Stevie‘s review of The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr
Young Adult Fiction published by Penguin Books Ltd 11 Jan 18
I loved Emily Barr’s first foray into Young Adult fiction, The One Memory of Flora Banks, with its quirky unreliable narrator. So I quickly snapped up the author’s next novel in the same genre when I saw it was available to review. This time our narrator is more honest with herself than she is with those around her, although it soon becomes apparent that the adults in her life are keeping secrets from her as well: secrets that will cause Ella’s parents to spirit her away from school and out of the UK, and will eventually lead to Ella herself leaving all that is familiar from both her old life and the new one they are trying to make and hiding as far from the adults in her life as she is able to get.
Ella is an only child, who lives a privileged life in Kent with her doting parents; she’s studying for her A’ Levels at a private girls school and spends all her free time with her two best friends. Underneath her calm exterior, however, Ella has anger management issues, from which she separates herself by referring to her moments of rage as ‘Bella’ – short for ‘Bad Ella’ – and concealing her actions as ‘Bella’ from all of those around her. Ella’s mother is somewhat overprotective, giving up her career after Ella’s birth in order to ensure that her daughter never lacks attention. It soon becomes apparent that there’s something odd going on in the family, but the reality only reveals itself slowly to both Ella and the reader.
The first unusual event, although it seems innocuous at the time, is the disappearance and later reappearance of Ella’s mobile phone, and possibly also that of her mother’s; although we never learn if what Ella’s told of this mystery is entirely accurate. Soon after, Ella finds herself in trouble at school and is summoned to the head’s office; not for punishment, as she assumes, but to be told that her parents are taking her out of the country due to circumstances beyond their control. Ella is suspicious but has no choice other than to follow along with the events that are unfolding. The family travels to Rio de Janeiro – a place Ella has always wanted to visit – and once there the truth of Ella’s background is revealed, as well as the reason they had to flee.
Ella is unable to cope with this sudden onslaught of information, much of it seeming to confirm her belief that she’s not a good person, and makes several attempts to get away from her parents – accompanied at times by the various older teens and gap-year students she meets along the way – until she finally ends up lost on the streets in one of the favelas she was warned not to venture into alone. Fortunately Ella is helped this time by the locals as well as by travellers, eventually finding sanctuary, as well as a new sense of purpose, in a charity project funded by donations from volunteer ‘workers.’
I loved this book. Ella wasn’t always likable, but she was constantly fascinating. The chapter headings were intriguing, counting down to some unknowable tragedy, which served, when it happened, to bring closure for some of those involved in Ella’s life and helped to form the continuing development of others. I shall continue to read anything new the author creates in this genre and try to find time to explore her books for an older audience while waiting for her next Young Adult release.
Grade: A
Summary:
Ella Black seems to live the life most other seventeen-year-olds would kill for . . .
Until 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 through their things.
And realises her life has been a lie.
Her mother and father aren’t hers at all. Unable to comprehend the truth, Ella runs away, to the one place they’ll never think to look – the favelas.
But there she learns a terrible secret – the truth about her real parents and their past. And the truth about a mother, desperate for a daughter taken from her seventeen years ago…
No excerpt available.
