Tell Us Something True by Dana Reinhardt Published by Random House Children's Books on June 14th 2016
Genres: General, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 208
Format: ARC
Seventeen-year-old River doesn’t know what to do with himself when Penny, the girl he adores, breaks up with him. He lives in LA, where nobody walks anywhere, and Penny was his ride; he never bothered getting a license. He’s stuck. He’s desperate. Okay . . . he’s got to learn to drive.
But first, he does the unthinkable—he starts walking. He stumbles upon a support group for teens with various addictions. He fakes his way into the meetings, and begins to connect with the other kids, especially an amazing girl. River wants to tell the truth, but he can’t stop lying, and his tangle of deception may unravel before he learns how to handle the most potent drug of all: true love.
Let me start out by saying that I absolutely adored this book.
I love books with male protagonists and I love love love when the narration is authentic and River, in Tell Me Something True, is just exactly that.
River has always been with Penny… He loves and adores her, even at the expense of his other relationships. But when Penny breaks up with him and leaves him stranded in LA (okay, not really stranded) he starts walking … which leads him to a support group for teens with different kinds of addictions. He fakes his way through the first meeting, but finds that he can’t stay away, especially as he connects more and more with the other kids in the group. As time passes and he finds himself building a relationship with a girl in the group, he realizes as much as he wants to tell the truth, he just can’t seem to stop lying but when things come to a head, he realizes that he has to do one thing first… grow up.
River you guys… he’s so sweet and funny and I really loved him. His growth in this story… short as it was, makes such a wonderful story. I’ve gotten lucky a bit lately in that I’ve read some pretty amazing books that bring the family into the story which isn’t typical a lot in YA books for some reason. But River’s family is somewhat of a big part of the story here, and it was done really well and in was incredibly touching. Some of the sweetest moments were between River and his half-sister and his step-father.
I really enjoyed Reinhardt’s story-telling as well. Like I said, the story is somewhat short, but totally engrossing and River’s voice is unique and funny. I think if I had one complaint, it would be that his long-time friends were somewhat in the background and weren’t really expounded upon. I would have liked to get to know them a bit more.
If you like unique, witty characters and a fast-paced story that you’ll want to read in one sitting, grab this title once it arrives in July!
Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy of this title in exchange for my honest thoughts.
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