Young Adult Review: All the Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry

All the Truth That's In Me by Julie Berry

Hardcover, 288 pages

Expected Publication: September 26th, 2013 by Viking Juvenile

Source: Gift

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever. This startlingly original novel will shock and disturb you; it will fill you with Judith’s passion and longing; and its mysteries will keep you feverishly turning the pages until the very last.

All the Truth That's In Me is one of the most emotional books I've read this year.  I felt so much while reading it and for that reason I can definitely say I enjoyed it.

I was caught off guard with it being a historical fiction. I had read reviews so I guess I had forgot, but the cover had me thinking it was a YA or NA contemporary modern day book, maybe a mystery thriller.  Fortunately I like historical fiction, so once I settled in this wasn't a negative, it only caught me off guard. The next thing is that this is in 2nd person narration, Judith talking to the boy she loves (which is revealed pretty quickly).  I didn't like this narration and while I did settle into it eventually it was the one aspect I never did grow fond of.

The beginning was crazy intense for me because I desperately needed to know what had happened to Judith.  Pretty quickly we get pieces and can put it all together, or at least think we do.  There are still unanswered questions, but the way the story is told it wasn't really something I felt myself dying to know.  I felt like I had most of the answers and the pieces stopped coming until closer to the end when we discover there is more mystery, we just didn't really realize it.  Or we had forgotten because we were focusing on something else.  In my case it was the way that these townsfolk treated Judith (and some others).  She had been kidnapped and kept captive and they blame HER, they accuse HER.  Her own mother even treats her differently.  I felt so much anger at everyone and felt so horrible for Judith.  I desperately wanted her to speak up, to stand up for herself. And I understood, Judith is mute, but she also knows that no one will believe her.  I understand why she didn't speak up.  I have to say that the ending was immensely satisfying.  I was as happy as I could possibly be about it. 

I really liked Judith a lot, but it took me awhile to warm up to her, to feel like I knew her.  Through this unique narration we see a wider scope of her as we read.  Like a note in the beginning of the ARC I read says, it's like a pinprick that gets wider and wider and we see more and more as we read.  We know nothing but hints of things and as it goes on our knowledge of what's going on gets bigger and bigger.

We don't get to know Lucas well until the end, but we see memories of Judith's and know he's a good guy.  But because we are Judith we don't know how he feels at all until later.  I liked having a romance that wasn't really a romance at all.  At least not one with two people, because it's mostly just Judith loving him.  However, the ending is wonderful and the romance made me smile.  This definitely has one of the best endings I have read about.

While this is sometimes a slower paced story, it was never actually boring and for some reason I found it incredibly hard to put down.  I just wanted to keep reading.  So I read this book in under a day.  This is also a clean read and appropriate for younger YA readers but is still something that would appeal to mature YA readers and adults.

Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book as a gift from another blogger. All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.