Thursday 20 November 2014

The Almost Truth by Eileen Cook

The Almost Truth by Eileen Cook
Published: Simon Pulse, December 4th, 2012
Pages: 246
Source: Paperback, library
Genre: Contemporary
Rating: 3.9/5 (79%)

How I Felt: Ok, there needs to be a universal law that no standalone book can end like this! There's just too much left unclear. Recently for me, many contemporaries have been ending in this "loose string" fashion, so the rest is left up to the reader. I don't like this technique one bit, if I get to the end of a story it's because I've grown to love the characters (or at least tolerate them) so I'd like to see how their story ends, not make up one of my own. If I wanted to fill in the pieces of the ending myself, I would've wrote the book. All that being said, don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book. I had a great time reading it, it actually got me out of a slump. I just would've liked to see how the characters solve the problem we were left with to think about.

I really like the concept of this book, it takes place on an island where there are distinct social class differences. The rich all stick together and the same goes for those with less or almost no money. I originally picked this book up because I read that it was about a girl who was a con artist; this intrigued me because I never read a book about a character like this before and the whole premise was new and exciting. Not quite so surprising with contemporaries, but this book turned out to be much more than a poor girl looking to make money faster, this book was deeper than that, and this added a new element to the story I really enjoyed seeing play out.

If this book had anything it's amazing character development! We went from reading about Sadie who thought she had her whole life planned out; in the fall she'd take all the money she saved and move off the small island where she grew up to attend Berkeley and make a new name and life for herself. All her plans were ready to be set in motion until her mom used her funds to pay for a lawyer to get her father out of prison. After this point things start falling apart for Sadie. This story is all about Sadie trying to figure out who she really is, and her trying to come to terms with her life and move forward. A lot of development was shown by Sadie's parents and herself. In the beginning of the novel Sadie had almost no respect for her parents whatsoever, she wanted to leave them and her life on the island behind as soon as possible. But by the end of the book you could see how much her love for her mom and especially her dad has grown, and the same goes for her father because he didn't like to show her any sort of love.  Out of everyone in this book my favourite character would have to be Sadie's best friend, Brendan. He was always there for Sadie when she really needed him and I admired him for that, I also admired him for his wit and his ability to always know what to say to Sadie to put her at ease (which comes with being friends for so many years).

The reason I didn't give this book a four or five star rating was because I didn't think the plot was well executed or written/planned out. It was a little choppy, especially towards the end. I also couldn't give it the full rating because of how it ended, everything I wanted to happen was finally falling into place and then the book just ends.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, it was entertaining, funny, and just all around sweet.  I recommend it if you like contemporary or mystery books. I look forward to reading more by Eileen Cook in the future!

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