Tolog Review: A Girl's Life Online

A Girl's Life Online
by Katherine Tarbox
reviewed by Skylar Bowyer

A Girl’s Life Online by Katherine Tarbox is an autobiographical narrative that follows a young Katie Tarbox through a very emotional and difficult time in her life. Katie Tarbox, a thirteen year old girl, does not fit in with people her age in her small suburban town. Katie finds her sister’s laptop and eventually logs onto an online chatroom that she begins to visit frequently. She talks to a few random people until she finds Mark, a twenty-three year old man who lives outside of Los Angeles. After only months of knowing Mark, Katie says, “When we were together, Mark wasn’t twenty-something. I wasn’t a thirteen-year-old. We were equals who didn’t really have ages” (Tarbox 50). When Mark and Katie are talking, there is no age barrier, they are just two people communicating. Mark is someone Katie relates to, he doesn’t judge her by her looks, but is more interested in what she has to say, he listens to her, understands her and in Katie’s eyes, is perfect. 

Mark and Katie begin to talk more and more and eventually exchange personal information. They then begin to send emails and talk on the phone with each other. Katie, who is an avid swimmer, goes to Texas for a swim meet and Mark offers to meet her there at the hotel. Although Katie is a bit nervous to meet Mark face-to-face for the first time after only talking to him through email and the phone, she is excited to finally meet the man who she has fallen in love with. “I was now about to meet the man I loved. He knew so much about me, but also very little” (Tarbox 91). However, when Katie and Mark meet, Mark is not the man young Katie imagined the love of her life to be, then things take a turn for the worst. 

This book was extremely interesting to read and I could not put it down. Throughout the book, the author, Katherine Tarbox, uses first person, giving the readers insight into her perspective of the events that took place, making it easier to relate to the author and understand the actions that she decided to make. The book was separated very interestingly as well. Each chapter was named by one word, for example “together” or “victim”, each corresponding with a time during her relationship with Mark. The naming of the chapters made it very easily to follow and gave each chapter a very dramatic effect. I also felt that this book was extremely relatable, especially to teenagers who are living in a world where technology and social media has become so prevalent in everyday life. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an interesting story that people everyday can relate to.