Amazon suggested the second book in this semi-series to me and I liked the sound of it, so I grabbed this one, too.
Bye Forever, I Guess is set in a small mountain town in Virginia named Deer Hill. It's your typical small town.
The main character has the fabulous name of Ingrid Ant. She's the redhead on the cover, though you'd never know it from the text. Pretty much my only critique of this book is that the author only describes two of the characters. The boy on the left and his twin, who isn't on the cover. You just have to guess that the girl in the middle is Ingrid and the one on the right is her online friend Lorren, based on their personalities. Like there's no way Ingrid would wear that upper right outfit.
Anyway, Ingrid is a shy girl who goes along with her popular best friend Rachel, though the friendship is getting more and more uncomfortable. After meeting twins that are new to town (Oliver there on the cover and his sister Alyx), Ingrid is mortified at lunch when Rachel not only introduces them to the larger friend group, despite knowing Ingrid already met them, but mentions Ingrid's deceased parents in a way that really upsets her. Ingrid cuts ties and there's drama stemming from that.
While shy in person, Ingrid is actually famous online and runs a popular Scrollr (I love this take on Tumblr) account in which she shares wrong number texts she's received. The original ended with "Bye forever, I guess," hence the name of her Scroll and the book. She runs the account anonymously. (She's thirteen, so that's for the best.) Rachel is one of only three other people who knows that Ingrid is "Anony Mouse" and she's constantly bugging Ingrid to tell others, just so she can seem cooler.
So the main plot of the book is that Ingrid gets a wrong number text that turns into a friendship. This boy joins her and her online friend Lorren in playing a video game. Those are their characters on the lower part of the cover. As the story progresses, Ingrid develops feelings for Traveler, the wrong number boy. While in real life, she's friendless, having been ostracized due to her treatment of Rachel, who's one of those bitchy popular girls. She has a few encounters with Oliver, though she doesn't trust him, thinking he's still in the Rachel friend group. It eventually comes out that he thinks she left the group because she doesn't like his sister Alyx, but Ingrid corrects that.
I'm sure you can guess that Oliver and Traveler end up being the same person. Ingrid already is interested in Traveler, but she also has growing feelings for Oliver, so it all works out well that they're the same person. And there's a showdown with Rachel in which the truth comes out and Alyx ends up switching to Team Ingrid.
The world-building here is really good. I already said how I love Scrollr and the video game is worked in a lot, too. There's also a fantasy book series that Ingrid, Lorren and then Oliver are huge fans of. The book culminates in Ingrid going to a book-signing in DC and that's when the Oliver truth comes out.
I loved all these characters so much. Definitely highly recommend this one! It's a quick, cute, just plain fun read.
This book also takes place in Deer Hill, also with eighth graders. I knew that going into it. What I was shocked by though are the many similar elements to the first book.
The main character escapes a toxic friend group. She begins texting with an anonymous boy who turns out to be someone she has feelings for in real life. There's even a repeat of her being banned from two separate lunch tables and ending up eating in the library. These two on the cover even look a little bit like Ingrid and Oliver. And she's a weaver, while Ingrid was a knitter.
There are definitely major differences. Mainly, Virginia was a popular girl. So popular that there was a group chat with her and three other friends that also acted like a burn book. Ingrid was never popular herself. She was just part of Rachel's group and not even paid attention to by the rest of the group. And unlike Ingrid, Virginia had a crush on the boy before the texting began.
Basically, there's the group leader, rich girl Mary Heather, and then there's the actual mean girl of the group, Kat. Kat loves to target people and Mary Heather plays both sides of things. When Kat begins to pick on Virginia for liking Grayson, a once popular boy who's now ostracized, she denies it and says a bunch of mean stuff on their group chat. The next day at lunch, she's done with the subject though and with Mary Heather's constantly changing sides. She goes off on them, then also the fourth girl, quiet photographer Jess, who she's annoyed with because she never says anything in anyone's defense. The entire school witnesses this fight and now Virginia is friendless.
Later, there's a new Scrollr account called Deer Hill Dirt, which is screenshots from the group chat of Virginia saying mean things. She freaks out and is consoled by her perfect older sister, Victoria. She also begins a friendship with her "text-door neighbor," who calls himself Knight Errant for a code name. Virginia calls herself Cardinal. These books are loaded with safety stuff for younger kids being online and I think that's pretty great. Like in both books, their parents are in contact and know who both parties are. And actually keep it a secret. Virginia starts getting into photography and sends Knight Errant photos, while he's a writer and shares his book progress with her. She also includes him in her weaving, which she's getting back into after her friends had deemed it uncool. The texting makes the pair develop crushes on each other, though it is revealed at the end that they both liked each other before the texting. Virginia stands up for herself and turns the tables on the mean girls, though they end up getting her back by posting her mean comments about Grayson. He's devastated but they end up making up in real life. She also puts the mean girls on public blast on the school steps and it's pretty awesome. She and Jess find their way back to being friends and are excited about their new shared love of photography. Her next problem is that she couldn't reveal to Grayson that she's Cardinal, even though she realized he was Knight Errant. But everything finally comes out and they get together at the end.
I liked the overlapping elements. Scrollr is in both books. Virginia's sister Victoria plays a game that I'm positive is the one Ingrid and her friends play. There's a hint at a fantasy series that Grayson references that I'm sure is the same one Ingrid loves.
I am a bit surprised that the author went so close to her first book though. Is it a fun read? Absolutely. Did I like the characters? Yes, though I love Ingrid and crew more. But there are so many elements that are so very similar that it feels like a strange choice to have made. It's definitely still a good book. It didn't make me happy as much as the first did, but I do recommend it if you enjoy the first one.
And again, there are no character descriptions except for Grayson and then you know Mary Heather is the blonde on the cover. You have no idea which of the two on the right is Kat and which is Jess. Considering Mary Heather and Kat were the evil duo, they should have been drawn together and Jess left standing alone. But it's such an odd choice to not describe your characters. Like how is the love interest practically the only one that gets described?
That said, I'd definitely read more Deer Hill books.
Oh, and if anyone has read My Lady Jane and the others in that series, this is the same author! I have almost all the Lady Janies books, though I've only ever read the first one. She also writes fantasy stuff, so I may check that out but I'm finishing the Lady Janies first.
