4 to 16 Characters by Kelly Hourihan

Synopsis from Goodreads

Fifteen-year-old Jane Shilling’s best friends don’t know her real name. In fact, they don’t know anything about her at all. Jane’s life has collapsed in the last few years; following the death of her mother, her father turned to drinking, and Jane is reeling from the double blow. To escape, Jane devises a number of online personas, each with a distinct personality, life history, and set of friends. But things become trickier when she finds herself drawing close to some of her online friends, and winds up struggling with the question of how to maintain a real friendship while masquerading as a fake person. With the help of Gary, a socially awkward classmate and competitive Skeeball player who is Jane’s only offline friend, and Nora, her therapist, Jane begins to sift through her issues. The only catch is that that involves taking a long, hard look at what her life’s like when the computer is shut off, and that’s a reality she’s been fighting for years.

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Review

I received a free ARC copy of this novel to review from Netgalley.

4 to 16 characters is a novel that portrays our lives as adolescents perfectly. The main aspect that I enjoyed about this novel is the structure of it. The first person narrative is formatted as a series of journal entries and the direct dialogue between characters is expressed through chat-rooms. I really appreciated the fact that Kelly Hourihan explored 'Internet culture', if you will, as  it is a large part of the lives of the adolescents in my generation. 

I loved reading about all of the characters, except for the protagonist. Despite that, they were all very much complex and contributed wonderfully to the novel. Although most of the characters that attend Jane's school are intellectually disabled or have trouble with school, they all had strong qualities and contributed towards the theme of 'every-person-being-valuable'. 

This book also touched on themes such as self harm and disorders and I believed that she expressed the feelings of people who go through such things well. Kelly Hournihan's novel perpetuates the idea of imperfection in everyone, and loving ourselves and others for their own flaws as well.

In summary, 4 to 16 characters is a young adult novel that I would highly reccomend to anyone who is going through a rough time, or may just want an enjoyable read.

RATING | ★★★★