An interesting premise, in the end very flat and boring. Stupid characters, it was hard for me to connect with them,

Took me a while took to get a hang of the writing but reading more understanding what she was going through is hard. Losing her twin brother, dealing with grief but for her writing to her help make things better for her especially having her best friend by her side which she spill her feeling to because she likes both of them. Overall great story for anyone going through a lost of a family member.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I’m so sad to say this book simply wasn’t for me. The themes made it seem like something I would love—I mean, a story following a fat bi girl during a summer full of grief and love? I love that!!—but ultimately, I didn’t like the writing.

Another good read
Perfect book to curl up with and to get lost in
Will have you hooked from the first page
Thanks NetGalley

This book just isn't for me! I've picked it up and put it down a couple times now. I think I'll leave this on the back burner and am open to try it again at a different time. There 's just something about the writing that throws me off.

Told in short journal entires written toward the main character's brother who died from a drug overdose. Casey has to learn how to cope and navigate the world without her twin brother. Along with losing her brother, Casey deals with the loss of another family member, falling in love with not one, but two of her best friends, and graduation. Learning how to not be an "and" anymore and becoming "older" than her older twin brother are two of the issues that Casey must face.

I thought that the book was good, but there were many moments that dragged on. I think the book would've worked incredibly well as a partial journal entry/poems and partial prose.

Thank you NetGalley and Holiday House / Peachtree / Pixel+Ink, Peachtree Teen for the eARC.

Deeply telling tale of grief expressed through journal entries of the surviving twin. I thought thenlove triangle was unnecessary but overall effective tale.

Thank you to Holiday House / Peachtree / Pixel+Ink, Peachtree Teen, and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

A story of a teenager mourning the loss her twin and moving forward with life without him. Casey Jones must learn to navigate a life where he twin no longer exists. She must face high school graduation, the death of her grandfather and falling in love with both of her best friends. Through her journal entries we learn how Casey is or isn’t coping and Casey learns to let go of the past and move forward with the right now.

I personally am not a huge fan of journal style novels. I do like that this one is a way of healing and sharing with a lost loved one. It was just harder to hold my attention thus the neutral rating. Not a stellar story in my opinion but also not a horrible one. Would definitely read more from this author.

The diary format worked for me. It is an okay summer read but would have benefitted from the author having surfed or lived in 80s California like I did. The characters didn’t really pull me in, but I did care where it was going. When I reached the line, “forever and always,” I realized why.

I dnf -ed it the first time around because I'm a mood reader and I couldn't get on with reading it. But I reread it and I have to say it was really eye opening about today's society. I really enjoyed it, seeing what casey was going through and reading about her journey. It's definitely not my style but I loved it.

I’ll probably be in the minority for this one, but I just didn’t like it. The book is made up of journal entries to the protagonist’s dead brother, and I got bored of reading them, honestly. It was too much recollection and reflection and too little actual storyline. The romance was also terrible. It felt like the author couldn’t decide if this book was supposed to be about grief or a love triangle. I’m sure it’ll work for many other people.

2⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley/the publishers for the ARC copy of this book.

This was a really moving story about loss, grief and coping. Casey's character was very well written and believable of her age. The format of the book is in journal entries with the occasional poem. At times I thought this worked great but I struggled with the style when it came to flashbacks.

A good all round YA novel that deals with sensitive topics.

This was such a beautiful written story! I loved all the characters and found them to be very relatable. Would absolutely recommend reading this book but please always check the TW and stay safe :))

Due to personal reasons, I cannot finish Things I'll Never Say at this current time. I knew going in, that it would deal with some 'tough' topics. Which I'm usually completely fine with. But the cover makes it seem like their is going to be a better balance of story. I do like the unique journal entry format. And I do like the plot. And I would like to eventually return to it. But at the moment, I have to temporarily sit it down.


Thank you to Netgalley and Peachtree Teen for providing me with a review copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

There were so many parts of this book that hit me the chest. I could feel the grief and sadness in the pages. On the other hand, there were other parts that I didn’t like as much. 3.5 stars!

If you want a book focused on grief, it’s worth reading. If you don’t really care about the grief and just want to read about the relationship drama, this might not be for you. The relationship plot line was not very compelling to me so if you want a well done romance, I don’t believe this fits the bill.

This book consisted of journal entries all to her dead twin brother. I thought the author did a very good job telling a story through the journal entries. It felt very natural. Despite it being just journal entries it was still really engaging. I felt connected to Casey and the story of her life from the brief knowledge we got. I could feel Casey’s grief through the pages and it hurt me to imagine her losing her brother. Casey’s love for her brother is something I feel for mine, so it really hit close to home.

There were some beautifully powerful lines in this book! So many of them hit me hard. Some of the poems that were written were good and others I didn’t like as much.

I was more interested in her navigating her grief about her brother than the relationship between her best friends. Even the Scott and Kiley plot line was more interesting to me. I just didn’t care about either love interest. If I had to choose I’d pick Frankie for sure, but I would have enjoyed the book more if it focused just on going through the stages of grief. Ben didn’t seem to have any substance to his character other than Casey having a crush on him for a long time. He was very sweet to her and treated her well, but he didn’t have much of a personality.

Even though I said I didn’t care about the relationships, I would have liked to see the author build more on the open relationship conversation! You don’t see that very often in books, so it was really interesting to see how it would play out. It was only mentioned in the end.

I would love to know how everything plays out. It was an open ended book. It wrapped up on the plot line with Sammy for the most part, but there were still lots of questions that I want answered on what the future holds! Maybe that is the point; that you don’t know what life will bring.

I think it is worth a read, there were just some things I didn’t like as much.

I like that the book was written through letters, I have not rad many books like that, so that was nice,

Something I have noticed is that I do not love when we are just told the main character likes someone, I have to be there and start liking the person with the main character, but that is a personal problem. I also did not feel like I got attached to the characters.

But otherwise, it was a nice book about grief and how to move on when you have lost someone important

I flewwww through this book and I loved every second of it. I was not expecting the format to be all letters and poems and I was pleasantly surprised! I think this is a fabulous and important book that is worth the read. I did not love the cover and almost didn't pick it up because of that but I am glad I didn't judge this book by its cover!

Thanks NetGalley!

I enjoyed this book, a lovely queer coming of age story that was beautifully written. I just think it needs a better cover

Beautiful, powerful, with meaningful prose for reflection, and wonderful rep. This has a bit of it all if you want something to read that will make you pause to reflect. Highly recommended!