The ttyl Series - ttyl, ttfn, and l8r, g8r - is a trilogy of teen novels written by Lauren Myracle, notable for being written completely in Instant Messages among our three heroines. The books chronicle the lives of Madigan "mad maddie" Kinnick, Zoe "zoegirl" Barrett, and Angela "SnowAngel" Silver, starting with their sophomore year and ending with graduation.
The series has come under fire for some mature content and language, but overall, it's fairly realistic in its portrayal of teens.
A sequel, yolo, was published in 2014, and deals with the girls' experiences in their first semester of college.
The series also got a "makeover" to adapt it better to more modern methods of communication, TV shows, fashions, and celebrities. Instead of instant-messenger, the girls communicate by texting. They also reference each other's tweets and watch Netflix shows like Orange Is the New Black.
This series contains examples of:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Doug breaks up with Zoe partly because he falls for a girl in his dorm.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Maddie on why Angela was better off without Rob: "He treated you like dirt. He's a dick. And he looks like David Spade."
- Attempted Rape: Angela witnesses some guys trying to rape a girl at a sorority party. She manages to stop them, but the incident ends up souring her on sororities in general.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: In ttyl, Jana takes some...incriminating...photos of Maddie at a party, and passes them to everyone in the school, thoroughly humiliating her. Then, in l8r, g8r, Jana brings the pictures back into the public eye...by way of a Craigslist "Casual Encounters" ad. Complete with Maddie's phone number.
- Chekhov's Gun: The dead bird that Angela finds in her truck in l8r, g8r. She thinks Jana put it there as part of their prank war, which causes said prank war to continue to escalate until it ends with Jana stealing Angela's boyfriend. At the end of the book, though, it comes out that Jana wasn't responsible for the bird; it just flew in Angela's window and died, and had Angela let the prank war end there like she'd originally intended, it wouldn't have ended as badly as it did.
- Compliment Backfire: When Angela catches her boyfriend cheating on her, her mother tries to comfort her by saying "he's probably the sort of boy who only cares about appearances."
- Education Mama: Mrs. Barrett certainly qualifies, especially in l8r, g8r, though it's arguable whether she truly thinks Zoe would be better off at Princeton or whether she's just a pretentious snob who doesn't understand that a top-rated Liberal Arts College provides just as good of an education as an Ivy League.
- Embarrassing Last Name: In ttyl, Maddie makes fun of Angela's crush because his name is Ben Schlanker (as Maddie puts it, "schlong" plus "wanker"). Angela defends Ben and points out it's a normal Jewish name, and Maddie is being somewhat offensive.
- Ephebophile: Mr. H, who spends the entire book grooming Zoe with the latter being 15, until it escalates into him convincing Zoe to join him in his hot tub.
- Experimented in College: Mentioned in yolo since the girls are at college. Zoe has a threesome with a female friend and her boyfriend after breaking up with Doug, although it doesn't really go anywhere.
- Friends with Benefits: Maddie and Chive in ttfn. Maddie breaks it off at the end of the novel when she finally gets tired of playing second fiddle to Whitney.
- Future Loser: Discussed by Zoe and Angela; they predict that Jana is going to end up overweight, working at Wal-Mart, and wearing trashy clothes by their ten year reunion.
- In Love with Love: Angela dates boys for the sake of dating. Zoe even mentions this.
- Long-Distance Relationship: Zoe and Doug between ttfn and l8r, g8r, then again in yolo. In the second case, it lasts for all of 30 or so pages before Doug drives to Kenyon to break up with her, saying the distance is too hard. The ending implies that they might get back together, but it's not really resolved one way or the other.
- Love Triangle: Subverted in ttfn. After years of pining for Angela, Doug moves on and starts talking to Zoe, who reciprocates his interest. Around this time, Angela starts expressing interest in Doug for the first time. However, it's established that Angela's feelings are a mixture of panic over her impending move to California and not knowing how to handle the fact that Doug was no longer crazy about her, and although Zoe and Angela have a pretty bad fight over it, they manage to patch things up.
- Painting the Medium: Not only is the story told through instant message, but each girl has a different typeface, and the pages themselves are framed with an IM window.
- Poor Communication Kills: The source of most of the girls' problems, at least intra-friendship.
- There's also the way Angela's parents handle the move to California; they basically spring it on her and her sister with no warning and only about two weeks' notice, and Angela is pretty justified in not taking it well.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Defied. Zoe's plot in the first book has her in an intimate friendship with her teacher, Mr. H, who takes her to church and seems to be coming onto her, which Zoe denies but her friends find incredibly creepy. By the end of the book, he takes her to a hot tub alone, but Zoe's friends crash the party and interrupt any potentially illicit behavior.
- The Runaway: Near the end of ttfn, Angela is unable to take California anymore and hops on a bus back to Atlanta. It ends up working out, as Angela manages to convince her parents to let her stay with her aunt.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Defied; Angela is unable to muster any sympathy for Jana despite the latter's family problems due to all the bad blood between them. She does, however, state that she feels a bit sorry for Jana's father.
- Their First Time: Doug and Zoe try to have sex in l8r, g8r. It takes a couple of tries, but it does finally happen...in the basement of a church, no less.
- Title Drop: In every book, generally at the very end, the girls say the titular acronym before ending a conversation.
