Never Said by Carol Lynch Williams was a beautiful story of sisters finding their way back to each other, told in alternating prose and poetry. Rating: 3.5/5

*This is book #15/35 for my 2015 book challenge. You can take a look at the reading challenge here.

Annie and Sarah are fifteen-year-old fraternal twins who only spend time together because they’re under the same roof. Annie’s life has long been focused around her appearance and the beauty pageants that celebrate it, whereas Sarah’s interests are sports and her runner boyfriend, Jeremy.

Sarah is devastated. Her family is crumbling. The love of her life is dating other people. Her sister is getting heavier and more depressed. When Sarah learns, through gentle questioning, that a neighbor and very good family friend has been sexually abusing her sister, she knows she must act and help the sister who seemingly always had it all.

I was able to get through Never Said very quickly. I don’t typically enjoy dual perspective books, as evidenced by countless reviews on here, but this one fit together really nicely. I loved that it alternated between prose and poetry. Carol Lynch Williams wrote beautifully, and I would definitely read more from this author. I felt like the character development was on point, and each of the characters felt genuine.

There were still a few issues for me, though. I felt like the actual content of the story was really unoriginal, and actually quite problematic. The “twist”, or reason for one twin to start gaining weight was really obvious. Which was one of the awful parts of this book. The one twin just assumes that if she starts gaining weight and “getting fat” (which she gained like, 40 pounds, which would hardly make her “fat” to begin with) that she would stop getting male attention. That’s potentially harmful for girls that are overweight and reading this, and I wish that the author would have involved some sort of lesson for that twin that she’s beautiful just as she is and that gaining weight or cutting off your hair doesn’t make you unattractive or bad to be around. Especially since this was one of the books for BookSparks ‘Reading Is Beautiful‘ summer YA reading challenge.

Then, all of a sudden, parents that were so awful to her throughout the entire book are suddenly supportive and wonderful and everything wraps up very nicely with a bow. The actual book was very well written, and I enjoyed reading it, but I feel like if you’re going to write angst you need to see it all the way through.

If you’re interested, make sure to buy Never Said on Amazon!

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If you’re interested in reading my Goodreads updates from this book you can do so here. I must say, they’re quite entertaining. It will tell you exactly what I was thinking on certain pages.

PLEASE NOTE: I received a free copy of this book from Booksparks in exchange for an honest review. All opinions held within this review are my own thoughts and feelings and do not reflect upon anyone else.

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