BOOK REVIEW: The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr

If you are looking for a young adult fiction with a potential to blow your mind as a reader, The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr might be for you. This book captivated me at the start. This is my first time reading Emily Barr’s work and it did demonstrate me how much potential her writing has to lure a reader in one of her worlds.

The story is intriguing in many ways. It is a fast-paced plot about a seventeen-year-old Ella Black who lives with her parents but suffers from multiple personality disorder. Although she is calm and loving, her second personality is equally destructive in nature. One day, telling her nothing, her parents whisk her off to Rio de Janeiro. Determined to find out why Ella takes her chance and searches for their things. And realizes her life has been a lie. Then she sets on a journey to find the truth and the reason behind the lie she has been a part of for seventeen years. The book mostly follows the unveiling of her past, her parents, and desperation of the visit to Rio de Janeiro.

The plot advances as the story of the protagonist unfold. I had an issue it after being dwelled some chapters that it did contain dragging elements that might set off readers at a certain point. I still went on looking for answers as to there might be a reason for the writer to induce her readers that way.

The characterization based on the novel not fully developed. It lacks depth in that department. The elements of YA fiction is reflected throughout the novel with a writing style that is appreciable. It is Emily’s writing style that got me through the book rather than the plots and characters and a sense of thrill that tries to rise in between the events as to what happens next. The theme of multiple personality disorder does relate to the climax of the book and it was a relief to find out that.

Overall the book is okay if you haven’t read the works of Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn but I am afraid, like me, some more readers will be disappointed with the facts I have mentioned about this book.

3 out of 5