Book: Editing Emma
Author: Chloe Seager
Pages: 368 (Paperback)
Publisher: HQ
Published: 10th August 2017
Synopsis:
When sixteen-year-old Emma Nash is ‘ghosted’ by the love of her life Leon Naylor, she does what any normal teenage girl would do…
Emma spends the summer lurking in her bedroom, avoiding all human contact (and the shower), surrounded by the collection of chewit wrappers she saved from packs Leon gave her, back when he actually acknowledged her existence…
But seeing Leon suddenly ‘In a relationship’ on Facebook with the perfect Anna, spurs Emma into action and she embarks on a mission to make positive changes to her life (or ‘edits,’ if you will) and vows to use the internet for more than obsessively stalking Leon’s activities! Instead, she will use it for good and noble causes like finding someone who will actually be nice to her, and recording her findings for the rest of the world to see (i.e. BFF Steph and her mum) on her new Editing Emma blog.
But Emma soon discovers her ‘habit’ is harder to break than she first thought – turns out she’s not the only one ‘editing’ herself online (thank you Tinder for finding her mum’s profile, age 35, really?) and that life through an Instagram filter isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. But it could be worse, she could have outed her best friend, accidentally chatted up a 12 year old boy and revealed to the world why Leon Naylor is worth no girl’s time or virginity… oh no wait, that’s exactly what happened…
Source: Goodreads
My opinion:
This was definitely one of the most realistic books I have ever read in my entire life. Everything was just so straight out of life, the relationships, the situations characters were in. Just all of it. I laughed so hard during the entirety of the book. Emma, the main character manages to stumble from funny situation to awkward situation to sad situation but she also describes it in such a fun and sarcastic way on her private blog she uses as a diary to deal with life.
Let’s start with the characters: Emma Nash is sixteen, likes watching TV and masturbating. She is not extremely popular nor is she pretty above average. She is just a normal girl with some friends, some of them closer than others. With them she has lots of fun but she also has stress sometimes. Her friendships are so damn real. Through her the fun and pain of first love and broken hearts is described pretty good, she heals, she has fallbacks. She undergoes a great character development but she also learns some important life lessons on her way there. I identify with Emma on a higher level, she is just such a great character.
Emma’s single mother who is single, wants a man but in reality she only wants the fun with men. She’s a great mother to Emma, leaving her space but also being strict if need be. She knows her daughter pretty well but herself not so much. But she is a delighting character nevertheless.
Steph, Emma’s best friend is a cooler version of Emma. At least, that’s what Emma seems to think sometimes. But Steph is fun and loyal and does pretty much everything for her best friend.
The third in their friendship group is Faith, a lesbian still in the closet. She is very artistic and the calm one in the group. She always gives good advice and is basically the mother.
The last one is Gracie, who is the reason for many awkward moments in the story. She is a friend of Emma’s but she seems to be the least favourite in the group. She feels alone a lot but she can be very sweet as well.
Leon is a fuckboy. He is mean, doesn’t stick up for his faults and blames everything on somebody else.
Greg, actually the sweetest. Not sure what I could say about him but I felt with him so, so much. He is such a nice and caring person.
To sum this up, all of the characters were written so well! They are so different but all so realistic and just… I love them! I love them so much.
I also really liked the plot. It follows Emma who grows so much during the months that pass in the story. And she is such a typical teenager. I could understand her so well, but I also could understand the others. What was also great, was that the whole thing was told through blog posts and tweets. That was really fun.
To end this, I have to say that this is now one of my favourite contemporaries. Chloe Seager really did an absolutely wonderful job with that novel. I have laughed so much and enjoyed every single page of the book.
Rating:
★★★★★/5
