• Pub. Date: September 13, 2011
• Publisher: Random House Children's Books
• Format: Hardcover 256pp
• Age Range: Young Adult
In this high school-set psychological tale, a tormented teen named Evan starts to discover a series of unnerving photographs—some of which feature him. Someone is stalking him . . . messing with him . . . threatening him. Worse, ever since his best friend Ariel has been gone, he's been unable to sleep, spending night after night torturing himself for his role in her absence. And as crazy as it sounds, Evan's starting to believe it's Ariel that's behind all of this, punishing him. But the more Evan starts to unravel the mystery, the more his paranoia and insomnia amplify, and the more he starts to unravel himself. Creatively told with black-and-white photos interspersed between the text so the reader can see the photos that are so unnerving to Evan, Every You, Every Me is a one-of-a-kind departure from a one-of-a-kind author.
I received this through a blogger giveaway. Here is my honest review.
This is pretty different and unique. The picture idea (and the creative process they went through to write this book) is fascinating. It's very interesting to see how this book came together. It flows well, and it has enough mystery behind a certain incident to really keep you going in the mystery of the pictures Evan, the main character, keeps finding.
The story behind Evan's friend Ariel is disturbing, and it turned out to be nothing like what I thought. I think I was making more of it than I needed to. Seems like I've been doing that a lot lately, though. Either way, you're never too sure about what happened to her until the end. Even then you're not 100%, or maybe that's just me. They always say that there are three sides to every story: my side, your side, and the truth. So who really knows?
In general, I thought this was very different. And different in this case is good. Evan is kind of a loner, and his only friend is Ariel's ex-boyfriend, Jack. All of the sudden, Evan comes across a photograph on his way home. Then another appears on his way to school. Soon, more and more pictures come his way. Then Jack, who is trying to get on with his life while Evan is the suffering type, gets some mystery photos. They work together to try to figure out who is doing this until Jack just can't anymore. Then things get a little crazy when someone else gets involved.
The pictures are going to be in color when the book is released, but the black and whites in my ARC weren't really clear. I'm looking forward to seeing a finished copy of this novel to really see the photographs. However, I did think that this was a clever way to set the book up. Do make sure you read the author's note at the end!
My final thoughts are that this is a little dramatic. Ariel is portrayed as this super emo, drama teenager. Are they really like that these days? And what parents don't get involved at all? Or am I assuming that Ariel's parents didn't do anything? I don't know. Ariel just sounded way more grown up than she should. And then why is Jack smoking at school? And why is Evan not seeing a therapist after what happened? I don't know this stuff either. But I guess that's okay. I still liked reading the book.
Bottom line: Check this out if you like dramatic YA novels with some mystery!
Rating:
3.5 / 5 book sharks
3.5 / 5 book sharks
Ah, yes, my ever present frustration with YA's lack of parenting. I don't understand why it's so rampant. Other than that, the book looks really unique and interesting.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what the deal is with that!! It's so irritating. Oh well. Gotta move on! lol Thanks for stopping by!
ReplyDelete