Book Review: The You I've Never Known

Happy 2018! We're just five short months away from TBF and I bet you all are counting down like we are. This month I read Ellen Hopkin's most recent novel The You I've Never Known which came out in February 2017.

For as long as she can remember, it's been just Ariel and Dad. Ariel's mom disappeared when she was a baby. Dad says home is wherever the two of them are, but Ariel is now seventeen and after years of new apartments, new schools, and new faces, all she wants is to put down some roots. Complicating things are Monica and gabe, both of whom have stirred a different kind of desire. Maya's a teenager who's run from an abusive mother right into the arms of an older man she thinks she can trust. But now she's isolated with a baby on the way, and life's getting more complicated than Maya ever could have imagined. 
Ariel and Maya's lived collide unexpectedly when Ariel's mother shows up out of the blue with wild accusations: Ariel wasn't abandoned. Her father kidnapped her fourteen years ago. What is Ariel supposed to believe? Is it possible Dad's woven her entire history into a tapestry of lies? How can she choose between the mother she's been taught to mistrust and the father who has taken care of her all these years?


The thing that stood out to me the most about this novel was the incredible writing. The story is told mostly in verse with some excerpts in prose mixed in throughout. The true raw emotions of these characters were portrayed through the writing that leapt across the page, both literally and figuratively. Despite the fact I have never experienced a lot of the experiences Ariel and Maya went through I still felt everything they felt because of the beautiful verse. And alongside these heartfelt and emotional moments were occasional pages full of friendships both old and new. Each character felt real to me, whether it was one of the two protagonists or their families or even the secondary characters and I loved that. And no spoilers, but there's several incredible twists in here that kept me guessing until the end. All in all I really enjoyed this novel and recommend it to those who love a story about self discovery, growing up, and finding your real family. Make sure to check out Ellen Hopkins at TBF this year!

-Claire

check out the book here

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