Unfriended

Rachel Vail is the author of the middle grade novel Unfriended (2014). Vail has published several books for young readers and children, including Wonder (1991) and The Friendship Ring series (2014). As with Unfriended, her stories focus on young people confronting the fraught dynamics of friendships and school. In Unfriended, 13-year-old Truly leaves her best friend for the popular crowd and is beset by conflicts online and in the physical world. The story of Truly and her peers addresses themes like Demystifying Popularity, The Fluidity of Relationships, and The Harmful Impact of Digital Communication.

The page numbers refer to the 2014 Penguin Random House e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide describe bullying, anti-fat bias, suicide, and stigmatizing language about mental health.

Plot Summary

The book focuses on a group of eighth graders. The chapters rotate between the central characters, and the chapter title names the character that narrates the chapter. Truly is the main character. As her name indicates, she’s sincere. She’s not popular, but her former best friend, Natasha, is. Natasha “dumped” Truly in the sixth grade because Truly was “too babyish.” Now, Truly’s best friend is Hazel, who has green hair and a “moody” style. Hazel doesn’t care about being popular. She thinks poorly of the popular students, referring to them as “zombie automatons.”

At school, Truly and Hazel discuss Truly’s locker, which Truly has trouble opening. The combination for her lock is also the password to her social media accounts. After Truly’s 13th birthday party, Truly and Hazel wrote down their passwords and hid them in their ballet dancer jewelry boxes, so Hazel knows Truly’s passwords.

Natasha invites Truly to sit at the popular table. Truly accepts the offer, and Hazel feels abandoned. Truly apologizes but puts the onus on Hazel, upsetting Hazel further. She logs into Truly’s email and spots an email from Natasha that makes fun of Truly’s siblings; Truly’s brother has Asperger’s syndrome, and her sister has behavioral issues. To sow conflict, Hazel forwards the email to Brooke, who is nice and also the most popular girl in school. Brooke then banishes Natasha from the table.

Natasha thinks Truly showed Brooke the email, so Natasha schemes against Truly. Natasha never wanted to mend her friendship with Truly: Clay broke up with Natasha, and she wanted everyone to think that she split up with him instead. She planned to use Truly to spread her lie.

Clay and Jack are the two popular boys in the group. Clay has a successful brother in college, and Clay feels like he’ll never achieve the same success. Jack used to eat unhealthily and had issues with his body size. Now, Jack is a meticulous eater. He has romantic feelings for Truly, and Brooke has romantic feelings for Clay, but she’s not sure Clay likes her. Eventually, Brooke and Clay kiss in a school stairwell.

Truly, Natasha, Brooke, Evangeline, and Lulu are supposed to work together on their History Day project about Benedict Arnold. Arnold was a general in the American army during the American Revolution (1775-1783). He betrayed his country by trying to give West Point, a key military position, to the British. Truly thinks Arnold is a complex figure and that he wanted to be “popular.” The group decides to write a play for their project.

As Natasha isn’t a part of the popular crowd anymore, she doesn’t come to Truly’s house to work on the project. Hazel logs onto Truly’s social media, posts a group photo with Natasha, takes down the photo, then posts a group photo without Natasha. Natasha’s mother calls Truly’s mother, and Truly, unsure how the pictures got posted, tries to apologize. However, Natasha doesn’t answer her phone, and Natasha’s mother won’t let Truly speak to Natasha.

Natasha starts to target Truly online. On tellmethetruth.com, Natasha asks why everyone hates her. Anonymously, she leaves mean comments, correctly assuming that people will attribute the toxic replies to Truly. Natasha also posts “sexy” photos of Truly from a photo shoot they had together when they were still friends. The photos amass numerous unwanted comments, which Truly can’t look away from.

As the popular girls think Truly is bullying Natasha, they isolate her. Hazel sees Truly alone in the halls and feels triumphant. She also feels bad for her, but she doesn’t console her because she doesn’t want Truly to reject her. The social drama doesn’t prevent Truly from writing the play about Arnold for their History Day project. While her group practices in social studies, Natasha says that maybe Arnold isn’t so complicated—perhaps he’s a “douche” who should have just died. The implication is that Truly should die.

Truly leaves school and goes to Big Pond, where, years earlier, some kids fell in and were hospitalized. Truly stares into the pond and throws her phone into it. Hazel sees Truly leave school, and since Truly never cuts school, she’s worried. Hazel and Truly reconnect, apologize, and become friends again. They agree that social media is bad but acknowledge that bullies existed before social media. Natasha and Truly don’t become explicit friends again, but Natasha is open to the idea of trying not to be mad at Truly so often.