Helpful Score: 1
'Tweet Heart' suffers from a standard storyline, nothing too special. All of it, and especially the ending, is fairly cute but, in the long run, overdone to the extreme. I wish the author had thought to try something new; with a fresh plot, she could have had a real winner in her hands.
The characters are cardboard cutouts of stereotypes: the girl with confidence issues, her best friend who gets all the guys, her guy friend who wants something more with her, his geeky best friend, and the athletic crush of the insecure girl. They are the typical characters youd find in any stereotypical high school stories with nothing added to make them really pop in the eyes of a reader.
The saving grace of this novel is its style. It is not a typical novel with a normal storytelling approach. 'Tweet Heart' is told entirely through Internet Tweets, e-mails, blogs, and an advice column from a school newspaper. Even if the characters and stories fail in being original, this unique style makes up for it. Filled with chat speak and user icons, the style makes the novel fun and different from the normal avenues of typical storytelling.
Now this unique style does have its downsides. The cardboard cutouts that are passed off as characters? Most of that stems from this approach to writing. Its really hard to get to know someone just based on their tweets, especially when, as the book points out, its so easy to lie about who you really are when a computer screen separates you from your online pen pal.
Also the style isolates the reader. Rather than drawing its audience into the story, readers remain on the outside looking in. Imagine becoming friends with an old high school classmate you dont talk to in real life on Facebook. You read their status updates, look at their pictures, and browse through the comments their current friends post on their Wall. Maybe you post on their Wall once a year, when Facebook alerts you that it is their birthday; if youre really lucky, theyll even return the favor when you become a year older and wise. You can follow along with how their life is going but you are in no position to change because they are no longer truly part of your life like they were in high school. Thats exactly what reading 'Tweet Heart' is like.
The characters are cardboard cutouts of stereotypes: the girl with confidence issues, her best friend who gets all the guys, her guy friend who wants something more with her, his geeky best friend, and the athletic crush of the insecure girl. They are the typical characters youd find in any stereotypical high school stories with nothing added to make them really pop in the eyes of a reader.
The saving grace of this novel is its style. It is not a typical novel with a normal storytelling approach. 'Tweet Heart' is told entirely through Internet Tweets, e-mails, blogs, and an advice column from a school newspaper. Even if the characters and stories fail in being original, this unique style makes up for it. Filled with chat speak and user icons, the style makes the novel fun and different from the normal avenues of typical storytelling.
Now this unique style does have its downsides. The cardboard cutouts that are passed off as characters? Most of that stems from this approach to writing. Its really hard to get to know someone just based on their tweets, especially when, as the book points out, its so easy to lie about who you really are when a computer screen separates you from your online pen pal.
Also the style isolates the reader. Rather than drawing its audience into the story, readers remain on the outside looking in. Imagine becoming friends with an old high school classmate you dont talk to in real life on Facebook. You read their status updates, look at their pictures, and browse through the comments their current friends post on their Wall. Maybe you post on their Wall once a year, when Facebook alerts you that it is their birthday; if youre really lucky, theyll even return the favor when you become a year older and wise. You can follow along with how their life is going but you are in no position to change because they are no longer truly part of your life like they were in high school. Thats exactly what reading 'Tweet Heart' is like.
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