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A review by rubeusbeaky
Everything We Didn't Say by Nicole Baart
3.0
There is a great theme in this book about the toxicity of things left unsaid: A small town doesn't stand up to unethical farming practices, and their lands and water end up poisoned; spouses don't speak up about their discontentment with their marriage; paternity is kept hidden from a number of characters; friends and siblings keep secrets from one another, etc., etc....
But theme alone can't carry a book. And in the interest of leaving "everything" unsaid, our narrator is shown running away from almost every possible conversation she could be having XD. It is very obvious that the information she needs is... in the mind of someone she knows, and watching her duck and weave out of interacting with anyone gets a little boring, even silly.
In the end, I don't even understand why it's June's book. JOHNATHAN is the one with all the motive, information, connections, risks to take and family to lose.... SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER WARNING:
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Imagine how much more EPIC this book would have been, if June didn't exist. If Johnathan were an only child, happy-go-lucky, raised by Reb and Law (believes Law to be his father), but wanders over to the neighbors' (Cal and Beth's) farm all the time to play with their dogs, and he's accepted and adored. It's not weird at all that he first goes over there to play, then to work. And as he gets older, he sympathizes with his neighbors, their fight against the big Tate farm that's polluting all the neighbors' land and water. Sullivan is NOT older, he's in the same grade as Johnathan, and Johnathan pretends to grill him about wanting to work for the Tates, make some more money, etc., but he's actually snooping around to build a case for Cal and Beth to sue the Tates. But Johnathan and Sullivan become REAL friends (maybe even more, and they have to keep their romance a secret because small town Iowa), and they grow cold feet over what to do with the dirt they've uncovered, because they don't want to hurt each other. MEANWHILE, Reb and Law are acting increasingly surly, Johnathan assumes it's because he's out all the time snooping, he starts to get worried that his parents saw him with Sullivan... One night, he's stealing himself up to go apologize and make nice, make plans to be with his parents for the 4th of July... when he sees his mom packing a suitcase. Caught in the act, Reb begs Johnathan not to say anything, even though Johnathan is not sure what he's seeing. Suddenly, he doesn't want to be here, he flees to Cal's farm. Cal seems a little squirrely, maybe asks the same question more than once by accident: How are you? What are you doing here? Your mom all right? And Johnathan gets a sinking feeling. Cal's 18 year old facade collapses, he delivers the bombshell: He's Johnathan's real dad, and Reb is leaving Law. Reeling, Johnathan flees again, goes to Ashley's 4th of July barbeque, and gets almost blackout drunk partying with the Tate brothers. He remembers going back to Cal's farm with them, but not what they did. Several hours later he wakes up, in the dark, on the property. Cal, Bath, and the property are all shot up. Maybe Johnathan witnessed who did it - maybe HE did something - but he can't remember. And trying to unlock the truth of what happened that night to clear his name is the bulk of the story. All the same themes of silent toxicity, but a tighter story, the plot being more relevant to the narrator and his central conflict.
All in all, as is, once you get to the end of June's story you don't particularly fall in love with June, or feel a desire to reread and solve the mystery from a new perspective.
But theme alone can't carry a book. And in the interest of leaving "everything" unsaid, our narrator is shown running away from almost every possible conversation she could be having XD. It is very obvious that the information she needs is... in the mind of someone she knows, and watching her duck and weave out of interacting with anyone gets a little boring, even silly.
In the end, I don't even understand why it's June's book. JOHNATHAN is the one with all the motive, information, connections, risks to take and family to lose.... SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER WARNING:
.
.
.
.
.
Imagine how much more EPIC this book would have been, if June didn't exist. If Johnathan were an only child, happy-go-lucky, raised by Reb and Law (believes Law to be his father), but wanders over to the neighbors' (Cal and Beth's) farm all the time to play with their dogs, and he's accepted and adored. It's not weird at all that he first goes over there to play, then to work. And as he gets older, he sympathizes with his neighbors, their fight against the big Tate farm that's polluting all the neighbors' land and water. Sullivan is NOT older, he's in the same grade as Johnathan, and Johnathan pretends to grill him about wanting to work for the Tates, make some more money, etc., but he's actually snooping around to build a case for Cal and Beth to sue the Tates. But Johnathan and Sullivan become REAL friends (maybe even more, and they have to keep their romance a secret because small town Iowa), and they grow cold feet over what to do with the dirt they've uncovered, because they don't want to hurt each other. MEANWHILE, Reb and Law are acting increasingly surly, Johnathan assumes it's because he's out all the time snooping, he starts to get worried that his parents saw him with Sullivan... One night, he's stealing himself up to go apologize and make nice, make plans to be with his parents for the 4th of July... when he sees his mom packing a suitcase. Caught in the act, Reb begs Johnathan not to say anything, even though Johnathan is not sure what he's seeing. Suddenly, he doesn't want to be here, he flees to Cal's farm. Cal seems a little squirrely, maybe asks the same question more than once by accident: How are you? What are you doing here? Your mom all right? And Johnathan gets a sinking feeling. Cal's 18 year old facade collapses, he delivers the bombshell: He's Johnathan's real dad, and Reb is leaving Law. Reeling, Johnathan flees again, goes to Ashley's 4th of July barbeque, and gets almost blackout drunk partying with the Tate brothers. He remembers going back to Cal's farm with them, but not what they did. Several hours later he wakes up, in the dark, on the property. Cal, Bath, and the property are all shot up. Maybe Johnathan witnessed who did it - maybe HE did something - but he can't remember. And trying to unlock the truth of what happened that night to clear his name is the bulk of the story. All the same themes of silent toxicity, but a tighter story, the plot being more relevant to the narrator and his central conflict.
All in all, as is, once you get to the end of June's story you don't particularly fall in love with June, or feel a desire to reread and solve the mystery from a new perspective.