An intriguing look at memories, make-believe, the power of stories and imagination, and the choice between living in a dream world by yourself or accepting help and rejoining the real world and the real people who love you. I think this would make an intriguing movie, as long as there were medical professionals involved in shoring up the details of realistic diagnosis and treatment.

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"You know when you read the back cover of a book and you get so into it, because the idea of the story is so awesome? And even before you've read it, you're super-excited just to get to spend time in that world with those people?"

That's how I felt looking at the cover of this book. I wanted to be in that world for a little while, hear the story of Sadie and George. And it surpassed all I thought I would experience. It's been a very long time since I've read a debut novel this good.

I adored Sadie. I connected with her on a level that doesn't happen often. And Henry was so cute. It's such a beautiful story about accidents and growing up, moving through and beyond trauma, asking for help, and being seen - really seen. It's the kind of book I wish I could've read in high school but I'm happy to have read at all. I cannot say enough lovely things about The Museum of Us!

I would recommend this to anyone who:
- has ever felt invisible
- knows the power and danger of excessive imagination
- is a fan of John Green
- has a pulse

Sadie's life hasn't been cookie-cutter. Homeschooled until middle school, Sadie grew up traveling with her parents who lived for cars, music, and her. When they are involved in a tragic accident, 11-year-old Sadie had to learn to live a new life. The problem she faces now is that 16-year-old Sadie has a secret that nobody can know about - not her parents, her best friend Lucie, or her boyfriend Henry. Another accident will expose Sadie's secret and have readers wondering where the lines between reality and fantasy are drawn.

DNF @ 30%

I wanted to love this book so much. The description is vague and mysterious, and the overall premise sounds like it's a deep tale loaded with important themes. But then I started reading and I disliked just about everything. I couldn't find the plot anywhere, there were so many Harry Potter references it felt like fan fiction, and I just didn't care about the characters. I probably could have kept going and tried a bit harder but I lost all motivation to. It's been over a month since I picked it up originally and I don't have time to keep going.

THIS BOOK IS THE MOST ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF MENTAL ILLNESS I HAVE READ IN SO LONG.

This book is literally everything to me and I would like to thank Tara Wilson Redd and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this. I loved every second of this because I have never connected with a novel so much as this. The concept behind the title makes sense and Sadie's struggles are relatable to a girl who has anxiety and has dealt with similar situations. I cannot express my love for this book more than I should.

THE MUSEUM OF US by Tara Wilson Redd is one of those books which I am definitely looking forward to discussing with other readers. The writing in this debut young adult novel is magical. I loved the first half of this book where readers meet Sadie and experience her fantastic imagination:
"George didn't sit with her in the library. Why would he, when there were pages and pages to explore? She followed him down into the depths of the catacombs of Paris, and to the top of the world's highest mountains. She sat alone, though she was never truly alone. After all, she wasn’t really there."

But about halfway through, the novel turns very dark with a surprising cutting incident and Sadie subsequently grapples with intense emotional pain as she eventually chooses between George in her fantasy world and her loyal support system including boyfriend Henry and best friend Lucie. Like All the Bright Places, THE MUSEUM OF US may be emotionally difficult to read in part, but it will prompt some important, reflective discussions. As Sadie muses, "you have to wonder, is it fate or could we have changed it? .... Life only goes one direction, and this moment, and the next moment, once they're in the past you can't change them...." "What happens to all those forgotten thoughts? If no one remembers something, did it even really happen?" "What happens to a thought when you are not thinking it?"

Tara Wilson Redd's THE MUSEUM OF US received a starred review from School Library Journal: "Readers will identify strongly with Sadie and her journey as she struggles to cope with trauma and let go of her secrets."

Wendy Lamb Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of The Museum of Us. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Rising high school senior Sadie Black loves her boyfriend Henry and her best friend Lucie, but she is harboring a secret love - George. When an accident reveals Sadie's hidden world, will the doctors be able to heal her mind along with her body?

The Museum of Us contains a view of mental illness from the perspective of the patient. Although Sadie is an unreliable narrator, her look on life - both real and imagined - is interesting. It just seems too easy, that Sadie could go through the process of returning to health and wellness at such a fast pace. Despite her unique issues, it does not seem realistic that Sadie would have been able to hide her secret for so long. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend The Museum of Us to other readers.

Title: The Museum of Us
Author: Tara Wilson Redd
Genre: YA
Rating: 4 out of 5

Sadie has a boyfriend she loves, Henry, who plays in a band and loves her even though she can’t understand why. Her best friend, Lucie, runs Cross Country and is a secret nerd, but still loves to hang out with Sadie. Then there’s George. George just gets her. They talk for hours. They go on adventures. They explore the world around them. Together, they are magic.

George is a secret. He’s imaginary. But when a car accident leaves Sadie calling out his name, she ends up in a hospital for people with issues like hers.

Life with George is more extraordinary than anything Sadie has experienced without him. But, while trying to keep her secret, she starts to yearn for something more, for something real. Can she give up George and the magical lives she leads with him?

At first, I wasn’t too sure about this book. I mean, daydreaming is one thing, but Sadie takes it to a whole other level. Her adventures with George are fantastic, but she just can’t see how great her real life is, too. I just didn’t get it at first, but then it all started to make sense, and I really felt for Sadie and all she’d been through. This is an exploration of mental illness from the inside—and it is very, very well done and vivid.

Tara Wilson Redd lives in Washington D.C. The Museum of Us is her debut novel.

(Galley provided by Random House Children’s/Wendy Lamb Books in exchange for an honest review.)

This one surprised me. It was a lot more intense than I thought it would be, and it kept being more intense than I thought it would be.

I wasn't sure how this was going to go in the beginning. I think I was just reading too fast, because I had no idea what was going on. I couldn't figure out whether her parents were alive or not, or how old she was, or a lot of other basics. That all sorted itself out when I slowed down a bit, though. There are more complicated things that are only put together at the end of the book, and I think those reveals were done quite well.

There is one thing that I have to bring up, with the disclaimer that this quote is from the ARC and might have been changed by the final copy. Next time I'm in a bookstore, I'm definitely going to check the final copy to see. At one point when Sadie is trying to figure out whether a person being discussed is who she has in mind, she asks the clarifying question: "Like, gym Nazi Mr. Rigley?" Casual Nazi comparisons are never okay. I highly doubt that Mr. Rigley is a literal neo-Nazi, and unless he is, the use of the term to describe him works to normalize the actions of some of the worst people to ever exist.

Overall, I think that this book handled complex and heavy subjects quite beautifully, and if you're looking for a different angle on a mental health book, this could be right up your alley.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review, "The Museum of Us"
by Tara Wilson Redd. A very entertaining and well written book from the YA genre.

I think most of us have had our daydreams but Sadie takes hers to extremes. Once it’s revealed why she began sinking into this alternate reality and who “George” is, it makes sense. Yet I ended the book not sure why she was still in need of all this. Her perfect real life boyfriend and best friend are loyal and true to her and she’s found her place in school. Her parents seem understanding as does Sadie’s coach.

And I also wasn’t sure about the psychiatric aspect of the book. Sure let’s get Sadie back into the real world but does this require medication or would delving into why Sadie felt the need to invent this world be sufficient? The book takes place over the course of two weeks which seemed fairly quick to wrap things up. There is a second patient we meet who gives another view of mental illnesses but her story seemed truncated as well. Most of the other characters are not as fleshed out as Sadie and remain two dimensional at best.

The writing is good but I feel that Sadie’s story deserved more long term attention. In a world that seems to thrust medication at mental health patients in place of discussions and dialog, I wonder at Sadie’s long term benefit from it. I would also have liked for the other characters besides George to be more than cardboard cutouts. C

Trigger warnings: depression, cutting, suicidal ideation

Everyone remembers daydreaming about their favorite shows or books, inserting themselves into the narrative and becoming an adventurer or spy or princess or Hogwarts student. As we get older, though, slowly the real world supersedes our daydreams. But what if we decided to never leave?

“The whole world started with George.”


We first meet Sadie in the aftermath of a car accident. It soon becomes clear that it’s not her physical injuries that are keeping her in the hospital, but what led to the crash, and who this mysterious George that she called out for is. The problem is – George isn’t real. He’s her partner in all her imaginary adventures, her first love, her true best friend. Now he’s in danger of being exposed to the outside world, and Sadie’s afraid that will cause her to lose him forever and force her to live in the real world. From the outside, Sadie has a near perfect life, even though most people consider her a bit strange since she has a tendency to get lost in her thoughts. She’s co-captain of her high school’s track team with her best friend, has a rock band boyfriend and has two loving and supportive parents. Over the course of her two weeks in the hospital, though, through flashbacks and her interactions with her friends and family, Sadie’s past is slowly revealed through bits and pieces, from her past adventures with George to the trauma that led her to retreat into her own mind.

“The second you uncap a pen, you’ve already lost. Secrets are con artists: they trick you into letting them out. I know better than to write the truth in a journal. Your mind is the only vault you can trust.
But can you even trust that?”


I think the mental health discussion was handled well. It didn’t feel too preachy or too voyeur-like, but, like the rest of the book, was raw and honest. I especially liked that at the end it was ultimately Sadie’s choice to let go of her inner world and it’s her actions that save her, not some magic pill or love interest. The book itself is haunting and heartbreaking, and like Sadie’s friends and parents, I felt both frustrated with and supportive of Sadie. I thought she was a very relatable character, and as bits of her life were revealed to use, I sympathized with why she’d want to keep her fantasies.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a young adult book that deals with mental illness and fantasy!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thank you very much to Netgalley, Random House Children's and Wendy Lamb Books for allowing me to read a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 🙏🏻❤️This book was released today and I do hope that readers of all ages will pick up a copy of it.

I do believe that this book ( my 42nd I've read this year) has been my biggest surprise yet, in a very good way! I have to admit that throughout the entire first half of the book I truly struggled to identify with the main character, Sadie Black. There were several references to both Harry Potter and chess in this book that I unfortunately did not get. I know, I know, I'm probably the only young adult reader that has not dabbled in either of these things, but every book has a wide audience that you aim to please -- and I wasn't really getting most of the citations made. I also feared that Sadie being only 16 may impact her relatability to me as well, since I'm 33. Some of her daydreams just seemed to be a bit TOO juvenile for me.

However, almost exactly half way through came this realization ," How many movies and books have I lost myself in just to get away from one more day of silence? ...Nothing in my life ever feels real." Suddenly, Sadie's thoughts were starting to hit close to home. I often find myself pouring all of my energy into book after book or binging tv series just to GET AWAY from real life, because everything in my life is just the opposite...it feels TOO real! That is when I realized that just because Sadie's struggles were not the same as mine, didn't mean that I could not sympathize with her story. It was then that I started flying through this book and I am so happy that I stuck around.

Sadie is clearly a depressed young girl, she consistently reiterates that every person is truly alone. She feels that creating these fantasies of George & special expeditions are the only form of control that she has on her life. They also help her to avoid reality. Her reality is a tragic accident where she witnessed something that she cannot cope with, it means listening to people tease her about being weird or crazy, she and her parents are constantly on the road or traveling and being home- schooled to begin with she probably feels she is a bit of an outcast. Then, another " accident" happens as she questions if she even wants to be in this world anymore. She states, " From what I know of being awake, I'd rather be asleep."

Sadie makes a complete 360 towards the end and goes from thinking that she is sitting with a bunch of people on a couch but still feeling alone against the world, into realizing that she has a very supportive team that wants to help her and be there for her.

This was a very enjoyable book, and I think that every single person can identify with at least SOME of Sadie's story, life isn't perfect, sometimes really terrible things can happen and we just aren't able to cope with them. Everyone deals with things differently.

This book also has quite a few comical moments when her Dad tells her it is illegal for children to order anything larger than a small size ice cream and also I chuckled a little to myself when Sadie compared her name to that of a golden retriever..,my dog's name is Sadie 😂😂

Well done! Loved it !

It's easy to live in dreams; reality can be difficult at times. That's why Sadie has George, the perfect partner in crime and best friend she could possibly ask for. But George is not real. when Sadie ends up in a car crash, she ends up in the pysch ward in the hospital. The doctors want to know: who is George? With her hidden life threatening to be exposed, Sadie must come to grips with the truth of her past - and whether or not she can bear to let George go.

Providing a unique take on mental illness, The Museum of Us takes a long look at the effects of trauma, the struggle to ask for and accept help, and the ways that coping methods can be taken too far. Although bombastic and meandering at times, the characters are well-developed, and the flashes between reality and fantasy are executed well. A good addition for public libraries looking to add books about mental illness to their collection.

Sadie has always been a daydreamer, but no one seemed to realize how deeply invested in her daydreams she had become. That is, not until she crashes her car into a tree and can only talk about George, the man who was with her all that day. George, with whom she's gone on adventures for years. George, who doesn't exist.

Now, Sadie is stuck in the hospital's psychiatric ward, terrified of talking about George and equally terrified of losing him.

I found Sadie's story extremely compelling, her adventures with George fun to read, and her troubles relatable even when I wished she were making different decisions. This is definitely a book I'll be handing to library patrons this summer.

This book was so good. It was so real and emotional, and I really appreciated that. It was so beautifully written, and it was not at all what I expected when I first opened the book. It was interesting to read because I, too, have been through similar experiences to Sadie. Some of the content was a little difficult to read though, which is something important to note. Some trigger warnings include self harm and mental illness.

The one thing I have to say is that the synopsis is a little bit off, so that should be changed.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I related to the characters so much. The ending left me a changed person, and this story is going to stay with me for many years.

I would highly recommend this book to others. It has so many lessons to teach.

I included this book in a roundup of literary fiction / contemporary issues novels for young adult and middle grade readers. I hope to add a full review in a few weeks.

I wish that this book was more true to the synopsis, or that the synopsis better explained the book. Either way, I don’t know that I would have been as interested in reading if I knew what this was about.

I’m usually a fan of books that explore mental illness, but this one didn’t resonate with me. I didn’t feel like I really connected with other characters. At first I thought that was because Sadie was so disconnected from her “real world” friends and family, but even George wasn’t developed. It didn’t help that the chapters changed time and point of view. I spent a lot of the book trying to figure out what happened where in the timeline. Even Harry Potter and Beatles references weren’t enough to save this for me.

The last quarter of the book was interesting, it it was too late by then for me to really connect to the story or characters. Again, if the synopsis was written in a way that expressed what the story was truly about, the right reader would be able to find this story and possibly really love it.

Thank you to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Museum of Us blew me away. I loved this book and fell in love with the characters. Such a great young adult.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. It want what I thought it would be, and it was hard for me to get into, because I just wasn't in the mood for it.