Mini Review: The Truth About Us

 

The Truth About Us

Janet Gurtler

Sourcebooks Fire

April 2015

Goodreads description:

 A powerful and gripping contemporary YA from the author of I'm Not Her that's "Just right for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jodi Picoult."-Booklist

The truth is that Jess knows she screwed up.
She's made mistakes, betrayed her best friend, and now she's paying for it. Her dad is making her spend the whole summer volunteering at the local soup kitchen.

The truth is she wishes she was the care-free party-girl everyone thinks she is.
She pretends it's all fine. That her "perfect" family is fine. But it's not. And no one notices the lie...until she meets Flynn. He's the only one who really sees her. The only one who listens.

The truth is that Jess is falling apart – and no one seems to care.
But Flynn is the definition of "the wrong side of the tracks." When Jess's parents look at him they only see the differences-not how much they need each other. They don't get that the person who shouldn't fit in your world... might just be the one to make you feel like you belong.

 I probably should have just skipped this one altogether. It wasn't an enjoyable read for me as a whole. Parts of it really struck my attention and made me want to keep reading, then I'd reach a part that just made me want to stop reading. It does explore the issue of social class, but I've read other YA books that pulled it off in a much more natural fashion. I felt like this book only scratched the surface on this issue and didn't go deep enough. The ending also REALLY put me off, I just didn't understand why it ended there. All in all, this was a book with much more flaws than strengths. 

I didn't click with either Jess or Flynn, which obviously makes me feel disconnected with the story. I wasn't all that invested in the plot or the characters, but the ending still rubbed me the wrong way to say the least. I'm not going to say much about it, but I'll leave it at the ending just wasn't necessary and it didn't seem realistic to me either. Both characters had their fair share of respective issues, but I felt like some of the drama was also not needed. I wanted more focus on the relationship between Jess and Flynn, not a ton of drama with just a little bit of romance thrown in for a few pages here and there. I didn't feel good about the majority of the decisions made by Flynn, and Jess wasn't 100% innocent in some areas. However, I felt like it was Flynn who was the real fickle one. On one page, he would be certain that he and Jess were meant to be together, but then the next he was calling her spoiled and saying they wouldn't work out. It gave me whiplash and was another thing that made me want to stop reading. 

Why did I keep reading if there were so many things that made me want to stop? In short, I pretty much ended up skimming quite a bit of the pages. I wanted to read a contemporary YA book that was light. This one wasn't as light as I was anticipating, it had a lot more drama. One of the positives is that I do think that the writer has a lot of potential. She really channeled Jess's voice and I liked her storytelling methods. Anyway, this wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but there were plenty of weaknesses about the book that certainly rubbed me the wrong way.