Title: All Of This Is True

Author: Lygia Day Peñaflor

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: Bloomsbury UK

Summary: from Amazon

MIRI loves the novel Undertow like it’s a living being. So when she and her friends get the chance to meet the author, Fatima Ro, they plot a way to get closer to her. As for what happened with Jonah . Well, obviously none of that was Fatima’s fault.

SOLEIL wants to be a writer herself one day. She can’t believe it when Fatima asks them to hang out with her – and having Jonah there makes it even better.

PENNY is more than the party girl everyone thinks she is, and she’s willing to share her darkest secrets with Fatima to prove it. But what will happen when Fatima finds out about Jonah?

All of This Is True is a story of obsession and revenge, betrayal and forgiveness, and the devastating result of a secret that didn’t stay buried.

Review:

I received this book in my Book Box Club subscription box and I was so pleased to see it as I have been wanting to read it since I first heard about it! I absolutely devoured All Of This Is True. The whole book is compiled of a mixture of interviews, book excerpts and newspaper articles and this unusual format gave All Of This Is True a really interesting angle. I was totally sucked into the unique, obsessive world of certain types of teenage girls who are so convinced of their maturity and confidence that they are oblivious to their own naivety.

The story revolves around the question of whether the author that the teenagers worship, Fatima Ro, has taken advantage of their confidences to create her latest novel and whether she is responsible in some way for the violent consequences involving Jonah, one of the girl’s friends. It is fascinating to see how each of the girls reacts to the possible betrayal from their icon who they adore with passion and try so hard to mimic in their own slightly desperate ways. Miri is the de-facto leader of their little clique and she has the typical unwavering confidence and surety of a teenage girl who believes she knows and understands exactly how the world works and refuses to see when she is being manipulated. The other two girls are much less sure of Fatima’s innocence than Miri and as they slowly realise what has actually taken place they become disenchanted and lose their rose-tinted view of their idol.

I found All Of This Is True a perfect blend of intrigue, passion, mystery and reality. I loved the to the point and almost acerbic tone of parts of the book and found the story so compelling and original. I would highly recommend it if you like daring young adult books. This is definitely one of my favourites of the year so far.

All Of This Is True is out now.