Living Room - Stephanie's Review of WE'LL NEVER BE APART by Emiko Jean

Title: We'll Never Be Apart
Author: Emiko Jean
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 10/6/2015

Murder. 

Fire. 

Revenge. 

That’s all seventeen-year-old Alice Monroe thinks about. Committed to a mental ward at Savage Isle, Alice is haunted by memories of the fire that killed her boyfriend, Jason. A blaze her twin sister Cellie set. But when Chase, a mysterious, charismatic patient, agrees to help her seek vengeance, Alice begins to rethink everything. Writing out the story of her troubled past in a journal, she must confront hidden truths.

Is the one person she trusts only telling her half the story? Nothing is as it seems in this edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller from the debut author Emiko Jean.

Hi, I’m Emiko.

When I am not writing, I am reading. Most of my friends are imaginary. Before I became a writer I was an entomologist, a candle maker, a florist and most recently a teacher. I live in Washington (with my husband and very large dog) and love the rain.

My debut novel, WE’LL NEVER BE APART, was inspired by my work with children in foster care, and will be published by HMH Books for Young Readers Oct 6, 2015. I am represented by Erin Harris at Folio Literary Management.

Alice Monroe is in a mental ward called Savage Isle. Besides being sedated every day and forced to attend group therapy, all she wants is revenge on her twin sister Cellie, for setting fire to a barn that killed Alice’s boyfriend, Jason. In the Psych ward, Alice is determined to get to the highly restricted area so she can finally kill her sister, who’s been tormenting her since they were little. When she meets the mysterious boy named Chase, he promises to help her do just that. Until one night she realizes that Cellie might just be trying to do the same thing to her.

Told in chapters occurring in the present, alternating with Alice’s fascinating journal entries detailing events from their childhood- from how the girl’s spent a week in a house alone with their dead grandfather at six years old, to the grim foster situations they’d been placed in.

Emiko Jean’s writing is beautifully poetic, heartbreaking, and sinister all at once. There is a very cool twist toward the end, which I did not figure out until it actually happens, and the author does a great job of keeping the reader in suspense for the entirety of the book. I also love the way the twist was handled- realistically, and with sensitivity.

 My favorite parts were Alice’s journal entries. You get a peek at two little girls, one very damaged and on the border of deranged, and the other just trying to hold on to some sense of normalcy as they grow into teens. I loved this book and could not put it down. This is a little creepy, a little crazy and a lot awesome. Perfect for this time of year.

5 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this novel.

Tegan and Sara - Living Room