All the Truth That's In Me

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Judith can't speak. Ever since the horrifying trauma that left her best friend dead and Judith without a tongue, she's been a pariah in her community; even her own mother can't look her in the eye. When her community is attacked, Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence or recover her voice, even if what she has to say might change things forever.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

No one calls me by my name. No one calls me anything, save Darrel, who calls me Worm. Mother never really tried to stop him. When she calls me, it's "You, shuck these," "You, card that sack," "You, grease this down," "You, watch the tallow pot.""You. Keep still."The warmth I remember in her eyes is gone, replaced with iron. Father is long-since dead, and the daughter she remembers is dead to her. She buries the name with the memory.No one calls me by my name.Younger children do not know it.I remind myself each day at sunrise, lest one day I forget.Judith is my name. Excerpted from All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Berry's (The Trouble with Squids) first YA novel is both a dark mystery and a romance. Two years after Judith and her best friend Lottie were kidnapped, Judith suddenly returns alone. She is rejected by her remaining family members-her father died while she was gone-and most of the citizens of Roswell Station. Mutilated and unable to speak clearly, Judith still manages to help her childhood friend Lucas save the town from an attack, but that only initiates the true tension of the story. The author never identifies when the story takes place, but the setting is clearly a more distant past than the jacket copy reveals. Reader Kathleen McInerney masters the dual challenges of moving between Judith's damaged speaking voice and her highly developed inner thoughts and narrating a story that's written partly in fragments. The style is an often poetic rendering of young love and angst that transcends the vague time period. Verdict Highly recommended for readers age 12 and up.-Joyce Kessel, Villa Maria Coll., Buffalo (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Two years after her kidnapping, 18-year-old Judith returns to her small hometown of Roswell Station, maimed and incapable of speaking due to her mutilated tongue. She spends the ensuing years shunned by the townspeople, but when invaders threaten Roswell Station, she must decide if her secrets can be revealed to save her neighbors. Narrator McInerney delivers a solid performance in this audio edition. The story is not told chronologically and therefore McInerney must move back and forth through time, alternating her tone appropriately for scenes set before, during, and after Judith's kidnapping. The narrator also provides distinct character voices that are varied and appropriate. However, McInerney is at her best when rendering Judith's thoughts and vocalizing the character's inner frustration. Ages 12-up. A Viking hardcover. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 8 Up-Some things are better left unsaid-or so Judith thinks. Four years ago Judith and her best friend Lottie disappeared. Judith came back two years later but altered, part of her tongue had been cut off. Now, two years after her return, she still isn't at peace; her mother holds onto resentment, her childhood love is getting married, and others in her Puritan town shun her. Trouble is on the horizon as Homelanders, a vengeful group that tried to take over the town years ago, are set to arrive and Judith must make hard choices. Can she protect the ones she loves? This story is haunting, romantic, mysterious, and well written. As the story progresses, Judith shares bits of the past, allowing the reader to slowly gather information about what happened to Judith during those two years and eventually learn who killed Lottie. Kathleen McInferney reads the story using different tones for each character. Her voice for Judith is spot-on in the way she addresses both her internal voice and her speech impediment. Reluctant readers and avid ones will be clamoring for this title with enticing cover art and an original story (Viking, 2013). This is a definite purchase for audiobook collections.-Katie Llera, Bound Brook High School, NJ (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Like all things in this cunningly stylized novel, the setting is left undefined; a rough guess is mid-1800s America. The characters and plot, too, are mysteries in need of unfolding, and Berry's greatest accomplishment is jumbling the time line with confidence, thereby sprinkling every page with minor (or major) revelations. These trappings gild a not-that-unusual melodrama: 18-year-old Judith pines for Lucas, who has chosen another girl. Perhaps this is because Judith is mute, her tongue having been cut off by a madman who just happened to be Lucas' father. A few frustrating misunderstandings aside, the story gracefully incorporates everything from the right to education to the horrors of war to the freedom that comes along with acquiring language. What will stick in most readers' minds, though, is the first-person prose, which ranges from the unusually insightful (We were four people: the children we'd been, and grown strangers now) to the just plain pretty (Will her china face turn bronze beside you as you labor in your fields?). A strange but satisfying and relatively singular mix.--Kraus, Daniel Copyright 2010 Booklist

Horn Book Review

Berrys (The Amaranth Enchantment, rev. 5/09) novel is set in fictional Roswell Station, a village that in its appearance and claustrophobic atmosphere seems to resemble an early American colonial settlement. Bit by bit, readers gradually learn all the truth from eighteen-year-old narrator Judith, whose present-tense description of unfolding events, along with memories of the past, tells a harrowing tale. She speaks directly (though only in her head) to Lucas, the boy shes loved since childhood. Its her close friendship with Lucas that has helped her survive both a traumatic two-year captivity by a man crazy with grief and her equally painful return home to a town that seems to blame her for the event. Judith cant defend herself: her captor cut out half her tongue before releasing her. Berry keeps her readers on edge, tantalizing us with pieces of the puzzle right up until the gripping conclusion. Those who care for such things will appreciate the books names: Roswell connotes a place of conspiracy and controversy, cover-ups and hysteria; Judiths last name, Finch, is fitting (she loves to sing, then loses and recovers her voice); and Lucas, of course, is the light of her life. Readers racing through the storys murder mystery and thrilling romance may miss much of Berrys lovely, poetic writing; luckily, many will finish only to turn right back to the beginning, this time to savor a more leisurely paced, equally satisfying read. jennifer m. brabander (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Eighteen-year-old Judith Finch gradually reveals the horror of her two-year disappearance in a stunning historical murder mystery and romance. One summer four years ago, Judith Finch and her friend Lottie Pratt disappeared. After two years, only Judith returned. Lottie's naked body was found in the river, and Judith stumbled back on her own, her appearance shocking the town--not just because she had returned, but that her tongue had been cut out, and she can't tell anyone what happened to her. Illiterate, maimed, cursed, doomed to be an outsider but always and forever in love with Lucas Whiting, Judith finds a way to tell her story, saying, "I don't believe in miracles, but if the need is great, a girl might make her own miracle," and as her story unfolds, all the truth that's in her is revealed. Set in what seems to be early-18th-century North America, the story is told through the voice inside Judith's head--simple and poetic, full of hurt and yearning, and almost always directed toward Lucas in a haunting, mute second person. Every now and then, a novel comes along with such an original voice that readers slow down to savor the poetic prose. This is such a story. A tale of uncommon elegance, power and originality. (Historical thriller. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.