Have you ever picked up a book with little to no expectations, and just found yourself to be very disappointed?
This is the story of me and The Truth and Lies of Ella Black.
I had heard that her other book, The One Memory of Flora Banks, was excellent. However some part of me was more curious about TTALOEB - maybe the tagline, '40 days until she dies'. I'm not a huge reader of thrillers so I wanted to give one a spin, especially as I recently found out I'll be meeting Emily Barr in June with some friends at an event!
If you've been following my blog for a while or know me as a person, you'll know that negative reviews are the one thing I don't like writing. However, I'd rather let people know about books I find marginally problematic.
This review will be full of spoilers, so make sure to take that into account before reading it!
"Ella Black seems to live the life most other seventeen-year-olds would kill for. But she hides who she really is from the rest of the world...
I call her Bella because she is the dark side of me. It's Ella but not. It's bad Ella. Bella.
One day, telling her nothing, her parents whisk her off to Brazil. Determined to find out why, Ella uncovers a terrible secret - and, on the run-in Rio de Janeiro, she finds the truth about the deepest darkest side of herself..."
With a premise like that, I was hooked - doesn't it sound amazing?! But truth be told, I spent the majority of my time reading this book ranting so some bookish friends about it. (Thanks lovelies!)
Now I've talked about my sensitivities here before - little things get to me in a stronger way than they should.
But the first chapter starts with animal abuse.
Ella lets her evil second-personality, Bella, take a small bird that her cat brought in, and crush it with a hammer.
I love birds, and I started crying. The description was vivid, and uncomfortable, and was attempted to be justified by a personality Ella is trying to suppress. Right away I figured she suffered of some kind of dual personality disorder - a brave topic to tackle! - but I still didn't think it excused the killing of a hurt animal with a hammer. I put down the book for several weeks before having the guts to pick it up again...
Then, her parents take her out of school and take her to Rio, of all places. They know it is on her bucket list, so they let her think she's sick and may die soon. Nothing ever convinces them to tell her what's actually going on. They even took away her phone, the one way she had to contact her two, not-super-interesting-or-relevant friends. Dumb move, parents. (Literally they moved to Brazil on a whim).
Next it simply spirals down - Ella becomes a moody, bratty teen who hates her parents and falls in love with the first stranger she sees, after one shared look. (Falling in love is not my words, she says it herself, that he must be her soulmate and whatnot). She goes out at night in the streets of Rio with shady strangers and Cute Boi, gets drunk and comes home to have a secret of her own to hold against her parents if needed.
Oh by the way, the insta-love in this book is 100% for (in)convenience and not at all plausible. I said it and now I shall move on from it. The cringe was real.
Next thing you know, Ella finds out that she is adopted. This makes her go psycho, try to kill her mom, join a Zombie parade, and run off to an island where no one could find her. Talk about a tantrum! There, she finds out that her biological parents were convicted murderers, and that her mom was looking for her, which is why they went to Brazil.
Now what really bothered me most. The entire book, Ella struggles to keep Bella - her second personality - in line with being 'good'. To me, it really sounded like a mental issue of high proportions. It was scary and messed up, and suddenly just explained by the fact that her biological parents were murderers. So that's why she had a bad side.
Oh wow I never would have guessed!
She decided to leave everything she's ever known, throw another tantrum and go live in the favelas where she suddenly becomes a literal sunshine of a human being and teaches art - she's loved by kids and everyone she meets and her personality then was just not her personality in the rest of the books - it felt like the blend of two manuscripts happened by accident in the printer.
And then it just gets even more upsetting when her 'boyfriend' comes in to save the day and finds her after a few days, in one of the world's biggest slum areas, pays everything off and invites her to join him in the US so she can abandon her adoptive family who have been nothing but supportive. Out of nowhere, her biological mom comes into the picture, and suddenly gets hit by a car.
End of the book: the tagline was a lie.
What did I just read?
The characters fell flat, the end was disappointing, and everything was over-the-top.
It was repetitive and tried too hard.
The one thing I WILL give it credit for is that it kept me on my toes the entire time. I never really knew what to expect, and I took it as it was.
Overall, I'm giving this book 1.5/5 stars. That's really low for me, maybe one of the lowest I've given. However, I don't want to dismiss the author - if I get the chance I WILL read The One Memory of Flora Banks, as I heard that that was absolutely lovely!
Stay bookish!
Oh wow, I'm really disappointed. I liked her first book enough and kind of had expectations that this one would be somewhat enjoyable too but after reading this I really don't think it's something I'd enjoy. Thanks for the great review! It's really helped me make my choices.
ReplyDelete(Also it's so so so unrealistic her boyfriend can find her in a few days in a favela, people hunt through those for months, years in some cases)
Hi! No worries, I really value honesty in book reviews. I did speak with the author though, and she did tell me that she went to Rio to make sure she was as accurate as possible, setting-wise!
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