ARC Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
ARC from publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
June 3, 2014
Goodreads

Summary

Everyone has a lot to say about Alice Franklin, and it’s stopped mattering whether it’s true. The rumors started at a party when Alice supposedly had sex with two guys in one night. When school starts everyone almost forgets about Alice until one of those guys, super-popular Brandon, dies in a car wreck that was allegedly all Alice’s fault. Now the only friend she has is a boy who may be the only other person who knows the truth, but is too afraid to admit it. Told from the perspectives of popular girl Elaine, football star Josh, former outcast Kelsie, and shy genius Kurt, we see how everyone has a motive to bring – and keep – Alice down.

First of all, I love the cover. What else do I love? Not much. Actually, nothing. Let’s have a character round of, shall we? We have the gay best friend who intends to never come out of the closet, and hever straight out admits to being in a closet of any sort. He has a secret. He know what really happened that night. And no matter how guilty he feels, no one can find out. Then we have Miss Popular who runs the school. She follows the bad if she feels like it. She follows the good if she feels like it. She has the aura of power. Then we have the self-conceited ex best friend who starts up one of the more nasty rumors about Alice Franklin. Finally, we have the sweet stalker boy who knows what happened but has no one to tell.

This book, more specifically, the characters, annoyed the shizz nizz out of me. All of them had an agenda for keeping Alice down. I know I should feel sympathy for the dead guy, but honestly, he’s as bad as the rest of them. I mean, sure, he didn’t deserve to be dead, but dude, he’s a *insert not so nice word of choice here* and sweet lord. I was just fed up with all of them. The only one I could tolerate was stalker boy.

Here’s the weird thing though, the writing was AMAZING. I could feel all the emotions. The way the book was written (being told from indirect personas) was so unique and actually kind of brilliant. I thought that was the best part of the book.

There wasn’t really a plot to THE TRUTH ABOUT ALICE. More so, there was the reasons why everyone did what they did. That was fine, just not really for me. I would have wanted to see what everyone thought of Alice before the rumors and then during the rumors.

In the end, THE TRUTH ABOUT ALICE, although extremely well written, just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Overall, the concept was good. The whole slut shaming and finding yourself and even dealing with death. But, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Who's read it?