay with this, but it just didn’t work for me. The other thing was that a lot of times, Imogene’s inner monologue sounded forced. There were points where I was like, really? Come on, kids don’t think like that.

Imogene’s mom was an airhead. I’m sorry, it had to be said. She was completely blind to everything going on around her. I wanted to slap her and scream “hello?? Your daughter is almost in high school now. She doesn’t want you taking “before and after” pictures of her first day of school outfit and blogging about her first period.” Seriously, that really happened. What kind of mother does that? I just don’t get it. Does she not remember what it was like to be a teenager at all? I was just annoyed and angry at her the entire book.

I did like the friendship between Imogene and Sage. We got to see their friendship grow and become stronger over the novel. And I loved Imogene’s dad and her grandma. That part of her family dynamic was so great. They really cared about each other and Imogene enjoyed spending time with them.

Overall, this book just didn’t work for me. The juvenile voice and the terror of a mother just didn’t click with me. I think that the concept is important though. Parents learning to respect their children’s  privacy. “Unplugging” from the internet and phones for a day. There are some good lessons in this one, but it simply wasn’t for me. Happy reading all!

Have you read this one? How did you feel about it? Did you feel like the voice was a bit young as well? What did you think of Imogene's mom?