Everything We Never Said - by Sloan Harlow (Paperback)

Book deals with hard topics in a thoughtful way. It kept me guessing until the very end!

Such a good romantic thriller🤩

Everything We Never Said is a YA romantic thriller about Ella, a 17-year-old high school senior struggling with grief for the death of her best friend, Hayley, after a tragic car accident months before. Ella can't remember anything about the night Hayley died and feels responsible for Hayley's death. Adding to her guilt, she finds herself developing romantic feelings for Sawyer, Hayley's former boyfriend. The story is told from the points of view of Ella, Sawyer, and Hayley through her diary entries. The book focuses on the relationships between Ella and Sawyer, Ella and Hayley, and Hayley and her boyfriend "S". Everything We Never Said explores abusive and toxic relationships and is a serious and important read. It is compelling, entertaining and twisty but also a book young people should read because of the messages about recognizing red flags, avoiding abusers and the importance of seeking help from trustworthy people. CW: physical, emotional, and s-xual abuse

Great plot! Felt lots of emotions and was genuinely surprised by the ending.

Ella blames herself for an accident that killed her best friend, Haley. Back at school months later, Ella begins to fall in love with Haley’s boyfriend, Sawyer, as the two get closer to each other. Feeling guilty, Ella begins reading Haley’s journal in hopes of finding something that will make the situation feel better. Instead, she learns secrets about Sawyer and Haley’s relationship but somehow, she can’t seem to stay away from him. EVERYTHING WE NEVER SAID was a dark YA romantic thriller. It held a decent pace that made for a quick read. Despite many plot twists, it was mostly predictable. One thing that really bothered me was how Haley’s diary entries were overwritten. The entries were extremely detailed with lengthy passages of specific dialogue and details of situations written in a style as if one was writing a novel. Nothing about it was realistic for a teen’s diary, or anyone’s really unless they were perhaps a budding novelist practicing their writing skills. It felt so jarring and pulled me out of the story. On the whole, the plausibility of a lot of things in this book was questionable and required a sense of just going with the flow in order to get some enjoyment out of reading.