I really thought that this book was right up my alley and I am sorry that I was unable to give it a positive review.. The writing & organization did not help me enjoy the book and I think it may have just been a book where I enjoyed the premise more than the actual story.

I think the points made and the topics covered in the story are important. I also think that the author (at least from what I read) did do a good job with the point of view of a teen who is living in a situation after her friend had passed away in a shooting, dealing with racism, and other important topics. These are good topics to cover in a YA book and I commend the author for doing so and for doing so pretty realistically from what I can tell.

I don't think this is a bad book at all and I think everyone should give it a chance. However, for me at least, I just ended up skimming a lot of it rather than wanting to read it all the way through. It wasn't grabbing my attention like I wanted and I am sorry to say that. I may give it another chance someday, but for right now I don't think I will be able to give it as great of a review as I wanted.

NoNieqa Ramos does it again!

Disturbed Girl's Dictionary was one of my top books last year and this is even better. A Puerto Rican girl named Verdad, reeling from the death of her best friend, finds her life getting a lot more complicated once she meets the mysterious and adorable Danny (gender unknown). As she grows closer to Danny, she learns to re-examine her biases about love, sexuality, gender, and even race and racism.

I feel like we rarely see a teenager figuring certain stuff out in YA. They usually start out woke to racial issues, like Starr in Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give. Here, though -- we get to see Verdad unlearn toxic things and grow into a much more mature, more knowledgable human.

I especially loved Verdad's complicated relationship with her heritage. As a fellow Puerto Rican who can't speak much Spanish -- I feel you girl. Also, the representation of a young queer group of friends is the most accurate I've seen probably ever. Everything felt believable.

So, 10 out of 10. Can't wait to see what Ramos does next!

The Truth Is by NoNieqa Ramos
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📚 The story of Verdad, a questioning teen who falls for a transgendered classmate, while coping with PTSD & depression after her best friend's death, and having to deal with not only an absent father, but also a mother who does not approve/accept what Verdad is uncovering about her sexuality, which ultimately leads to Verdad finding solace in a group of misfit teens who happen to also be outcasts not only from society, but from their homes as well. Phew! Try saying THAT run-on sentence three times fast! There is SO much going on in the life of this young girl that as soon as you start reading, there is no looking back.
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📚 I LOVED Verdad's voice. Her story is told in first person and so much of what she said and how she said it, is perfectly reminiscent of the teens of today. She is honest, sarcastic, insecure, humorous, strong and intelligent. She is going through an extremely difficult point in her life and it shows. I could FEEL her anxiety through her words and was cheering for her the whole time. Just hoping, wishing, and praying this girl could catch a break!
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📚 Verdad's references to literature throughout the book were probably one of my favorite details. ❤️

I liked this book, but also felt like it didn't give many of the issues the depth they deserved, meaning one or two issues could have been handled but it tried to do everything in one book and so felt like it was a teaching tool more than a moving story. so less would have been a lot more for me. we did watch her grow and change and come to more acceptance of herself

🗣 B O O K R E V I E W 🗣

Thank you #netgalley, Lerner Publishing Group and author Nonieqa Ramos for an #arc ebook copy.

TITLE: The Truth Is

PUB Date: Sept 3, 2019

THOUGHTS: Nonieqa Ramos gives us a very poignant story about Verdad dela Reyna, a brave heroine, forced to face heavy issues - concurrent to what teens are currently facing today. The writing uses the vernacular of the young adult audience - through the use of hashtags, tag-handles, text conversations, all within the social media realm. This is a story of love and exploration, sexuality and sexual orientation, single home life and homelessness, mental health and mental strength. The story intertwines beautifully the power of acceptance, forgiveness and love.
Additionally, I love how this book touches on the LGBTQ issues and the challenges of how teens manage the complexities of daily life.

Rating 4.5/5

I liked this book overall, especially the LGBTQ characters. I loved that Verdad was so open to Danny and his friends, she asked pronouns and realized that she liked Danny, no matter his biology or gender identity. Seeing these kids that have been pushed out of their family's lives because of who they are was sad, but also very real. So many issues were discussed in this book, which I liked, but I think it was a bit much. Not only LGBTQ, but also family drama, what it's like to be a POC, police brutality, and mass shootings. It was a little overwhelming. I do appreciate this book and I liked that it seemed very real, like the author has been there and not imagining it.

This is an incredible book. All of the characters seem so painfully real. The story is at times painful to read because of it's realness but it's so worth it. I loved it so much.

I loved this book. I was a realistic story of queer multicultural family and love and how wonderful and beautiful and complicated it all is. I felt it was relatable no matter how you identify or who you love. It's a story of first love, loss, family, mental illness, acceptance, self-discovery and forgiveness. I highly recommend it for everyone.
I was given a free copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I rounded up to 4 stars even though this really was a 3.5 for me. I didn't want to round down to a 3 though only because I loved the message and the story!

The Story of Verdad, wow where to begin. Verdad deals with homophobia but not the kind you think. She deals with more of a internal homophobia of where she is afraid of her sexuality. She also has a tough family to deal with and there are a lot of high expectations of her.

While I loved the story, I won't like that this is a very VERY quick read with only 272 pages and I felt like NoNieqa rushed herself with telling Verdad's story which made the book a tiny bit lacking for me though. I would be willing to read a longer novel to dive more into some of the characters also.l

Irregardless, this is a great book that deals with emotions, sexuality, and other hard hitting topics. I'm actually having my 13 year old read the book as well.

Thank you again!

This phenomenal story expertly tackles many issues: gun violence, homophobia, gender identity. But at the heart of it is Verdad, who is learning who she is both in terms of her culture and her sexuality. The reading list providing at the end of the book is fantastic and the discussion questions will prompt readers to further explore the issues highlighted in the story. I strongly recommend this fantastic book.

#TheTruthIs #NetGalley
A realistic and edgy read. The author uses mental health, LGBT, homelessness to create a novel filled with the realities that a great deal of teens face today. The main characters have great chemistry on the page and the story pulls hard at your heart strings because many young people have these challenges in their lives.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the E-Arc copy of this novel.

The Truth Is is such a great book. You can’t help but feel for Verdad as she tries to make sense in the complex issues of race, gender identity, belonging, sexuality, and sexual orientation, all white dealing with the violent death of her best friend. Ramos’s writing is raw and beautiful, and occasionally confusing, but that’s ok, because so are the things in Verdad’s head. I will definitely be recommending this book to others and checking out the author’s other work.

The story of Verdad is a story that could be labeled by some as overzealous because it deals with so many heavy topics, including gun violence, transphobia and homophobia, parental estrangement, gender and sexual identity, and racism. When you see that weighty list and the short number of pages you may think that this story can’t possibly fit it all in, but it does! To say that the book deals with too much would be to devalue the struggle so many of today’s teenagers are dealing with. This layering of experiences, inexperience, and constant change is the way that life happens and to see it reflected so well in writing is refreshing.

The writing itself is authentic, full of language switching and slang as well as the vernacular of a Puerto Rican teenager telling her story. One of the bravest things in the novel is Verdad’s ability to see flaws within her own way of thinking, recognize her own learned racism, and try to better once she learns better. It is nice to see a teenager who doesn’t have it all figured out, and can realize that about herself. This book is short, and perhaps because of that the ending does wrap up a bit quickly and neatly. However, after delving so deeply into the lives of many it might be necessary to summarize their next steps because otherwise it would be too difficult to find a way to end the story.

I think this book might be considered taboo in some schools, but would be a wonderful piece of literature to expose students to in order to demonstrate that their authentic voice matters and to give some of them a chance to see themselves in writing for the first time.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy. I will be posting my review closer to the release date!

Review:

What I Liked:

Writing Style. This is my first NoNieqa Ramos novel and certainly not my last. I grew to really like her writing style, it is extremely poetic and lyrical.

Hard Topics. NoNieqa Ramos brings up a lot of sensitive topics that we need to talk about in novels. The discussion and representation of grief within the main story were beautifully done


Romance. It takes a lot for me to enjoy romance because I'm picky about the love interest. But this short under 300 paged novel had a great romance and love interest. I was surprised how much this novel is able to tackle with such a short page length.

What I Disliked:

I took me a while to get used to the writing style and format. However, once I did I flew through the novel and connected with the main character.

I recommend checking out this well-written YA Contemporary novel that tackles hard topics.

Rating:

4.5 Stars Out of 5 Stars

Couldn’t get it to download. So really nothing to say because I couldn’t read it. Not able to download.

This novel serves an underexplored market, and also shows many of the issues that trans students, and the people who care for them, face.

Honestly, I quite enjoyed this. It did take awhile for me to get into the story because the writing/format was kind of a bit much for me. For example, the way the people were labeled or referred to by their appearance kind of annoyed me (i.e. White Girl 1, White Girl 3, etc.) because it was confusing. I understand there was a reason for it because Verdad never had a reason to learn their names, but it still left me confused. When I eventually was able to get into the story, it was an interesting/entertaining read.

This book deals with many sensitive topics that should be explored more in books, such as mental health, grief, homophobia, and in general teens from broken backgrounds. Verdad had experienced so much in the duration of the book, which was reflected in her living situation as she started from being with her mom, to her dad, and eventually to her aunt. I also like how the story was not heavily focused on Blanca's death. Yes, it heavily affected Verdad, but her presence was never overpowering. I also like the new people that enter Verdad's life, namely Danny and his friends, because they bring a breath of fresh air to her life.

The romance overall was very cute. It wasn't insta-love, but the progression was pretty quick, but I didn't mind because I really liked Verdad and Danny because they were really cute together. They melded well together, were understanding, and communicated well with one another. Overall, this story includes many important topics with a cute romance.

There were a lot of avenues and topics that were explored through the eyes of a personable main character. All of which were in a realistic manner.
The plot was paced in a way that made me want to keep reading.