Girl (in real life) is a great teen read, broaching the topic of social media and the extent to which we invite unknown people into our lives while showing us a character trying to come to terms with who she is.
Eva is – in many ways – a typical girl…but since she was young her parents have vlogged about her. Videos of her hamster’s funeral and ‘cute’ events in her life have been viewed by thousands of people. She’s used to her home time being carefully orchestrated to protect ‘the brand’. As she’s grown up, however, Eva is more conscious of how this constant presence invades her life. Schoolmates mock her, some find it entertaining…but when her mum posts about her first period Eva decides enough is enough.
Eva tries to explain her reluctance – and her parents were portrayed as highly insensitive in this regard. But nothing changes.
As we can see coming a mile off, Eva takes matters into her own hands and enlists the help of a new student to reclaim her life. Badly thought out, messy, but it doesn’t totally backfire so Eva is happy enough and their comfortable ‘real life’ funded lifestyle isn’t affected.
With the younger audience in mind it doesn’t do anything than skirt a very complex issue. It is from Eva’s perspective so it’s quite easy to see it in isolation, but it’s a good starting point.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication in exchange for my honest review.