≫ Download The Truth About Alice A Novel eBook Jennifer Mathieu

The Truth About Alice A Novel eBook Jennifer Mathieu

Download As PDF : The Truth About Alice A Novel eBook Jennifer Mathieu

The Truth About Alice A Novel eBook Jennifer Mathieu

A very well-done book about high school stereotypes and the reactions those stereotypes evoke. The book is divided into chapters, each told by one of four students: the popular, mean girl; the popular, not overly bright jock; the brainy nerd; and the pretty virgin. It worked well...the story flowed easily and was very effective. Unfortunately, it just didn't interest me much. I feel this is definitely aimed at a younger audience (I'm 41).

If you enjoy this type of book, however, this one is VERY well done.


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The Truth About Alice A Novel eBook Jennifer Mathieu Reviews

I really liked that each chapter was written by one of the characters and I felt that each of the characters were very real portrayals of those types of personalities. Other readers have said they did not like any or most of the characters, but I enjoyed each of them. I guess I understood each of them, their motivations and reasoning even if I didn't agree with them and hope I wouldn't have reacted as they did. I especially enjoyed the portrayal of Alice as such a strong and interesting personality. I couldn't put this book down and I was super happy with the ending and I was very glad to find there was a surprise character at the end.
Somehow, The Truth About Alice managed to take a lot of the young adult tropes and kind of turn them around, analysing the why behind the labelling of people in high school, why is one girl called the slut, why is another girl popular, and how come lies can be so much easier to believe than the truth?

The story in The Truth About Alice is so well done, because most of the important characters all have their chapters, where they kind of explain why they were making Alice the bad one, and justifying their own actions. So for almost the whole book, I, as a reader, only got to know Alice through the other characters’ eyes. Alice only got one chapter herself, and that was the very last one.

A lot of what happened in The Truth About Alice rang true to me, how rumours can be spread so quickly, and it’s almost impossible to actually make anyone at all listen to what actually happened. And the character that made me the most angry was Alice’s so-called best friend. Talk about always doing whatever she could to make sure she herself was popular, with no thoughts whatsoever about the consequences for Alice. Kelsie actually made me feel nauseous, that’s how bad she was – even worse than the guy who started the first rumours, because that would have blown over without anything more to feed the flames.

Well written, in first person point of view past tense, the voices of the different characters were easy to distinguish, and it was actually quite chilling to see how easy it was for all of them to not feel particularly bad about how mean they were. A necessary story, and sadly one that happens in many different places for real.
I enjoyed this book so much, I had to write a review. This could easily have been high school back in my day. (Cough! 26 years ago....) Maybe my classmates I remember from high school didn't start any vicious rumors about someone to this extreme, but many were just as mean and weak - acting like a-holes just to try to fit in. Things haven't changed, except I think now there's a little better awareness of bullying than back then.

The characters narrating this story are so well developed. Each telling their point of view in a different chapter, in their own different style really gives us a better idea of their personalities and who they are.

Elaine is the popular girl - so popular, she'll tell you all about how "powerful" she is at this school. When others copy her, act nervous around her, laugh a little too loud at her jokes, or do / say anything just to be friends with her, that doesn't escape her notice either. She narrates her POV using like, the word *like* 1,000 times. Boy can things go so wrong for you if you find yourself on her bad side.

Josh, the stereotypical jock. He's worse than Elaine for being so weak and cowardly under it all. He feels a little bad about his lies, but not all that bad. You wonder if, years later if / when he finally comes out as gay, maybe he'll get a small taste of what it feels like to be treated badly over something never deserved. But he's not addressing this now.

Kelsie - even more weak, cowardly and a real hypocrite. (Actually, everyone except Kurt and Alice is a big ole hypocrite.) She's also a real Benedict Arnold because she was Alice's "best friend" at one time. I hated her, but did begin to feel sorry for her- just a little. So desperate to fit in and doesn't want to go back to that time in her life when she was once unpopular herself. A bit more remorseful than Josh, but not enough to come clean.

Kurt - the nicest character in the book. A genius - smarter than the teachers, but described by the other kids as "weird" and "nerdy." I'd rather hang out with him any day and found him the most relatable. The writing when he narrates is extremely thoughtful and intelligent - using much bigger words the others wouldn't know the meaning of. He's unpopular if not invisible in this school, has no friends but what I think is great is that he doesn't care. He's got the right idea - especially with this crowd. He's the only one to be a real friend to Alice.

Alice- You learn so much about her through all of the other POVs, even though her own small part at the end is so short and sweet.

She was a little mad at Kurt for not revealing what he knew sooner - but who would've listened to him anyway? Of course, she knew the truth as well and that didn't help her either.

Very powerful book and I look forward to more from this writer.

SPOILER

The ending was very good, but left me still wanting to see the others get the comeuppance they deserved - or wanting know more what happens after the end. You are left to fill in a lot of the blanks in your mind. There's room for a sequel, I think.
A very well-done book about high school stereotypes and the reactions those stereotypes evoke. The book is divided into chapters, each told by one of four students the popular, mean girl; the popular, not overly bright jock; the brainy nerd; and the pretty virgin. It worked well...the story flowed easily and was very effective. Unfortunately, it just didn't interest me much. I feel this is definitely aimed at a younger audience (I'm 41).

If you enjoy this type of book, however, this one is VERY well done.