My Whole Truth by Mischa Thrace

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher North Star Editions in exchange for an honest review.

I have such mixed feelings about this book. My Whole Truth is the story of Seelie, a girl who murders a boy called Shaun after being brutally attacked by him. Seelie is then drawn into a court battle, with half the town thinking she's a cold-blooded killer and the other half turning a blind eye. With perhaps one of the worst mothers I have ever read about barring actual physical abuse, Seelie has only her close friends for support.

So much of this book I really liked. I loved the message of found families being as important (if not more so) than real families. It was really engaging and well-written throughout, I think the pacing was spot on and I couldn't predict exactly where the story was going which kept me hooked. There were however sadly a few issues.

Firstly, there is a female-female romance in this which would be awesome if it didn't come out of nowhere. It genuinely wasn't until a line about halfway through where the character goes 'we could be something more' that I realised this was meant to be a romance and not a friendship. Given I'll ship characters in queer relationships at the drop of a hat, this was a little odd.

Secondly, the main character makes a HUGE dumb decision. I can't talk about it in detail but it is baffling when it happens, continues to be baffling for the rest of the book and is even more baffling at the end. I don't understand the main character's actions at all and so it just comes across to me as a bad decision at every point. And not a bad decision that the narrative acknowledges either. This is the reason this book got a much lower rating than I would have otherwise given it. I could not get over this thing which seemed to happen purely because of plot contrivance.

Overall, My Whole Truth is an excellent attempt to deal with very different subject matter. It doesn't shy away from the topic it has chosen and, for the most part, I was invested in the characters and plot. I just think if the main character's motivations could be described a bit better, that would turn a good book into a great one.

Overall Rating:

.5