Review: "All The Truth" by Laura Brodie

It's a beautiful summer's evening in rural Jackson, Virginia when college Professor Emma Greene hears voices in her backyard as she tucks her daughter in for the night. Her husband, Rob, isn't home yet so Emma heads outside alone to find that several students from the nearby college are drinking in her yard. Emma asks them to leave and a violent confrontation ensues.

Nine years later three of the witnesses present that evening must confront the things that happened that night so that they may finally begin to move on from the memories that haunt them all in the present day.

I heard so many fantastic things about Laura Brodie's novel The Widow's Season that I ran out and bought myself a copy when it first came out. Sadly, my copy remains unread. As any book lover knows there are so many books and so little time! When I was offered a review copy of Brodie's latest release, All The Truth, I jumped at the chance to finally read one of her books. I am so happy that I chose to, as I was riveted from the first page.

All The Truth tells the story of the one horrible night that Maggie Greene witnessed as a child. Maggie is a teenager now and for some reason dreams of that night are coming back to haunt her. She wonders if it's because she is having a hard time in the ninth grade, particularly with her strange Geometry teacher who refuses to look Maggie directly in the eye. As pieces of the puzzle, and of the past, are slowly revealed to her ,Maggie is finally able to make some sense of what happened that night.

One of the things that I loved about this novel is that it evolves as the book goes on. The story begins to be told by Maggie, who was young at the time of the incident. A few chapters later the story is picked up by someone else who has a slightly different perspective of the whole thing. A third person chimes in later on and adds additional layers to the original story. The way that the story's foundation was built upon, bit by bit, had me unable to put the book down and instead I pressed on for one more chapter, and then for one more. Brodie's writing style truly is exceptional and it had me wishing that I didn't need to sleep so that I could finish the story!

I loved All The Truth. The plot was fresh and interesting and I was riveted from the beginning. The characters were fleshed out in a way that showed their flaws yet had the reader caring about them. The writing, as I mentioned before, was truly exceptional. My thanks to the publisher for providing me with this review copy! I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to read this stunning novel!