All of This is True: A Review

All of This is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor

My Rating: 4/5 Stars!

Cover Rating: 4/10 it’s not my favorite cover. I don’t hate it or anything it’s just too generic for me to be all that interesting. I wouldn’t have picked up this book based off it’s cover.

Publisher: Harper Teen

Publish Date: May 15th, 2018

Number of Pages: 432 pages

Received: got an e-arc opportunity through Epic Reads Insiders

Purchase: Amazon

Synopsis:

Miri Tan loved the book Undertow like it was a living being. So when she and her friends went to a book signing to meet the author, Fatima Ro, they concocted a plan to get close to her, even if her friends won’t admit it now. As for Jonah, well—Miri knows none of that was Fatima’s fault.

Soleil Johnston wanted to be a writer herself one day. When she and her friends started hanging out with her favorite author, Fatima Ro, she couldn’t believe their luck—especially when Jonah Nicholls started hanging out with them, too. Now, looking back, Soleil can’t believe she let Fatima manipulate her and Jonah like that. She can’t believe that she got used for a book.

Penny Panzarella was more than the materialistic party girl everyone at the Graham School thought she was. She desperately wanted Fatima Ro to see that, and she saw her chance when Fatima asked the girls to be transparent with her. If only she’d known what would happen when Fatima learned Jonah’s secret. If only she’d known that the line between fiction and truth was more complicated than any of them imagined. . .

Opening Sentence:

“So, tell me about Fatima Ro.”

Musings:

This mixed media novel was thrilling, unique, and full of meta. All This is True is a story I think we all should be excited about. It takes you on a journey with ups and downs like none before.

What I Loved:

It is something I could easily see myself being a part of. Who of us book lovers wouldn’t love to be personal friends of the authors we love. To be able to speak with them and ask them our infinite questions about their stories. Being able to let them know how deeply their words touched us in full. To pass time with them and be apart of their world. It would be the experience of the lifetime. Even if it ended the way it did in this book.

Mixed media. Books that are written in unique ways like this make me happy because it shows that there isn’t only one way of writing a novel. It’s fun to read the different formats and see how the story comes together with interviews and reading text messages along with excerpts from the book Fatima Ro had written. I loved this aspect.

You don’t really like anyone, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Some of these characters are downright awful. Some are annoying. Some just make you wonder how they could think that their way of thinking is ok. But honestly, because of how the book is written the interest becomes in the mystery and where the story is going to go. The action propels the story forward in a way that you just can’t stop reading.

Questionable morality. You have to wonder for yourself weather certain aspects of this book are ok or not. Writers get inspiration from the world around them, but was it truly ok for Fatima to write the story she did? Even actions from the other characters cause you to take a back seat and wonder, if I were them.. what would I have done?

Undertow. I loved reading bits and pieces of undertow and how it mirrored and pushed forward the events that were being talked about in the different formats. I loved that the writing styles contrasted so much. How writerly undertow was vs. how much of each characters individual voice was heard with the interviews. The sections were really well written.

It’s meta. Your reading a book about another book (the interviews) while also reading the actual book it’s talking about (the excerpts) but also getting the behind the scenes and it’s just so cool! More books should be meta like this one.

Final thoughts:

All of This is True is just one of those books that takes you by surprised. You can’t put it down and you have to love it for the fandom it creates. It’s juicy and an exciting read. I highly recommend it.

About the Author:

Lygia became a writer by writing letters to a friend she met on a cruise ship when she was 14. She is the author of UNSCRIPTED JOSS BYRD (Macmillan) and ALL OF THIS IS TRUE, which will be published by HarperTeen US, Bloomsbury UK, and translated in several countries in  summer 2018. Lygia also teaches child stars on television and movie sets. Her students have included cast members of Gossip Girl, Boardwalk Empire, Law & Order SVU, I Am Legend, and others. She lives with her husband on Long Island where she rides horses and watches reruns of everything. Follow Lygia on Twitter @lygiaday.

Thanks so much for reading! Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below. If your interested in poetry check out some of mine on Vocal.com Thanks so much for the support!

-Till next time!