Book Review: This Much Is True by Katherine Owen

NOTE: I received this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! This must be the longest contemporary novel I have ever read. Goodreads says 432 pages, but I'm seriously thinking more like double that. Why? It took me three days to finish it, and that's some pretty hard reading done too. It was long, it was full of drama, it was one cracking soap opera on paper. I was barely half way through when I was begging for things to move faster.

Now don't get me wrong, this is a very good read. It's full of lessons that any adolescent should learn (hopefully NOT the hard way), and it's also well written. The story flows great and makes you want to turn the pages.

But.

The length of it... Gosh, it reminds me of the Game of Thrones novels. It just goes on and on and on!! I firmly believe that if it was split into a trilogy, with each part being a separate novel, it would've been much better. The way it is now, it just completely freaked me out. I was pressing the 'next' button on my Kindle, but the percentage would stay the same for-smucking-ever! By the time I actually finished it, I was going on autopilot, just wishing to get through it and be done.

Once I was done with it, I was glad it turned out to be a novel worth reading, because seriously? Spending so much time on a bad novel? Gah! I might've gotten the urge to bang my head somewhere hard.

Anyway, so let's see what This Much is True was like. Besides long, that is.

Firstly, it was full of drama. Lots and lots of it, which sort of reminded me of The Bold and The Beautiful. Thankfully, it didn't span over decades, so that was a plus. Two years I can handle. So, the drama. Well, it starts out with the sudden death (via car crash) of Tally's twin sister, Holly. Tally is depressed, she's not herself. Instead, she's trying to fill Holly's empty shoes. But she can't, and thanks to her bff Marla, she finally comes to her senses. Then hot baseball player Lincoln Presley enters the picture and Tally is completely swept off her feet. Except, they cannot be together. Not now and not in the future two years. Because she's only 17 and if ever that little detail slipped in the press, Lincoln's budding star career will be over before it could even begin.

What? That's not enough drama? Gosh, there's more! Much much more, but if I were to disclose anymore of it, you'd get all the spoilers, and none of the fun/hair-pulling that this book brings along. So... just take my words for the truth and let's move on, okay?

Secondly, the characters were incredibly realistic. They were silly, even stupid at times. They were loving and caring and driven. They were up for the challenge to be together, but for the sake of each other had to move on separately. They were ruled by emotions, or whatever drove them at a certain moment. Sometimes a career was more important than anything else, sometimes not.

Tally had me almost screaming out loud so many times I can't even count them. The girl was NOT stupid, but she acted it and I swear I would've strangled her if I were her friend. She made so many stupid mistakes for the sake of Lincoln, and I do understand her motives - after all, she loved him. But man! She could've lived better! She could've made more sophisticated choices. Especially concerning Rob, who - unlike Tally - I ended up despising. The bastard was such a user/loser/whatever.

Lincoln stroke me as the wise kind of a guy. The guy who cared for a girl, instead of trying to play her. He even wanted to do the right thing with Nika, which simply disgusted me. That girl was such an obvious viper/leech, I had no idea how anyone missed to see it. Anyway, Linc's problem was that he was too trusting of what people told him to do. Gosh, I don't think he should've ever listened to his manager to drop Tally in the beginning, at all! That stupid poor decision made the wheel roll in the direction of sorrow and heartbreak for the rest of the novel! I did love his character though. He had substance, depth, a sense of reality.

Rob and Nika disgusted me almost the same way. Their betrayals were awful in completely different ways, but they still hurt.

And Marla? Thank heavens for Marla. That girl... should win the Oscar for best-friend-through-any-possible-bad-situation role!

You got curious? Go grab the book. It's lengthy, but it's worth it.

My rating: 4/5 stars (because of the length)