The Truth About Alice
Jennifer Mathieu
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Synopsis from Goodreads-
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.
This is a heart-wrenching book. It's not just a book about slut-shaming, it's a book about feelings, and the importance of the truth. Having four POVs and none of them being Alice was perfect, as it really sheds some light as to how far rumours can go. Did anyone even check Brandon's phone for the supposed "sexts" from Alice? No. They believed it because Josh said it.
Elaine was a pain at first. (points for Jacqueline Wilson reference!) All the "likes" in her parts were annoying but were eventually bearable. She was very shallow, as people are, and her character represented that well.
Kurt was an awesome character. He had a poetic way of phrasing things, and I don't care that he was a nerd stereotype because honestly, he was the best person in the story. By that I mean he was a good person.
Kelsie was a terrible person but at least she admitted it. She owns the fact that yes, she ditched her best friend to stay popular, and that what she did was wrong. I am not in any way, shape or form saying that what she did was okay. It was just human. Human can be great, but it can be terrible, too. The Awful Thing, as she called it, was pretty shocking. I didn't see it coming, and it added a lot to her character, though her anger at Alice because of who she supposedly slept with was completely ridiculous.
Josh was a mildly interesting character. I don't know if anyone else picked up on this, but he seemed to have slight romantic feelings for Brandon. It's subtle, but it's there. Other than that, Josh was really just a bit of a jerk, really.
All these characters, and the whole story, felt so real. Like right now, Elaine could be getting her nails done, or Kelsie could be shopping for shoes.
The ending to this book was perfect and beautiful- ending with Alice's point of view was perfect for wrapping up the novel.
I didn't think that such a short novel- only 200 pages- could have so much depth, but it really did.
This book should really teach you an important lesson- treat people kindly. And also, think before saying.....
QUOTES
“It’s like when we read The Diary of Anne Frank in seventh grade, and I had the sneaking suspicion that I would have been a Nazi back then because I wouldn’t have had the guts to be anything else. I know that everyone wants to believe they would have been the brave one and they would have been the one to hide Anne in their attic and they would have killed Hitler with their own bare hands. But clearly if everybody thinks that way and in reality only a few people actually did it way back then, doesn’t that just make me the honest one?”
“I really can't handle talking about this for too long because it hurts too much, but I want to say that there is one thing I've learned about people they don't get that mean and nasty overnight. It's not human nature. If you give people enough time, eventually they'll do the most heartbreaking stuff in the world.”
NOTE: I decided not to go too deeply into my thoughts on slut-shaming, just to keep the review on topic. For my thoughts on the matter, maybe PM me on Goodreads, or perhaps email me. Thank you.
