Bye forever, I guess

Insecure middle-school student Ingrid is a gamer girl who just happens to have an extremely popular (but anonymous) Scrollr account, called Bye Forever, I Guess, on which she posts text conversations she's carried out with wrong numbers. Only her best friend (Rachel), her online friend, and her grandmother know the truth about it--that is, until Rachel betrays her. Meanwhile, Ingrid's favorite author is coming to town, and she and the mystery boy she's been texting decide to finally meet at the bookstore for the event. Meadows, one of the creative forces behind the YA Lady Janies series, proves a dab hand at writing for middle-grade readers, harnessing the drama of shifting friendships and popularity hierarchies, embracing nerd culture, and injecting everything with the perfect amount of awkward. Yes, parts of the book seem entirely too convenient, but it's such a fun read that no one will care. A hilarious enemies-to-something-more tale, told equally in prose and text messages, this book is sure to please any middle schooler in need of a sweet romance. Hand to fans of Cory Doctorow's In Real Life (2014) and Alexis Nedd's Don't Hate the Player (2021).

As the best friend of popular, self-absorbed Rachel, Ingrid is used to feeling invisible. But the guarded Virginia eighth grader has a vibrant online life, where she's built a supportive community via the MMORPG Ancient Tomes Online and her secret blog Bye Forever, I Guess, a compilation of the wrong-number texts she frequently receives. After Rachel humiliates Ingrid in front of new kids Oliver and Alyx, Ingrid decides she's had enough and drops her. She retreats further into her online life by getting to know Traveler, the anonymous sender of a recent misdirected text. In contrast to her increasingly awkward interactions with Oliver, who has a "strange ability to notice me," Ingrid and Traveler have an easy, sweet rapport as they chat and play ATO--until she starts suspecting that he may be closer than she thought. Even worse, his initial text may have been meant for Rachel. Interspersing Ingrid's delightfully snarky narration with chat transcriptions, Meadows (the Salvation Cycle) presents an earnest and laugh-out-loud middle grade debut that's both a winning exploration of tween friendship and a pitch-perfect paean to fan culture and the thrill of finding one's community. Main characters default to white. Ages 10--14. Agent: Lauren MacLeod, Aevitas Creative. (Oct.)

Thirteen-year-old Ingrid never wanted to be anything but invisible. In person, Ingrid Ant is shy, introverted, and content to let her real-life best friend, Rachel Allan, have the spotlight. But online, her Scrollr page "Bye Forever, I Guess" is ridiculously popular. Known as Anony Mouse on Scrollr, Ingrid maintains her anonymity and keeps her popularity under wraps while sharing the hilarious wrong number texts she receives. Ingrid's life is a careful balance of school, a largely nonexistent social life, posting to Scrollr, and playing her favorite MMORPG, Ancient Tomes Online, with her online best friend, Lorren Watson, who lives in Michigan, far from Ingrid in Virginia; the two have never met in person. When a new family moves to town, Ingrid's awkwardness causes a rift with her friend group. Lonely and isolated, Ingrid finds that a new wrong number text blossoms into a desperately needed friendship. This mysterious texter--known only by his ATO username, Traveler--gives her a chance to not only make a new friend, but to find her way forward after being isolated by her peers. And who knows--maybe this chance wrong-number encounter will turn into something beyond friendship. This online-savvy tale of friendship uses text message chains to add a digital dimension that perfectly matches Ingrid's life. Ingrid's experiences with navigating middle school, friendships, and the online world provide important lessons about online safety and boundary setting in relationships. Characters largely present white. Charming, funny, and endearing.(Fiction. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.