Book written by Emma Lord, published 2019.
When it comes to overachievement, Pepper Evans is the gold standard. A straight-A student, top of her class, captain of the swim team, on time for everything, co-writer of a baking blog with her sister, and unofficial social media manager of her family’s fast-food franchise, Big League Burger, Pepper dominates everything she pours her heart into. With everything going on, Pepper has almost no time for herself, save for the few minutes she gets to chat with “Wolf” via Stone Hall Academy’s favorite anonymous chat app. She may have no idea who he really is, but he relates to the pressure Pepper feels from her family, he isn’t intimidated by her quick wit, and he lets Pepper be herself without worrying about letting anyone down.
Jack Campbell feels like the lesser carbon copy of his twin brother. Ethan is ambitious, intelligent, and popular. By comparison, Jack has no idea what he wants from life and feels lucky when people don’t mistake him for his brother. The only great thing Jack has to his name is his creation of the anonymous chat app everyone at Stone Hall Academy seems to be using. But he can’t even claim that glory for himself because the vice principal has banned it from campus. So Jack settles for competing on the dive team, working in the family deli (Girl Cheesing), and chatting with “Bluebird” on his forbidden app.
When a war between Big League Burger and Girl Cheesing erupts over Twitter, Pepper’s and Jack’s lives are nearly consumed by social media. But oddly enough, the rift between their families’ legacies forges a rather unconventional friendship . . . or is it something more?
I finished this book within a day. And as soon as I was finished, I handed it to my mom, and she was halfway through within the same day. If that doesn’t say how much I love and highly recommend this book, let me say this: If you enjoy pop culture references, memes, witty banter, Mean Girls, or You’ve Got Mail (let’s be honest—if you’re a fan of rom-coms in general), then you’ll like Tweet Cute.
My favorite thing about this book was how potent the characters’ emotions were. Whenever Pepper’s schedule got too overwhelming, or when Jack was having a rocky time with his brother, I felt it in my soul. I wanted to scream because these guys deal with a lot and are too stubborn to do it for themselves. I also enjoyed all of the shade thrown between Pepper and Jack, whether on Twitter or off. It was entertaining—like Shakespeare, Benedick and Beatrice entertaining—without getting too vile or cruel.
Actually, this book as a whole isn’t too vile or cruel, but there are a couple of things to be aware of. There’s no violence or steamy stuff, but there is swearing (including a couple of f-bombs) and underage drinking.
Spoilers ahead! If you want to read this book for yourself, stop here and rejoin us when you’ve finished!
"At some point, it stopped being a war and started being a game."
Can I just take a paragraph to gush about how much I appreciate Pepper’s fear of travel? Because that is 100% me. I’ve lived in Denver my whole life, but if I have to go somewhere outside of my grid, I get this gnawing anxiety of getting lost. It feels totally dumb, especially given our day and age of smartphones and GPS, but that little characteristic in Pepper’s personality made me feel seen, and I related to Pepper that much more as a person. This also meant that I swooned over Jack’s patience and thoughtful consideration to help Pepper get around much harder than is probably psychologically healthy, but there ya go.
I also appreciated Jack’s app, and that it was actually maintained and monitored to be a helpful, safe space for his classmates. I thought it was a nice presentation of what anonymous, online interaction could be. Everyone using Weazel got to see what they had in common with everyone else and found ways to work together to solve some of those problems and forge real friendships. I wish all online communication could be that way, but the world is just too big for that reality, I guess. Also, we wouldn’t have Twitter wars, and the internet wouldn’t be the same without those.
I will say that I greatly disliked two of the characters. I was not too fond of Pepper’s mom. I can appreciate that she wanted Pepper’s help to stay relevant on Twitter, but she didn’t have a lot of consideration for Pepper’s workload, and it only got worse after Pepper’s identity/involvement became public knowledge. I can also understand the grudge against Jack’s father, but when your daughter shows a greater level of maturity, then maybe pettiness shouldn’t be your priority. I just think that she could have demonstrated a little more humility. I also didn’t like Ethan. I understood that he felt overlooked in the same way that Jack did, but that doesn’t give him any excuse to take it out on poor Pepper, and with such a low blow too. (Seriously, posting a picture of her throwing up on the internet? How dare he!) He reminds me a little bit of Snape; he may be a decent person that felt deeply wronged, but it doesn’t redeem him from being a jerk to the innocent.
There was so much food talk in this book! Which recipe would you want to try? I’m most interested in that Monster Cake . . .
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