The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu Published by Roaring Book Press on 3 June 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 209
Format: eBook
Source: Giveaway Win
| 
Everyone knows Alice slept with two guys at one party.
But did you know Alice was sexting Brandon when he crashed his car?
It's true. Ask ANYBODY.
Rumor has it that Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the bathroom stall at Healy High for everyone to see. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumors start to spiral out of control.
In this remarkable debut novel, four Healy High students—the girl who has the infamous party, the car accident survivor, the former best friend, and the boy next door—tell all they know.
But exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there's only one person to ask: Alice herself.
The Truth About Alice really shows all the different points of views to how freezing someone out of a group of friends might happen. It’s sad and realistic, and I can’t help but feel happy Alice was so strong!
Rumour : ru-mour / noun: a piece of information, or a story, that people talk about, but that may not be true.
My The Truth About Alice review:
Somehow, The Truth About Alice managed to take a lot of the young adult tropes and kind of turn them around, analysing the why behind the labelling of people in high school, why is one girl called the slut, why is another girl popular, and how come lies can be so much easier to believe than the truth?
The story in The Truth About Alice is so well done, because most of the important characters all have their chapters, where they kind of explain why they were making Alice the bad one, and justifying their own actions. So for almost the whole book, I, as a reader, only got to know Alice through the other characters’ eyes. Alice only got one chapter herself, and that was the very last one.
A lot of what happened in The Truth About Alice rang true to me, how rumours can be spread so quickly, and it’s almost impossible to actually make anyone at all listen to what actually happened. And the character that made me the most angry was Alice’s so-called best friend. Talk about always doing whatever she could to make sure she herself was popular, with no thoughts whatsoever about the consequences for Alice. Kelsie actually made me feel nauseous, that’s how bad she was – even worse than the guy who started the first rumours, because that would have blown over without anything more to feed the flames.
Well written, in first person point of view past tense, the voices of the different characters were easy to distinguish, and it was actually quite chilling to see how easy it was for all of them to not feel particularly bad about how mean they were. A necessary story, and sadly one that happens in many different places for real.
Some of my favorite The Truth About Alice quotes:
You need to understand that this thing with Alice sleeping with two guys and Brandon dying in a car accident are the two biggest things to go down in Healy in a really super crazy long time.
I would have just gone along with what everybody wanted. But honestly, if what Alice did (or maybe didn’t) do had been held up as some great achievement by everyone at Healy High, I would have still hung out with her. If everyone still liked her, I would have still liked her, too. I know I sound like the worst person Earth. I’m totally owning that.
I wanted her to leave me alone, but I didn’t want to deal with the uncomfortableness of having her upset with me for ignoring her. totally hypocritical, I know.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Twitter: talksupeblog
This is on my wishlist. I love deep reads like this and I also love that it’s marketed to young adults. I enjoy YA contemporaries that has a socially relevant message.
It was really well done, Braine, and I think you’ll truly enjoy it. I thought the fact that we so easily can lend our ears to rumours was made very realistc.
I like how the author touches on teenage angst, that more often than not, is overseen for fear of stirring “unnecessary” confrontations. These are real pressing issues we all need to shed light on, it would definitely help lift a lot of burdensome weight teenagers are forced to live with. This is something I would definitely enjoy reading.
Great review Lexxie 🙂
Yeah, and I also enjoyed that the different friendships and relationships changed just because of what one person said, then everyone else made their own spin on it, without bothering to talk with the person it really pertained to. It was really a done deal.
Thanks for stopping by, Claudia!
Ugh! Kelsie made me sick, too. It’s disgusting to think that someone would do all she did just to be popular. I thought this story rang true as well, Lexxie. (I always love reading your thoughts on a book I’ve actually read – so I can compare 🙂 ) I thought it was a good read – if disturbing – and I’m glad you did as well. Lovely review, as always, my dear.
This time next week, we’ll be chatting, giggling, fangirling, etc., IN PERSON!! Happy Friday! **BIG HUGS*
Yeah, I had the most trouble with her, frankly, Brandee! She was the worst of the worst, especially with the next rumour she started herself, just to make things even worse for Alice.
Oh my goodness! We WILL, Brandee! It is going to be awesome! *BIG HUGS*
I’ve been interested in this for a long time! It sounds so good! Ugh, it’s a shame how gossip spreads! Great review!
It’s really good, Jennifer! And yes, the way gossip spreads so quickly, and how people sometimes are more inclined to believe unfounded rumours than the truth is also a little scary.
I’m so glad you liked this one, Lexxie. And I definitely agree with what you’ve said about THE TRUTH ABOUT ALICE. I was so appalled by everyone’s actions, but especially Kelsie. She was so unnecessarily cruel, and all because of jealousy and misplaced emotions.
I really liked how we got to see how each character played a role in what happened to Alice, and I must say that whilst the ending was quite cliche and too cutesy, I absolutely LOVED it. I felt so much for Alice, and I just wanted her to be happy.
Lovely review! 😀