Description
Celebrated Australian author Allayne L. Webster explores the complexities of teen friendships and the difficulties of navigating social media in this captivating novel for younger YA readers.
Dene Walker picked me to be her best friend. She had the whole of Tonsley High's year eight to choose from-and she chose me. Me! Tully can't believe her luck. Dene is famous. Everyone loves her. She has thousands of followers online and hundreds of sponsorship deals.
Being best friends with Dene Walker is a dream come true.
Tully is soon hardly aware that her long-time bestie, Kira, exists, as she shapes her own interests and cares to be the person worthy of Dene's attention. And she's not prepared for the heartache and confusion when Dene's friendship is not all she imagined it to be.
Selfie is an engaging and very real exploration of social media and the trickiness of separating what's real from the glossiness of the online world. It's a tender story about friendship and staying true to yourself.
Review
Allayne L. Webster is truly one of Australia’s best young adult authors. She writes so succinctly and brings her characters to life so realistically that it is always a pleasure to read her work. Selfie tackles the good and bad of social media so well.
When Dene, a hugely famous influencer, arrives at Tully’s school, Tully is surprised that Dene chooses her to be her best friend. Tully effectively drops everything else to be Dene’s friend - losing important parts of herself and her life before.
But when Dene dumps her, can she reinvent her life and move forward? Luckily her previous best friend, Kira, is still there for her.
This is the main story arc, but it also contains so much more to this story. Tully is cared for by her wonderful step mum, after her Dad left to achieve greatness with his important job in Sydney. He never comes home and his family are certainly disconnected from him. Not as disconnected as Tully is from her Mum though - after the divorce, she has practically ghosted her family. There is also Tully’s relationship with her older brother, Luke, which is generally quite unhappy, except when she really needs him and he is there for her.
This book is full of important questions and topics about modern life, the reality of social media, relationships, art, family and finding your own place in the world. It contains no material that would make unsuitable for upper primary readers, but I felt this wonderful book fit best in our secondary selection.
Reviewed by Rob
