The Truth About Alice
Jennifer Mathieu
⭐⭐⭐
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UK Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
UK Release Date: March 8th, 2018
**I received an electronic copy via Netgalley for a honest review**
Synopsis:
Everyone knows Alice slept with two guys at one party.
But did you know Alice was sexting Brandon when he crashed his car?
It's true. Ask ANYBODY.
Rumour has it that Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the 'slut stall' in the girls' bathroom at Healy High for everyone to see. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumours start to spiral out of control.
In this remarkable novel, four Healy High students - the party girl, the car accident survivor, the ex best friend and the boy next door - tell all they know.
But exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there's only one person to ask: Alice herself.
Review
I read Moxie last year, around Christmas time, and really enjoyed the story of a young woman finding her moxie and starting a feminist uprising in her school. Of course when this popped up on Netgalley to request, I instantly hit the request button and crossed my fingers.
The Truth About Alice takes on a lot, from the stereotypes we push in the high school narrative and the toxicity of putting those people in boxes to slut shaming and the undefeatable rumour mill.
Not one single character is likable - or, at least I found them to be so. They were manipulative of the situation, hypocritical and above all? They were deeply selfish. BUT THEY ARE TEENAGERS! That's how they should be! You can't tell me that at one point you weren't a little bit selfish. Although I found myself constantly grappling for someone to be Alice's sympathetic ear, I also couldn't help but feeling the sheer horror of the slut shaming.
Apart from the characters, I found the rest of the plot uninteresting. And ended up speed reading through half the book, as the plot continued to fell rather singular.
Overall, I would say this is an interesting concept with the gulls to try and call out the ways in which slut shaming occurs in high schools/secondary schools. However, it didn't quite meet the expectation of perhaps Moxie, and was left feeling rather 'meh'.
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