Review: "The Truth About Alice" by Jennifer Mathieu

Everyone knows Alice slept with two guys at one party. But did you know Alice was sexting Brandon when he crashed his car? It's true. Ask ANYBODY. Rumor has it that Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the bathroom stall at Healy High for everyone to see. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumors start to spiral out of control. In this remarkable debut novel, four Healy High students—the girl who has the infamous party, the car accident survivor, the former best friend, and the boy next door—tell all they know. But exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there's only one person to ask: Alice herself.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group via Netgalley for the free review copy in exchange for my honest review.

I read this book ages ago, and I feel like I should apologize for not writing a review sooner.  Not sure what happened, why I got sidetracked, but whatever the reason, this book has stuck with me since the day I started it.

This is one book that every teenager should read.  It shows just how easy it is for the rumour mill to spin out of control.

I loved how the author had four points of view throughout the whole book until the very end, when Alice gets her say.  It made the book that much more interesting and memorable.  Whether directly or indirectly, each of the four narrators plays a part in perpetuating the rumour involving Alice having sex with two boys in the same night and the subsequent rumour of how she caused the death of Brandon, King of the Town.  All four characters seemed realistic and true to me, but Kelsey was the one who surprised me the most.  She was written amazingly well, and she brought out such intense feelings of disappointment and sadness in me.  I think a lot of people will hate her when they read this book, but I honestly just felt sorry for her - sorry for how her friendship with Alice was breaking down even before the rumours, sorry for what happened to Kelsey herself, and sorry for what she does to Alice to maintain her popularity.  It's just a miserable situation all around.

I found myself really relating to Kurt.  He reminds me of my son!  I only hope that someday my son will feel as comfortable with himself as Kurt is portrayed to be.  That's not to say Kurt is always confident, because he's definitely not when it comes to Alice.  I just admire how he knows he's different but he's totally okay with that, and if people don't want to hang out with him or include him at all, he's okay with that too because he'd rather be doing his own thing anyway.  You rock, Kurt!

And as for Alice?  Where do I even begin?  It's so cool how she's a main character, but we only get to know her through others' eyes until the very end.  Anyway, I just wanted to give her a big hug and adopt her - she's something else!

So yeah, go read this book, especially if you don't mind shedding a tear or two - I'm pretty sure you'll love it as much as I did!