All The Truth That's In Me

All The Truth That's In Me

by Julie Berry

Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared from their small town of Roswell Station. Two years ago, only Judith returned, permanently mutilated, reviled and ignored by those who were once her friends and family. Unable to speak, Judith lives like a ghost in her own home, silently pouring out her thoughts to the boy who’s owned her heart as long as she can remember—even if he doesn’t know it—her childhood friend, Lucas. But when Roswell Station is attacked, long-buried secrets come to light, and Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice, even if it means changing her world, and the lives around her, forever.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate this cover? Isn't it just to die for? Well I love it anyways, and I bought in an impulsive shopping spree a while back, and so now that piece of art can life on my shelves and I can admire it until the end of time. 

Once again, I was a bit dense starting out and I didn't realize this was more of a historical fiction book. Usually, I can't stand historical fiction for a sundry of reasons, but this book, I honestly don't know how you can't love it. At the beginning I was a bit skeptical, I'll admit it. It felt like living inside a psychopathic stalkers head. It was weird, and it felt weird not to love the main character right away, because usually authors woo you with barely flawed main characters, and only reveal severe character flaws later on after you're hopelessly in love with them and don't care about their issues.  People don't tend to love psychopathic stalkers. They have a tendency to make people uncomfortable. Sorry but that's the hard truth...

I kept reading just going this is kind of weird, but I kind of love it...that only lasted for a little bit in the beginning then I fell in completely in love with Judith. Judith has flashback entries and I loved that, but there were a few times when I didn't know if it was the past or the present and was a momentarily and seriously confused. The writing was really, really cool, it was written in second person which is rare and Julie Berry still maintained a very intimate connection between the readers and the characters and offered a look into all the characters that went more than skin deep. Speaking of characters, they were all really realistic and very deep. They were mind bending and Berry used them to explore humanity and the workings of society, as well as make statements and weave in themes. I loved that she didn't make anyone pure evil or pure good. She addressed all the inbetweens of people where morals get messy and sometimes people to horrible things for all the right reasons or good things because of ulterior motives. I thought that was really cool. She packed in emotion and an overall sense of rawness and it was beautiful. Between all the social and moral issues as well as self doubt and reflection, there was plenty to relate to. To the characters...

Judith was a fierce and beautiful person. I want her to be my friend she was really awesome. Same with Luke! He was absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! He was really sweet and they were both kind of awkward and just so in love. I think they have one of my all time favorite relationships. It is so heart-meltingly sweet and romantic but still really real and very raw and messy. The way they help each other heal and are there for each other when everyone else turns away in terror is so beautiful. I was really impressed that Luke wasn't freaked out by Judith, like at all really. Not because of what she was like physically or anything, but because she pretty acted how the girl from the "overly protective girlfriend" meme looks and stalked him harder than Edward stalked Bella in Twilight. The impression of Judith from the beginning of the book, as far as Luke goes, in one picture:

I mean who wouldn't be at least a tiny bit freaked or disturbed by that? I guess he just loved her SO much it didn't matter to him. I feel like I would at least be a dash or two weirded out by that no matter how much I loved the person, but hey that's just me. Last thing I have to say about their relationship (which is made of pure awesomesauce), these quotes are just a taste of it, just take a moment to drink them in. You have to highlight to see them so that if you want to wait and read them in context you can, but I promise it's nothing spoiler-y really. 

***

"It was always you, Ladybird,” you say softly. “Don’t you know?” (L)

***

I have loved you too long Lucas.”(J)
“Too long?” you say. “No such thing.” (L)

***

The plot was really well paced, and over all I was happy with it. It was pretty darn good.

In general I just love this book so much and can't get enough of it. I will shout at you to read it from all the roof tops and mountain tops and where ever else, maybe from on top of my unicorn who knows? Just go read it. Right now. Seriously, right this second. Buy it from Liberty Bay Books here and add it on Goodreads!

General consensus: