All the Truth That's In Me by Julie Gardner Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When you write a really long review then lose it:



The rewritten version!!!

‘All the Truth that’s in me’ is about a young woman named Judith. Four years ago, she went missing with her best friend. Two years ago she came back with half a tongue, and her best friend was dead.

Sounds like a contemporary, yes? The photographed tree on the cover, the modern coral typography all seem to point towards a contemporary novel. But no, ‘All the Truth that’s in me’ is a historical novel and (I think), set in the newly discovered lands of America. This was where the confusion all began for me. It was definitely this kind of feeling:



I definitely have mixed feelings about this book. I found the first part confusing, disjointed and I didn’t like the main character, Judith. However, from about 150 pages on I really enjoyed it. Judith became a more likable character, and I got used to the disjointed style. It even was less confusing. This gif sums it all up:



The Not-so-good first half

This part of the novel is pretty disjointed, the paragraph short chapters lent themselves to that. Also, Judith’s story flipped from before she was captured, to being captured, to now and the time switches were pretty hard to keep up with.

Judith

I really didn’t like this girl in the beginning. Why? You ask. Her constant addresses to ‘you’, (which sometimes read as Darrel) were to Lucas. I didn’t have a feeling that I really knew Lucas so this felt at best desperation and at worse stalker-like behaviour.

A bit like this:



But in the second half, she became her own self. She was more confident and had more courage. I even liked her relationship with Lucas more, as I felt I got to know his character better.

The Fabulous Second half

This was the real gem of the book. Here, the plot and the writing ran seamlessly together. The plot became fast-paced, and really enjoyable. As said before, Judith was a much better character towards the end. Despite the mystery of the book having a bit of an obvious ending, I felt the cutesy ‘NOW’ bit was a really nice way to end.

It was this at the end:






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The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Linus is a 16 year old living on the streets when he is kidnapped. Put in a bunker with six others, they hope for a way out.

I enjoyed this book, as I usually do with quite ‘gritty’ reads, and I found Linus’ voice intriguing. I liked the mystery of the bunker, and the mystery of the kidnapper. However, despite my love for the plot and Linus, I don’t think the ending was constructed very well. I don’t cope well with endings that just leave me hanging. There was no hope, nor answers.

I enjoyed this Lord of the Flies-esque story, but for me, the ending was bleak and fell flat.


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