The Truth About Alice - Jennifer Mathieu
Pages - 208
Publisher - Roaring Book Press
Rating - 4.5 out of 5 stars
R E V I E W:
It's very hard to find an original piece of work, period. Almost everything has already been told, all land has been discovered, any and everything worth mentioning has already been stamped with almost all available arguments, but this novel, this story rooted in 208 pages, told in multiple perspectives just blew my mind.
This is the tale of Alice Franklin, Rumor has it that she is a slut, and after star quarterback, Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, rumor has it that it is all Alice's fault, Apparently she had been sexting Brandon while he was driving, leading to Alice's social downfall, and label as an outcast. Rumors run rampant, and with everyone having something to say, the only way to find the truth is to ask Alice herself.
I think I cried after reading this, it sends such a powerful message about slut-shaming, and fragile social structures, as stated before, this is told in multiple points of views. From the "Most Popular Girl" in their school, to Alice's fellow Outcast, I absolutely loved this. A worry that I have when reading a book with multiple POV's is that the voices of the characters would muddle in my head, and that I would forget who was saying this, talking about that. That never happened, this book harbored five different narrators, and each one is distinct in personality, and voice, and thought process, and to add icing to the cake, Mathieu made the characters, and their reactions to this very realistic situation believable. This should be recommended reading for everyone.
While I am on the note of positiveness, other things that went very well for this novel was the character venturing, and the depth each character had. This isn't just the story of Alice, everyone in this story may have something to say about Alice, but that isn't their extent, just like real human beings, they each had shit of their own happening, and they each had their own demons to slay. I, personally, enjoyed Alice's Ex Best-friends character the most. Her entire subplot just. . . Astonishing. Each character was very well done, and very hip-with-it. ( That was my way of saying CURRENT ) which is also another fear of mine when Author's write novel's dealing with these types of subjects.
The one fault in this novel is the ending. It wasn't that I didn't like it, it was just that it wasn't enough. I'm all for authors leaving a story at it's resolve, but it wasn't resolved, or, at least not to me. Sure closure was handed out, but I didn't really feel concluded by the last page. Maybe it was just that I wanted more, personally. IDEK.
I would highly recommend this to any, and everyone. Please read this, this is like, one of my third favorite novel of all time, right under Wintergirls, and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.
TTYLXOX (Remember that song, though. )
R A M O.
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