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suvata's review against another edition
5.0
Delightful characters!
From BookRags:
"The Truth According to Us" by Annie Barrows is a Depression-era historical fiction that explores the secrets of the Romeyn family of Macedonia, WV. Twelve-year-old Willa's determination to prove her ferocity and devotion lead her to discover long-hidden family secrets as she strives to protect her father from falling in love with Layla Beck, a writer researching the town's history. Meanwhile, Aunt Jottie's journey to acquire security for Willa and her sister turns to a path of self-discovery when Willa unveils Felix's darkest secret. "The Truth According to Us" is an interesting novel that clearly captures the souls of its characters as they struggle to reconcile the inevitability of history with the reality of their present existences.
From BookRags:
"The Truth According to Us" by Annie Barrows is a Depression-era historical fiction that explores the secrets of the Romeyn family of Macedonia, WV. Twelve-year-old Willa's determination to prove her ferocity and devotion lead her to discover long-hidden family secrets as she strives to protect her father from falling in love with Layla Beck, a writer researching the town's history. Meanwhile, Aunt Jottie's journey to acquire security for Willa and her sister turns to a path of self-discovery when Willa unveils Felix's darkest secret. "The Truth According to Us" is an interesting novel that clearly captures the souls of its characters as they struggle to reconcile the inevitability of history with the reality of their present existences.
shareen17's review against another edition
3.0
This book does a good job at portraying life in a small town in West Virginia during the times of Prohibition. The plot is a little bit slow.
alidottie's review against another edition
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Romeyn family--discovering secrets from the past in a most entertaining style. I am a big fan of Willa who is 12 yrs old and through whom some of the story is told.
candacesiegle_greedyreader's review against another edition
4.0
This is a 3.5 star book. It has a wonderful sense of what it was like to live in the stifling town of Macedon, West Virgina, in the 1930s, when the summer blazed and everyone had their noses in everyone else's business but no one knew the whole story. Annie Barrows uses the epistolary style of "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" but branches out to employ straight narration from several points of view. Where the story falters is in the resolution which is a let down.
It's just a good novel, but yet there are parts the carry the music of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
It's just a good novel, but yet there are parts the carry the music of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
janewhitehurst's review against another edition
4.0
The Truth According to Us is great historical fiction. It would be a good book club pick as well. At the start of the novel, Layla Beck, the wealthy daughter of a senator, is made to take a job with the WPA writing the history of the small town Macedonia, West Virginia. She stays at a boarding house run by Jottie Romeyn, her twin sisters, and her playboy brother, Felix. Layla soon becomes privy to all of the history, gossip, and mysteries of the Romeyn family and the town of Macedonia and falls in love with Felix. The novel is told from many points of view, but my favorite was Willa, Jottie's eleven year old niece, who was desperately trying to unearth the family secrets and the truth behind a tragedy involving her father, Felix. I thought the characters were well-developed and I found myself engrossed in the story. I listened to this on audio, and the different voices for each character really added to the experience.
shirleytupperfreeman's review against another edition
I love the title and really enjoyed the book. The story takes place in small town, America during the height of the depression. A spoiled rich girl, whose Daddy is practicing tough love, reluctantly joins the WPA History project. She is assigned to write the history of fictional Macedonia. She boards with a family with secrets to spare. As in The Emperor's New Clothes, it takes the voice of a child to expose the truth of the town's, and her family's, history. But at what cost to the child?
I read the ARC for this novel to be published in June by the author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.
I read the ARC for this novel to be published in June by the author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.
jbeen21's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you to the Goodreads First Reads giveaways program for an advance reader’s edition of “The Truth According to Us” by Annie Barrows.
I adored this book. Set in the small town of Macedonia, West Virginia, the novel follows three females through the transitional summer of 1938, during which local events will change each of their outlooks on life, love and family. Barrows expertly captured each of these character’s unique voices, through dialogue, written letters and physical descriptions.
At the beginning of the novel, twelve-year-old bookworm Willa realizes that Dramatic Events are occurring all around her, much to her displeasure. She decides to spy. Is her aunt Jottie in love with Sol, from the American Everlasting Hosiery Company? Is her father, Felix, a bootlegger? A thief? And why is he devoting so much attention to Layla Beck, the attractive young woman boarding with Willa’s family?
Unbeknownst to the Romeyn’s, Layla has been financially cut off from by her senator father and sent to Macedonia to earn a living by recording the town’s history for the Federal Writer’s Project. As she begins to visit the town’s prominent residents, she realizes that each has his or her own version of history to convey, and that it’s up to her to sift through their opinions to find the truth.
I loved the way Barrows incorporated Layla into the Romeyn household and then, through Layla’s written observations, gave us insight into an underlying, unspoken past event that shaped the Romeyn family’s relationships. And Barrow’s ability to capture the tumultuous emotions, coltish movements, and self-aware inner dialogue of a twelve-year-old girl were spot-on. The scenes in which Willa reads Gone with the Wind under the shade of the porch, and The Beautiful and Damned behind the kitchen door reminded me so much of summer days from my own girlhood. A sweet, unhurried ending sealed the deal for me; this was a solid five-star read.
I adored this book. Set in the small town of Macedonia, West Virginia, the novel follows three females through the transitional summer of 1938, during which local events will change each of their outlooks on life, love and family. Barrows expertly captured each of these character’s unique voices, through dialogue, written letters and physical descriptions.
At the beginning of the novel, twelve-year-old bookworm Willa realizes that Dramatic Events are occurring all around her, much to her displeasure. She decides to spy. Is her aunt Jottie in love with Sol, from the American Everlasting Hosiery Company? Is her father, Felix, a bootlegger? A thief? And why is he devoting so much attention to Layla Beck, the attractive young woman boarding with Willa’s family?
Unbeknownst to the Romeyn’s, Layla has been financially cut off from by her senator father and sent to Macedonia to earn a living by recording the town’s history for the Federal Writer’s Project. As she begins to visit the town’s prominent residents, she realizes that each has his or her own version of history to convey, and that it’s up to her to sift through their opinions to find the truth.
I loved the way Barrows incorporated Layla into the Romeyn household and then, through Layla’s written observations, gave us insight into an underlying, unspoken past event that shaped the Romeyn family’s relationships. And Barrow’s ability to capture the tumultuous emotions, coltish movements, and self-aware inner dialogue of a twelve-year-old girl were spot-on. The scenes in which Willa reads Gone with the Wind under the shade of the porch, and The Beautiful and Damned behind the kitchen door reminded me so much of summer days from my own girlhood. A sweet, unhurried ending sealed the deal for me; this was a solid five-star read.
real_life_reading's review against another edition
2.0
This could have been five hours long instead of nineteen.
tristarenee's review against another edition
I just couldn't get into this one. I think it bounced between characters too much and so I had trouble keeping up.
patchworkbunny's review against another edition
3.0
What is history? Is it the facts that can be proven? What the privileged dictate? Or is it the stories told by the people who lived through it all? I liked the contrast in histories Layla encounters as she writes the History of Macedonia (not to be mistaken with the country of the same name). There’s the official, sanitised version and then the wonderful, humorous and scandal filled stories her friends tell her. We get to see snippets of the text she is writing throughout and see how she weaves the different versions together.
The narration is partly first person told by the young Willa, who sees her father as a god and is blinded to any negative behaviour she might hear about. And she certainly doesn’t want to lose him to Layla, who she hates as soon as she sees her father’s interest in her.
The rest of the narration is made up of Layla’s correspondence with various people, most of which are outsiders who see the town as a backwater, and some third person perspectives where the narrative calls for it. We see how much Layla believes the history she’s creating for herself, even if the reader can see through it.
I enjoyed reading about small town America in the 30s, with bootlegging and the depression. The town relies heavily on a hosiery mill for work and times are tough. The attitude towards socialism is a reminder how much more of a capitalist country America is than here. We should be proud that our neighbours call us socialists if we help those less fortunate.
However, from about half way it was clear how the rest of the story would play out and the book, overall, was too long. In case of relationships, some are signposted from very early on and the final chapters seemed a bit rushed just to confirm where they all ended up. A few loose ends would have been fine considering how portentous it all was.
Review copy provided by publisher.
The narration is partly first person told by the young Willa, who sees her father as a god and is blinded to any negative behaviour she might hear about. And she certainly doesn’t want to lose him to Layla, who she hates as soon as she sees her father’s interest in her.
The rest of the narration is made up of Layla’s correspondence with various people, most of which are outsiders who see the town as a backwater, and some third person perspectives where the narrative calls for it. We see how much Layla believes the history she’s creating for herself, even if the reader can see through it.
I enjoyed reading about small town America in the 30s, with bootlegging and the depression. The town relies heavily on a hosiery mill for work and times are tough. The attitude towards socialism is a reminder how much more of a capitalist country America is than here. We should be proud that our neighbours call us socialists if we help those less fortunate.
However, from about half way it was clear how the rest of the story would play out and the book, overall, was too long. In case of relationships, some are signposted from very early on and the final chapters seemed a bit rushed just to confirm where they all ended up. A few loose ends would have been fine considering how portentous it all was.
Review copy provided by publisher.