Breakups majorly suck, and the main character of Sylvia Gunnery’s latest novel is going through a particularly sucky one. Emily’s boyfriend has dumped her for a university girl (a French university girl at that), leaving the 17-year-old heartbroken and miserable. Things get worse when Emily’s grandfather dies and his mistress reveals their affair at his funeral, bringing several family secrets to light. Emily feels completely alone and confused until she finds friendship with a new student named Leo.

While Emily and Leo’s relationship is often at the centre of the action, it ends up being the least compelling part of the story. Emily constantly remarks on Leo’s anger-management issues, though we never see him get very angry. She also frequently comments on his sense of humour, though he doesn’t often crack jokes. As a result, it is difficult to care much about Leo and his laundry list of clichéd issues that include an alcoholic mother and an absentee father. He functions more like a cardboard character in a didactic educational film than a meaningful presence in Emily’s life.

The novel doesn’t really need this supposedly funny-yet-angry guy, because Emily’s family drama provides ample entertainment. Grandparents do not usually play a particularly juicy role in YA fiction, but the adultery high up in Emily’s family tree is only the beginning of the intrigue that continues to surface until the end of the novel.

Gunnery’s style is enjoyably terse and direct, so Emily’s first-person reactions to the various family bombshells never feel overwrought; observations like “crying is not cathartic” are short on words but high on impact. Like sands through the hourglass, Emily for Real is a satisfying soap opera for teens who don’t mind adults (even octogenarians) being part of the action.