Book Reviews

All The Truth That's In Me (2014)

All The Truth That's In Me - Julie Berry

Rating: 4.5/5

Genre: Young Adult, Teen

"You didn't come.

I waited all evening in the willow tree, with gnats buzzing in my face and sap sticking in my hair, watching for you to return from town.

I know you went to town tonight. I heard you ask Mr. Johnson after church if you could pay a call on him this evening. You must want to borrow his ox team.

But you were gone so long. You never came. Maybe they asked you to supper. Or maybe you went home another way.

Mother chided me ragged for missing chores and supper, and said all that was left for me was what had stuck to the stew pot. Darrel had already scraped the pot bare, but Mother made me wash it in the stream anyway.

There's nothing so bright as the stream by day, nothing so black on a moonless night.

I bent and drank straight from it. It was all I had to fill my belly. And maybe, I thought, you'd be thirsty, too, after a scratchy day of haying, and before retiring to bed you'd dip down into the same stream and drink the water I had kissed. You've cooled off here most summer nights since you were a boy.

I thought how, in the darkness, I would feel like any other girl to you. Beneath my dress I have no cause for shame.

I thought how, if you knew, you might look twice at me, bend your thoughts my way and see if they snap quickly back, or linger.

But you don't know.

And you never will.

For I am forbidden from telling."

All The Truth That's In Me is a very unique novel, it is unlike any other YA novel I have ever read. Judith went missing from her small town, along with her best friend. But now Judith is back but her tongue is not.

The "you" being addressed in the novel is the boy Judith is in love with. The story is in second perso narrative, Judith pretty much writing it for Lucas (the boy she's in love with). I felt like I was reading her private unsent love letter to him. Through this I felt the most sympathy for Judith and I got a real sense of her loneliness, her longing for communication with others and her need to be accepted by her town.

"You've come back maimed. I leave it to God to judge what brought this upon you."

Judith has been through hell and when she comes back it's not much better. Her mother does not respect her as a person and does not treat her like a mother should, also the townspeople refuse to treat her like a living, breathing normal person.

The romance between Lucas and Judith is heart-wrenching and charming all at the same time.

This novel is action-packed and thrilling. Admittedly at the beginning I didn't understand what was happening but I soon got really into the book.

All The Truth That's In Me is a mystery as well, there are so many things you don't know and will only find out later in the book such as what happened to Judith while she was taken? and why was she taken?

This book undergoes some serious character development in a very short amount of time, not only is this a story about love it's also a story about Judith finding her voice.

Overall I just really love the way this book is written and the mystery of Judith's past.