All the Truth That's in Me

I'm giving this book five stars because I can't give it six.

Want to read a good book? A book that you can't put down? This is THAT book. I started it one night, barely slept, and finished it the next. Yes, all 274 pages are that good.

I'm not sure who decided to categorize it as young adult, but because it has some very adult subject matter. The heroine is young (14) when the book starts but it covers a number of years, putting her near 20 when it ends. Almost all the other characters are older, including her love interest, four years her senior.

Judith, we eventually learn, was kidnapped, and not can't speak. Literally. It's a physical impossibility because most of her tongue was cut out. We eventually learn why, but the storyteller's strength in this book is her ability to give you just enough information to keep you reading another page and another chapter.

This vaguely historical fiction is set in an undefined time period where women were barely considered people and religion ruled people's lives. (It makes today sound scarier than it already is.)

The author handily leapt back in forth in time without giving the reader whiplash. There's a lyrical, almost poet phrasing used as well as mini-sections that almost act like diary entries. One of my favorite things about this story was that it never sounded trite or unbelievable.

READ IT, even if you never read young adult fiction.