yolo

Gr 9 Up—Maddie, Angela, and Zoe are beginning their biggest adventure yet—college—and they are doing it on their own. They encounter many challenges—failure, drunkenness, heartbreak, and successes— and ultimately discover their true friends. Maddie embraces the California lifestyle and is assigned to a suite with three other girls referred to as the "Esbees" because they are from Santa Barbara. Maddie tries hard to find her niche within this group, but soon becomes aware of how challenging it is to be accepted into an already-established social circle. In the first few months of college, Maddie is almost unable to continue with the yolo (you only live once) mission especially when her parents can't afford to fly her home for Thanksgiving break. Angela enters college drawn to the Greek lifestyle of partying, fraternity socials and the appeal of belonging but sees that she may not agree with all of the initiation rituals and the unwritten rules. Through her association with the Zeta's, she finds herself in some questionable situations and one specifically alters the rest of her college choices. Zoe decides to attend a liberal college and try a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend, Doug but realizes that they have both moved on. After overcoming her depression, she also learns that she loves to run to release stress, and she experiments with her sexuality. Zoe faces failure in a creative writing class when a professor does not recommend her to keep moving through the program, but she is not discouraged. Told in Internet-age style of text messages and tweets first seen in Myracle's ttyl (Abrams, 2004), the girls try to embrace the free-spirited yolo philosopy as they grow into their young adulthood.—Jessica Lorentz Smith, Bend Senior High School, OR