Title: The Truth about Alice
Author: Jennifer Mathieu
Genre: YA
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Publication Date: June 3, 2014
Hardback: 199 pages
Stand alone or series: Stand alone
How did I get this book: Bought
Check out the summary on Goodreads.
What I thought:
I didn’t like this book as much as I’d hoped to, which isn’t to say that I didn’t like it.
The Truth about Alice is set from four different POVs (well, five, but Alice only gets one chapter at the end). I liked how we read about the rumors surrounding Alice from these other people’s POVs first. This was really different from anything I’d ever read. I think some of the POVs were really distinctive, like Kurt’s (the boy-genius who’s had a crush on Alice for a long time), but others were sometimes a little hard to distinguish (Elaine and Kelsie). I could tell who was who by what they were talking about, obviously, but sometimes they both sounded like the popular girly-girl (“like, totally”). POSSIBLE SPOILER: I wish Alice’s had been written with a little more of a reaction to the rumors. I could barely empathize because she didn’t really feel affected or delve into her feelings about the rumors.
The characters were pretty well-developed though. Even if it was sometimes hard to distinguish between a couple of them, we do get to know them really well. We got to understand each one of them and begin to see the motives behind their actions towards Alice. The book was also rather well-written, especially for a debut novel. I thought the idea behind the novel was really interesting, as was the execution (differing POVs, all of which weren’t the actual person they were talking about).
On the other hand, I wish there had been something MORE. It just wasn’t enough for me. There didn’t seem to be any resolution. I felt somewhat distanced from what was going on. I mean, I’m definitely not unfamiliar with bullying (*cough*I have no hair*cough*) but I couldn’t connect with what happened. The book kind of just went in a straight line, if that makes sense. I felt the same way throughout the whole book; there wasn’t a point where I was more excited or animated. I also thought the end kind of fell flat.
The bottom line: Good book, well-developed characters, but not enough story for me. I can definitely see why some readers would absolutely love it. I liked it, but I just didn’t connect enough. I needed more. I will say that I do want to see more from this author.
Rating: 6 – good, but not great
Reading next: Don’t Look Back by Jennifer Armentrout
Sounds interesting, hadn’t come across this book before. Pity it wasn’t what you expected though!
That’s okay. It happens, and like I said, it’s not that I hated it or anything!
I can totally understand your review and rating and I think I was about the same in opinion as you ^_^
I like books that are written in different POVs. I liked this book. Like you said, it was good but not great. I wish we were able to hear from Alice more.
Exactly. There needed to be more from Alice’s POV. That would’ve helped a lot.
It would have tied the book together better. It was still a decent book though.