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#Giveaway Review UNDERNEATH EVERYTHING by Marcy Beller Paul @therealmbeller @HarperTeen

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I received this book at no cost from the publisher

#Giveaway Review UNDERNEATH EVERYTHING by Marcy Beller Paul @therealmbeller @HarperTeenUnderneath Everything by Marcy Beller Paul
Published by Balzer + Bray on October 27th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
four-stars

Mattie shouldn’t be at the bonfire. She should be finding new maps for her collection, hanging out with Kris, and steering clear of almost everyone else, especially Jolene. After all, Mattie and Kris dropped off the social scene the summer after sophomore year for a reason.
But now Mattie is a senior, and she’s sick of missing things. So here she is.
And there’s Jolene: Beautiful. Captivating. Just like the stories she wove. Mattie would know; she used to star in them. She and Jolene were best friends. Mattie has the scar on her palm to prove it, and Jolene has everything else, including Hudson.
But when Mattie runs into Hudson and gets a glimpse of what could have been, she decides to take it all back: the boyfriend, the friends, the life she was supposed to live. Problem is, Mattie can’t figure out where Jolene ends and she begins.
Because there’s something Mattie hasn’t told anyone—she walked away from Jolene over a year ago, but she never really left.
Poignant and provocative, Marcy Beller Paul’s debut novel tells the story of an intoxicating—and toxic—relationship that blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy, love and loyalty, friendship and obsession.

Underneath Everything
by Marcy Beller Paul
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Release Date: October 27th 2015

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, LGBT, Realistic Fiction

Synopsis:

Mattie shouldn’t be at the bonfire. She should be finding new maps for her collection, hanging out with Kris, and steering clear of almost everyone else, especially Jolene. After all, Mattie and Kris dropped off the social scene the summer after sophomore year for a reason.
But now Mattie is a senior, and she’s sick of missing things. So here she is.
And there’s Jolene: Beautiful. Captivating. Just like the stories she wove. Mattie would know; she used to star in them. She and Jolene were best friends. Mattie has the scar on her palm to prove it, and Jolene has everything else, including Hudson.
But when Mattie runs into Hudson and gets a glimpse of what could have been, she decides to take it all back: the boyfriend, the friends, the life she was supposed to live. Problem is, Mattie can’t figure out where Jolene ends and she begins.
Because there’s something Mattie hasn’t told anyone—she walked away from Jolene over a year ago, but she never really left.

Poignant and provocative, Marcy Beller Paul’s debut novel tells the story of an intoxicating—and toxic—relationship that blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy, love and loyalty, friendship and obsession.

Mattie has pulled away from all of her friends, except Kris and her maps which she is obsessed with.  It used to be her, Bella, Jolene and Kris as besties but things got strange and Jolene ended up with Hudson, Mattie’s boyfriend from her popular days.  Jolene doesn’t seem to have any supervision and plays emotional and physical games within her group of friends.  It all takes a surprising twist by the end of the book when you find out exactly what happens between this group of friends.
This starts out as a typical outsider teen book then gets weird fast with short flashbacks to what happened between Jolene and Mattie.  I had so many questions while reading this and I am not sure everything was answered.  I was left wondering about their relationship, whether it was a twisted romance or just Jolene playing out some psycho game with her friends.  I was kept wondering if Jolene truly had some power over them but that question is answered by the end.
I thought this was a deep, dark book that was a page turner even though it made me uncomfortable.  I was really convinced that the emotion distess that these characters all experience were just imagined but in the end it all played out true.  Overall, a creepy read with sexual situations, alchol and drug use with a bit of experimenting by Mattie.  I just hope they all find a bit of peace in the future.  Beautifully written.
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Marcy Beller Paul is a young adult author, former editor, and full-time mom who still has all the notes she passed in seventh grade (and knows how to fold them).

She graduated from Harvard University and lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children. Underneath Everything will be published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins, in Fall 2015. It is her first novel.

GIVEAWAY:

Prize: Win a signed first edition of Underneath Everything by Marcy Paul (US ONLY)

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four-stars

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Comments

  1. This sounds like something I might be watching on Lifetime . It does sound like it would make one uncomfortable at times but life does that, especially for teens. I’d love to read it.

You'd have to have, like, a lentil for a soul to hate wiener dogs. ~Zuzana from The Daughter of Smoke & Bones by Laini Taylor