Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Penguin Young Readers Group/G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers. Ella and Hayley were best friends until Haley is killed in an accident. As Ella tries to navigate her feelings of guilt and grief she finds herself growing closer to Haley’s boyfriend Sawyer. As Ella and Sawyer’s relationship grows, Ella finds Haley’s diary and she begins to question all she thinks she knows about Sawyer and what Haley and Sawyer’s relationship truly was. Everything We Never Said was a fast paced thriller. Although it is listed as YA, I felt like some of the content was geared to a slightly older audience. I would definitely recommend checking the content warnings before reading. Although the plot twist became clear pretty early on, this was a quick and engaging read.

I was instantly drawn into this book so I’m going to break my review down into half and half, the good and the bad, while doing my best to be as respectful and honest as possible.

First off, THE GOOD:
The characters are interesting and likable. We don’t have to start out slowly and wind our way into a a plot line but are rather thrown into the deep end of this world, discovering who each character is as they deal with grief and loss on their own terms. The switch in points of view between Sawyer and Ella keeps this fresh and tense, because most people can only handle one person’s emotions being layered upon them so openly for a short amount of time, and the emotional impact of this book is raw and beautiful in many ways. The author is skilled and makes us feel the emotions of Ella, a best friend grieving for her closest companion , Hayley, who is suddenly gone in a horrific car wreck without even a body to mourn, just an open ended question and so much guilt and grief because she was drinking at a party and can’t remember what she did wrong that may have cost her friend her life. To make matters worse, her growing attraction to Hayley’s boyfriend Sawyer has her very mixed up. Fortunately a former childhood friend steps in, Seema, my favorite character, who sees the guilt in some ways but is an also an unbiased mind in the mix of turmoil.

On Sawyers side, his mother is a young woman who struggles to take care of her two children and has a lovely relationship with them but also is a good role model who encourages even tempers and accountability, and has an open mind to listen to her son and support him, but he feels a great deal of pressure from the secrets he is holding back about himself, his past, and his complicated feelings for Ella, about Hayley, and himself.

The plot moves along swiftly and has artistic and fluid descriptions of the emotions of the characters and their actions and reactions that are easy to follow and pull you in so far that they mislead you from solving the mystery until near the very end where is hits you in the face. Which is nice. It’s not predictable. And you care about how it resolves. This is a sign that the author not only cares about story, but the readers and their reactions. Giving them a quality engaging story that is worth the effort to read. A lot of love and time has gone into this book and it’s obvious.

That being said, half way through this book I was at a five star rating. Three quarters of the way I was down to four stars. By the end I felt frustrated and was down to three, so trying to be as unbiased as possible, here are the BAD points that stood out to me about this book. First off, I admit I am against abortion. Maybe that shouldn’t affect how I feel about a story, but it does and I apologize in advance for that. No spoilers, or at least not too much of one, I hope, because it occurs late in the story but one of the characters becomes pregnant. Based on her over all poor choices ( taking into account she is a teenager, and was being manipulated, she still made very poor choices for herself early in the plot before her life starts to go downhill, and while this can be blamed in part on her upbringing, no one seems to hold these choices against her at ALL, so where is the accountability? Yes, she is a victim, but also allowed much of her victimization and seeking out the relationship that created the pregnancy should have been addressed as a HUGE flaw in judgement on her part, but every gave her a pass because she suffered.) she finds herself trapped in a terrifying situation. Any young woman would be scared , would feel caught and confused and miserable, but the way this situation is written out made me almost quit the book. Seriously, if someone decides they are going to get an abortion and kill the baby, why would they care about drinking during the pregnancy? Drinking causes birth defects but how is that worse than KILLING the child outright? But this character is so PERFECT in everyone’s eyes that she can’t possibly do something so irresponsible as drink while pregnant and hurt her unborn child, even though she is desperately looking for a way to end its life. Again, I’m sorry for being biased but this annoyed me to no end. As did the note following the abortion about how easy it was. It was unnecessary and clearly pushing the opinion of the author that this was the right choice, no regrets, which is unrealistic and misleading to teens. Not all abortions are simple and I have yet to meet someone who had one that said it wasn’t traumatic in some way to them even if it was just the fear leading up to the operation. Combine that with how difficult and miserable they make Sawyers mother’s life who got pregnant even younger and choose NOT to have an abortion and the book feels like it should have “ This novel has a Planned Parenthood Seal of Support and Approval “ stamped on the beautiful cover destroying the art but also as a warning to anyone it might offend. I have friends that had children in their teens, they’re lives have been difficult but now they live better than most people I know and they never regretted it. The pushiness of agenda combined with the overall perfection of the characters just made me really draw away from all the good of book

That said, I have yet to meet a teenager who writes this well , and the way Hayley writes in her diary and the ways Sawyer and Ella think are all so…vivid and flowery they are hard to distinguish as distinct voices from each other. They don’t feel like TRUE teenagers. They feel like idealized teens who have flaws but those flaws are often overlooked by everyone around them. And their mistakes are all forgiven so quickly by each other and everyone else with little to no consequences. Even the way Sawyer thinks near the end when certain circumstances lead us to believe bad things about his character, he is almost too mysterious in his own head, not even honest with himself in an effort to hold off the big reveals.

The reveals at the end WERE surprisingly but it felt like there were no real clues, like certain villains did much too good a job hiding their instabilities from everyone in public while suddenly being so unstable behind the scenes. This includes our leading male who is a dream boat despite all the stress he’s going through until he suddenly starts to crack and then out of no where, he’s a completely different person in much need of therapy. Why exactly was he NOT in therapy anyway? Most states cover a therapist for children who suffer abuse and even before Hayley, his mom, being the kind caring woman she is, seems like she would have sought out help for him to deal with his traumatic past and stress. But instead he festers until he boils over then his mom puts all the blame on him instead of acknowledging he has been suffering and needed help a long time again with his anger management skills.. That’s not taking accountability either.

Sorry to be such a downer, it’s a good book, but it felt a lot like the Pretty Little Liars show my mother used to watch and never liked that or Gossip Girl. This has shades of both. So maybe it just wasn’t a good fit for me. It has a lot of important features and points that would help many teens deal with their lives, like inappropriate relationships, being groomed, abuse, anger management, teen sexuality, teen drinking, secrets that do more harm than good, invasion of privacy, the support of family, being loyal to your friends and not forgetting them, coming to terms with grief and remorse, and all of this is amazingly well done in a book that has a tense plot . So all due credit for all the great parts of this even if you never read this review or can’t get part my criticisms, I’m not trying to be nit picky on you or say your work isn’t awesome. It just bothered me personally on too many aspects to give it a full rating.

OH??? WTF???

That's it. That's my whole review. Didn't see that coming. The plot twist got me good.

I'm usually not one to jump into YA and High school type books because of the age. However, I devoured this book quickly once I actually got a chance to sit down and read it. The twists in this book had me enthralled fully. I love a good book with a great plot and twists. The romance was just the right amount, little spice but not a lot which is perfect. I will definitely be looking into more books by this author. This is my first ever read by her and I give it a 4 out of 5.

This story follows Ella who is struggling with the loss of her best friend Hayley at the beginning of her Senior Year. They were involved in a car accident months prior, and now Ella blames herself for the crash. Feeling bullied and very alone she ends up finding some comfort in Hayley's boyfriend, Sawyer. As their relationship turns into something more than just friends, Ella finds Hayley's diary and starts questioning everything she thought she knew about Sawyer, while still trying to piece together her memories of that fateful accident.

I found the story to be very predictable and had to suspend my reasoning on some occasions but still liked it enough to finish it.

First and foremost, I think Sloan Harlow incorporated some complex themes into this story very well! This book easily could have been poorly written and cringy, but this is not the case for Everything We Never Said. You need to look up trigger warnings before reading this, as there are quite a few (I don't want to give away any because they could be spoilors). I do give this a 5 star rating because I loved the main characters: Ella and Hayley and I like that the author had me questioning multiple characters motives which kept me on my toes. Although I gave it a 5 star rating for readability and enjoyability, I do have a few issues with this book. I would not classify this as a thriller, or at least not to other thrillers I typically read. I also have an issue with this being catergorized as YA. It does involve high schoolers, but the heavy topics are not appropriate for YA to read IMO. There are a few events or things that get brought up once and never again that didn't need to necessarily be mentioned, but those are easy to forget about. Overall, I enjoyed the book. Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of this book caught my attention immediately when it was labeled as a YA thriller type book. It almost sounded and gave off Pretty Little Liars vibes with its thriller notes but as I dove in further into the book, the teenage drama started to overpower the overall theme of it. I really enjoyed following along on the mystery of the friends background and diary and finding out information about her that the best-friend didn't know and how it was all piecing together. But once there were those typical teenage drama scenes, of not getting a text back within a class period, it was hard to get past a few of those points (maybe because I'm past that point in my life!).
Overall, the idea of the story as a whole is an interesting one! I think a couple of the major points could have been elaborated more on but not get wordy on the diary entries of things that might not be as prominent in the story.

Wow. Considering that I went into this not knowing what to expect, I must say I really enjoyed reading this. From start to finish this book had me hooked with the writing style and just the way the author carried me along as a reader the entire way. I won't say too much because I really think it's worth reading and experiencing for yourself.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe this is the author's debut novel and after reading it, I definitely look forward to reading more of her work.

What a dark and twisty book. The chemistry between Ella and Sawyer was incredible, definitely had me hooked. I liked how the twist was one that kept me guessing though I did land on the correct assumption just before the reveal. This book has a lot of important things to say about domestic violence. I’ll be recommending it to anyone who’s looking for a steamy read that’s not afraid to delve into some issues.

This was a DNF for me. I couldn’t get into it. I felt like the main character was just like “boo hoo feel bad for me” I couldn’t get into it.

Ella and Hayley get into a tragic car accident, where Ella is the only survivor, but Ella has no recollection of the entire day of the accident.

She's left to return to school for senior year without Hayley. How will she survive? Oh, by falling in love with her best friend's ex boyfriend, that's how.

But then she finds Hayley's diary, and it's clear that Sawyer, Hayley's bf at the time of her death, is harboring some seriously dark secrets.

Oh, I dunno...

I think the prose was well written, but the plotting here leaves something to be desired.

Here are some examples:

Hayley's use of the word "baby" when referring to Ella was quite condescending and awkward. She's a baby bird, so she's helpless? Ick.

We are told that, when Hayley was alive, Hayley, Ella, and Sawyer were together all of the time like three best friends. So, after Hayley's death, Sawyer and Ella don't talk at all ALL SUMMER? Unsure I believe that.

Then... they fall instantly in love. Sawyer's side is explained later (but gave me a little ick there too), but Ella's just like "oh, I know I shouldn't, but I want to so bad." Baby bird knows how to fly after all.

Ella was drinking and driving on the night the accident occurred. She gets in no trouble whatsoever, and everyone's like "it's not your fault." But... yes, yes it is. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The twist? Lots of red herrings throughout, but it's a no for me. 🙅🏻‍♀️ Without giving spoilers, it just didn't make sense to me.

And the other twist also had tons of plot hole questions. Like... is it even possible? 🤔

This is being compared to CoHo, but I think that's just because it's sorta dark romance. I don't think it reads like her stuff at all.

It did keep me interested and keep me guessing until the twist became obvious. I think this book will definitely find its audience. People will love the wild ride the end takes them on.

I was so excited at the inclusion of a school psychologist at the start of this book. And then I wasn't anymore. I'm just not a fan of dark academic romances, age gaps, etc. and I think I have read too many of a similar topic recently to really be objective.

This was also poorly written and at times felt icky to be reading as an adult. It is very Colleen Hoover-esque. Not for me, but I'm sure younger readers may enjoy it and not find it as predictable.

Trigger warning on this story as it does have some DV scenes.

I really enjoyed this book. At first it seemed that the story was about Ella who lost her best friend in an accident where she was the driver and is currently grieving. As you go further through the story you find there is a more nefarious plot as Ella slowly begins to regain her memories of the accident. I definitely did not see that twist coming. I would definitely read more books from this author. Great ya thriller book.

very good! i liked the diary and the mystery all unraveling. It kept me on the edge of my seat to keep reading.

4.5 stars

Synopsis: As Ella returns to school, she cannot stop blaming herself for the accident that killed her best friend, Hayley. She is flooded with constant reminders of Hayley, especially when Hayley's boyfriend Sawyer is around. When the school psychologist forms a grief counseling group to support the students impacted by Hayley's death, Ella and Sawyer begin to grow closer. Amidst their grief, they discover that there are more profound feelings brewing between them. Upon helping Hayley's mom pack up her belongings, Ella happens on Hayley's diary. She quickly learns that nothing she told Ella about Sawyer is true. Is he the sweet and attentive guy she sees, or does he have more dark and sinister qualities?

Thoughts: This was a totally bingy YA that I flew through in one day. It was exactly what I needed to get out of my reading slump. Although I had figured things out prior to the reveal, I still really enjoyed this one. I think that YA reads, especially those who love CoHo, will be obsessed. I particularly liked that we got both Ella and Sawyer's perspectives, in addition to Hayley's through her diary. It helped paint a more holistic picture of the story. There are some mature themes, so be cognizant of that-- I probably won't read this in an academic setting.

Read if you like
-Romantic suspense
-Colleen Hoover
-Multiple POVs
-Messy relationships

This was a murder mystery, a romance and a cautionary tale about teenage domestic violence all wrapped into one well written emotional page turner! Ella returns to the school feeling heartbroken and guilty after the death of her best friend. She believes she caused her death, and it seems so does everyone else, even though she can’t remember the night at all. When she begins to have some very intense feelings for her dead best friend’s boyfriend her guilt knows no bounds. When she finds Hayley’s diary and starts reading she opens up a whole knew world of questions and hurt. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think my students will too and I look forward to more from this author.

This book was amazing! I loved it! I recommend this book. It is a book with sensitive topics but done in a way that was respectful and made the story complete.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would and am very happy I took a chance on it! I absolutely love Ella and as a Filipina American I was excited to read about a female main character with the same culture. This was a great story, with great characters, and a twist I did not see coming! Definite must read!

Sloan Harlow's "Everything We Never Said" exceeded my expectations by far. It's a narrative rich in raw emotion, grappling with grief, tangled lies, and buried secrets. But as the layers unravel, one must question: are these secrets worth killing for?

Ella wrestles with overwhelming guilt following the tragic death of her best friend, Hayley. Haunted by the accident, she blames herself daily, yet crucial details evade her memory. A pivotal moment arises when Ella stumbles upon Hayley's journal while tidying her room. Hoping for solace, she delves into its pages, only to uncover a web of dark and twisted truths her friend had concealed. The revelation shatters the illusion of perfection, revealing a hidden reality.

Thanks to NetGalley, Sloan Harlow, and Penguin Group for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review.
The beginning half of this book was really fun but as it went on it became less believable that these things would happen. The end was also predictable and left me unsatisfied.