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popthebutterfly 's review for:
Words We Don't Say
by K.J. Reilly
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Disney Books/Hyperion and Rockstar Book Tours. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Rating: 4/5
Publication Date: October 2, 2018
Genre: YA Contemporary
Recommended Age: 15+ (PTSD, homelessness, inner monologues, pain)
Pages: 288
Amazon Link
Synopsis: Joel Higgins has 901 unsent text messages saved on his phone.
Ever since the thing that happened, there are certain people he hasn't been able to talk to in person. Sure, he shows up at school, does his mandatory volunteer hours at the soup kitchen, and spends pretty much every moment thinking about Eli, the most amazing girl in the world. But that doesn't mean he's keeping it together, or even that he has any friends.
So instead of hanging out with people in real life, he drafts text messages. But he never presses send.
As dismal as sophomore year was for Joel, he doesn't see how junior year will be any better. For starters, Eli doesn't know how he feels about her, his best friend Andy's gone, and he basically bombed the SATs. But as Joel spends more time at the soup kitchen with Eli and Benj, the new kid whose mouth seems to be unconnected to his brain, he forms bonds with the people they serve there-including a veteran they call Rooster-and begins to understand that the world is bigger than his own pain.
So in the beginning of this book I didn’t feel like this book was going to be that good of a book, but as I read on the book became better. The book, while wrote in a weird fashion, works well for the main character’s thought process. I think that the thought pattern of the main character is fairly realistic to one that suffers from PTSD/anxiety. I also felt that the author did really well with discussing socially relevant issues that are otherwise hard to discuss. I think that the book has excellent reread potential.
However, the book is so weirdly written that readers might not make it to the point where things start to click. The book is very long winded in places and the pacing is all over the place. The book also seems to suffer from the Stephen King syndrome of droning on and on about random events or things. I think the book is very interesting and definitely a reread book for me, but it’s just really hard to get into overall.
Verdict: Beautiful book with reread potential.
Rating: 4/5
Publication Date: October 2, 2018
Genre: YA Contemporary
Recommended Age: 15+ (PTSD, homelessness, inner monologues, pain)
Pages: 288
Amazon Link
Synopsis: Joel Higgins has 901 unsent text messages saved on his phone.
Ever since the thing that happened, there are certain people he hasn't been able to talk to in person. Sure, he shows up at school, does his mandatory volunteer hours at the soup kitchen, and spends pretty much every moment thinking about Eli, the most amazing girl in the world. But that doesn't mean he's keeping it together, or even that he has any friends.
So instead of hanging out with people in real life, he drafts text messages. But he never presses send.
As dismal as sophomore year was for Joel, he doesn't see how junior year will be any better. For starters, Eli doesn't know how he feels about her, his best friend Andy's gone, and he basically bombed the SATs. But as Joel spends more time at the soup kitchen with Eli and Benj, the new kid whose mouth seems to be unconnected to his brain, he forms bonds with the people they serve there-including a veteran they call Rooster-and begins to understand that the world is bigger than his own pain.
So in the beginning of this book I didn’t feel like this book was going to be that good of a book, but as I read on the book became better. The book, while wrote in a weird fashion, works well for the main character’s thought process. I think that the thought pattern of the main character is fairly realistic to one that suffers from PTSD/anxiety. I also felt that the author did really well with discussing socially relevant issues that are otherwise hard to discuss. I think that the book has excellent reread potential.
However, the book is so weirdly written that readers might not make it to the point where things start to click. The book is very long winded in places and the pacing is all over the place. The book also seems to suffer from the Stephen King syndrome of droning on and on about random events or things. I think the book is very interesting and definitely a reread book for me, but it’s just really hard to get into overall.
Verdict: Beautiful book with reread potential.