Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
Date Published: 3rd June 2014
Publisher: Roaring Book Press


Goodreads Summary
Everyone has a lot to say about Alice Franklin, and it’s stopped mattering whether it’s true. The rumors started at a party when Alice supposedly had sex with two guys in one night. When school starts everyone almost forgets about Alice until one of those guys, super-popular Brandon, dies in a car wreck that was allegedly all Alice’s fault. Now the only friend she has is a boy who may be the only other person who knows the truth, but is too afraid to admit it. Told from the perspectives of popular girl Elaine, football star Josh, former outcast Kelsie, and shy genius Kurt, we see how everyone has a motive to bring – and keep – Alice down.

Let me set you the picture. You go to a high school party; people are drinking; everyone is hooking up with each other. Next day you go into school and you’ve managed to be the talk of the town. And it wasn’t because of your impressive beer pong skills either.  

In a town where everyone knows everyone and apparently knows everyone’s business the rumours about Alice and what happened at a party is what everyone is talking about. Supposedly Alice had sex with two boys at a party; and the school just cannot seem to forgive her for this. Especially when one of the boys dies in a car accident.

Let me quickly talk about the book first because I have a ton to say about this “sleeping with two guys in one night shazam” I thought the book was rather good, more than good but not exactly mind blowing. In the book you don’t get to hear from Alice until the very end, it’s mostly just what happened and how they are connected to the night and to Brandan’s death. It was a really great idea to write this novel like that. Not only did each character get to have their say but Jennifer had the opportunity to develop each character further and make them each stand out. It’s hard to make a character seem real if they aren’t a big character or the main one so kudos to her.

The story is also a bit more of a fresh teenage story. It openly talks about sex and parties and there’s some swearing in the book. I don’t know if it’s just me but I think a lot of YA books avoid these things like the plague. So all in all a good story which was written beautifully.

Now let me get to my rant about the storyline. Yes sleeping with two guys on the same night is bad, yes in my eyes it does make you slutty and it’s not something that should be done but IT WASN’T JUST HER. THERE WERE TWO GUYS AND THEY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN CALLED SLUTS AND WHORES AND PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE MADE THEM FEEL BAD TOO! This annoyed me so much. It annoys me everyday whenever I hear someone say “Oh you banged her?! You’re such a dude/stud/cool” and then the girl has to feel ashamed because she gets called a slut or a whore or not pure. DOUBLE STANDARDS. It doesn’t matter whether or not Alice did have sex with two guys or not in the book. The fact that she lost her bestfriend pretty much because of this, all the rumours and everything was horrible and the guys didn’t get anything for it (well apart from one dying) This just angered me so much. I loved the book but seriously; and no it isn’t the authors fault because it’s exactly how it is in real life and I’m actually glad that she did write it this way but ugh!

Okay rant over. Now go read the book.