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My Review:Title: Stronger than You Know
Author: Jolene Perry
Published by: AW Teen
Release Date: September 1st 2014
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 261
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Coming of Age
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Platypire Diversity Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Reading Assignment Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Big Summer Birthday Bash 2018
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My rating:
Blurb:After police intervention, fifteen-year-old Joy has finally escaped the trailer where she once lived with her mother and survived years of confinement and abuse. Now living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in a comfortable house, she’s sure she’ll never belong. Wracked by panic attacks, afraid to talk to anyone at her new school, Joy’s got a whole list of reasons why she’s crazy. With immense courage, Joy finds friends and grows closer to her new family. But just when hope is taking hold, she learns she must testify in her mother’s trial. Can she face her old life without losing her way in the new one? Will she ever truly belong in a world that seems too normal to be real?
4.5 stars — So what do I do when I finish an amazing book by an author that’s left me with a huge book hangover?? Pick up another book by that author that I’ve also been afraid to read b/c of feelz!!! Why am I not doing this more often? Because this book just 100% got to me, but left me with so much happiness and hope. I don’t even know what I’m going to do now…
Joy was…Joy’s struggles were just heartbreaking, but also felt so real. I’m not saying that there weren’t fictional liberties taken with the speed of her recovery, but despite all that I really felt everything Joy was going through and all that she experienced. It wasn’t just a completely forward journey…she had plenty of setbacks. She even acted like a real honest to goodness 16 year old at times (and is it weird that that made me happy?)! There’s some difficult stuff in this book…there isn’t a lot of detail about what she experienced, but enough glimpses through flashbacks and conversations to give you a feel of what she experienced growing up. It was enough to not leave me hanging, but also to not capitalize on those horrors, you know? This wasn’t about that, it was about Joy’s experience AFTER the horror. Joy’s journey of self-discovery. And while there were many hard moments, I was glad to be along for the ride.
There were so many amazing secondary characters in this story that just put it over the top. I think every great YA has a great supporting cast. What I loved was that they were all so different from one another, and they each brought different things into Joy’s life, and helped her in different ways. None of them were perfect…but they were all good. I loved that Joy’s therapist, Lydia, wasn’t vilified or glorified. She made Joy work for it, but she had compassion. Her new family was also the bomb, but not without their own missteps. It was so refreshing to read about a supportive family where I honestly did feel the love they had for Joy, but could also recognize the struggles they were dealing with in the background. Aunt Nichole was a sweetheart of course, but it was Uncle Rob that stole my heart. I wasn’t sure how his relationship with Joy was going to develop, but I loved his role in her journey, and I loved the way they grew closer. I just wanted to hug him so many times…he was gentle, caring, and he tried so hard. That was probably the most rewarding part of the story for me.
And even though Tara had a seemingly small role, I really loved the friend she was to Joy. She showed Joy that even normal teens go through their own ups and downs. And Daisy was a riot. She was another flawed girl who had a good heart. I loved the connection she made with Joy.
The only thing preventing a full 5 stars from me was that I didn’t really like how the Trent, and then Tyler, storyline played out. I get that we had a bit of an unreliable narrator in Joy, so it might not have been as bad as it came across, but the resolution was just sudden and unbelievable. Tyler was being straight on creepy, and he never got a talking to. And I never knew if Trent understood what Joy was trying to tell him about the girls… I would have liked a more clear resolution there. (and yes, I’m being vague on purpose)
And that brings us to Justin. While it was very much a tiny side plot, I adored the romance with Justin, I seriously got so many adorable tummy tingles. I appreciated that they had their misunderstandings, but that their connection remained. Seriously, I LOVED that little taste of romance…it was like a ray of hope.
So yeah. This one just totally sucked me in and I finished it in a day. I was enthralled with Joy’s journey, and I couldn’t have been happier with the way it ended. <3
Sounds intense. Maybe too intense for me.