Member Reviews
Enyoyed reading Everything We never Said but I felt like I had read this sometime in the past. Possibly similar to another story but I seem to be able to predict the story and characters. Still a good read and I recommend for high school and up since it has some sexy parts.
"Everything We Never Said" is a must-read for YA fans. From the outside Ella appears to be a messy friend, but as the story unfolds her true character shines through, revealing her resilience and depth. Despite tackling heavy topics, the book maintains a compelling pace, keeping readers engaged until the very end. The plot twist in the conclusion is both surprising and satisfying.
3-3.25 stars!!
This is a YA novel about Ella and Sawyer, and of course Hayley! The book had alternating chapters from each of them (Ella’s in the form of a diary). I felt like it could have used a bit of a warning, but realized that not knowing was part of the suspense of the story!
The book was very suspenseful indeed…I kept reading with a sense of foreboding! It was very sad to read at times with glimpses of compassion & hope intermingled!
Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for a copy of the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
This seems like a good YA option for a thriller with some romance. I would definitely recommend this to Teens who are interested in that genre. It felt like less mystery and more romance to me, at least for that age group. I thought the twist was unexpected, and didn't see it coming in the first half.
Wow!!! This book was an amazing, emotional read. The twist at the end was mind blowing!
After Ella loses her best friend, Hayley, in a car accident, she's done nothing for the past 4 months but live with the guilt that she was responsible for it. Hayley's boyfriend, Sawyer, who was once a close friend of hers, can barely look at her. When the school psychologist arranges a grief group of Hayley's friends, Sawyer becomes Ella's biggest supporter and protector.
They become closer and eventually start dating each other. When Hayley's mom asks Ella to pack up her room for her, Ella finds Hayley's diary hidden under her mattress. Ella takes it home with her and swears not to read it; but eventually she does. That's when she starts to see the same red flags in Sawyer that Hayley's been writing about. His strange mood swings and his quick temper. Ella starts to get scared. With the lack of support she's not getting at home, Ella starts talking to the school psychologist instead.
But when she realizes that she got the wrong person in trouble, the truth finally comes out. Only it shocks Ella to the core.
A must read!
Teenagers can be polarizing, dramatic and at the same time incredibly selfless if the moment is right. Ella’s love for her best friend Hayley, is deep. She loves her, appreciates Hayley’s advice and counsel They have big plans for the future and along with Sawyer, they are living a great teenage life. A high school party ends in a car wreck, Hayley is gone and Emma is holding the guilt of the accident while trying to live her life without her best friend and conflicted about her attraction to Sawyer, who was Hayley’s boyfriend. How do you move forward with life when it was always intertwined with another who you can’t make those plans with? Facts are coming to light that makes her question what was really going on with Hayley and she’s discovering you can’t know everything about your best friend and maybe even yourself.
This draws you in. At first, it gave me 13 reasons why vibes with reading the diary entries... not as twisted but still twisted in its own way. Filled with secrets, twists, uncovered memories, and love/friendship.
I can't pass up a dark, romantic thriller! This book had everything I love about this genre—tension, stakes, and plot twists. In terms of characters, I loved having the two perspectives of Ella and Sawyer. Even more, the diary entries from Hayley were a great way for us to get to know her as well, which heightened the backstory. I also like the pacing of this novel, which delivered very satisfying twists in the second half. Great read!
Big thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for the ARC!
This book is a darker romantic suspense in YA form! It’s an easy read despite the heavy topics, and the plot was simple, yet great. This read is everything you’d expect from a well done YA novel, and our characters were all pretty well done.
Going in, please be aware that the romance does stand out more than anything, but it’s NOT a bad thing. I think if your expectations are right, you’ll go into this book and get out everything you wanted.
An amazing read in an always amazing genre.
I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers but my main issue is unfortunately at best a partial spoiler.
I really only have one trigger (thankfully does NOT occur in Everything We Never Said) but I really dislike the inappropriate relationships between adult and minor. It’s not a trigger for me but I really dislike reading or watching it on tv. I had a feeling early on that would be a thing and I was unfortunately right.
Other than that I think the twists were fairly predictable but besides the inappropriate relationship I enjoyed not falling into Harlow’s traps.
TWS: death, grief, domestic abuse, alcoholism
ARC provided by Penguin Teen (thanks!) Ella is starting senior year of high school after the death of her best friend, Hayley. As she deals with her grief, she gets closer to Hayley’s ex-boyfriend, Sawyer, and realizes that everything, including Hayley’s death, is not as straightforward as it seems.
This book was entertaining and had me hooked, so much so that I read it within a day. It was a quick, easy read. I liked the characters, especially Hayley, and liked that the book switched between POVs. The pacing really worked for me.
However, I need to take two stars off for the writing, which was either cringey or unnecessarily flowery at different points of the book. Also, Ella just forgave Sawyer for all of the shit he did?? He was a creep too.
I literally just closed this book, and I already know that EVERYTHING WE NEVER SAID by Sloan Harlow is a book that will stay on my mind. Going off the taglines on the front and back covers, “Love makes us do bad things” and “What you don’t know can hurt you. . .” and the book being a dark, romantic thriller perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover and Laura Nowlin, I expected a YA book along of the lines IT ENDS WITH US, but no, no, no, this is a book all on it’s own. The twists, the gut punches, the giggles, and all the tears I shed made Harlow’s book one I needed to tell you about immediately.
I’m not saying this book is perfect, and there won’t be moments of, “Oh, I saw that coming,” but I had so many more moments of, “What?! Are you kidding me?!” and immediately rereading pages because I didn’t believe what I just read.
Ella can’t stop blaming herself for being the driver in the accident that killed her best friend, Hayley. And now, being back at school for senior year, everything reminds her of Hayley, including Sawyer, her BFF’s boyfriend. They grow close again and start to fall for each other. In her guilt, she reads Hayley’s diary only to find out secrets about Sawyer that change everything and turn this into a thriller you cannot put down. (Don’t worry, anything I just told you is on the back cover; no spoilers here!)
Harlow does a fantastic job of writing a grief story. The grief journey that Ella and Sawyer go on is written with such delicacy and raw emotion that if you have ever experienced grief, you can easily relate and see yourself in those characters.
I’m also a big fan of how Ella has to learn to be a friend again. Her everything, her world, was Hayley. People don’t often talk about what it is like when you lose a friend through death or life changes. It’s handled well on all fronts and makes you think. Seema, a new yet old friend in Ella’s life, was a great additional character for the story!
I’ve talked a lot, but I very much liked EVERYTHING WE NEVER SAID. So, please do yourself a favor and pick it up on Tuesday so you can ride this thrilling, emotional roller coaster, too!
Content warnings: (please read with care) domestic abuse, car accident, death, gaslighting, adult/minor relationship, abortion, stalking, kidnapping, violence, child abuse
I received an ARC of this and finished back at the start of March, but I had some things happen in my life that I needed to work through and deal with so reviewsfor books I had read, got pushed to the side due to mental health and family issues, apologies,
though I am finallycatching up now. Thank you again to the publisher for a copy of this and thank you Harlow for writing a book that kept me up to all hours because I needed more.
I will try to keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible and vague so nothing really takes away from how good this one was! I finished it in about 3 days, and it was definitely a wild ride.
This book was captivating for the right reasons because of the secrets, the mystery, and the thrills. Imagine you think one thing is happening, then you start to get an inkling like all is not what it appears to be with that initial inkling and you kinda have eh 🤔 vibes about something else, but you're like THIS CANT BE IT. Then the beat drops (the plot drops haaaaaaaard) and you are like holy crap the vibes I thought were true, but there was a MASSIVE twist included which had me very surprised and shocked and I swear I caught more flies that day in my mouth due to the jaw dropping gasp that felt like it lasted eternity; than I did as a little kid during the summer with ads rolled up as a makeshift swatter as I went fly huntin due pleas from my mom to us kids!
Seriously, Harlow nailed it with this one, don't let it fool you, this one hits all the right thriller cues and gave me goosebumps and had me feeling, like I needed to look over my shoulder a few times. Then that plot twist WITHIN the plot twist I was like OHMYGODNOFRICKENWAAAAAY. When this happens, I am excited but also sad for the MFC due to all the crap she has been put through!
Do I recommend it? Absolutely. Will I read another book by Sloan Harlow again? Oh, most definitely, especially a YA thriller. She knows how to write one!
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader copy of this book. I enjoy reading well written young adult books from time to time and this one did not disappoint. Harlow presents a mystery with twists and turns throughout to keep the reader turning pages. She presents friendship and secrets in a great story. 4 stars
Whoa, this book! When I read the premise before reading this book, it was said if you love Colleen Hoover you'll love this book, and there is alot of truth in that!
This is a new author for me, and boy the emotional twists and turns definitely took me for a ride. Sawyer, Hailey and Ella are close friends, but there are definitely secrets that aren't shared between them. This whole story is very well written, definitely a page turner, and definitely keeps you guessing on the tragedy that unfolds. I loved it and plan on reading more from this author.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC copy of this book.
Enjoyable teen/young adult thriller/romance. I haven't read YA in a while, so I'm just starting to get used to it again as I read more from the genre and I'd say this fit the bill pretty well, though the spice level is a bit higher than I'd expect.
Highschool senior Ella has had the summer from hell after losing her best friend Hayley in a terrible car accident. Racked with guilt from the choices that led to the consequences from that night, Ella returns to school in the fall to face her peers and life without her friend, and that's where Everything We Never Said begins. Ella's plan to keep her head down and make it through her senior year quietly and without incident is derailed when she begins to grow closer to Hayley's boyfriend and falls for him. Now faced with even more guilt, Ella begins questioning everything she knew from the night Hayley died as she begins to see another side to Sawyer. Complicating matters, Ella has gained possession of Hayley's journal and despite her intention to leave the journal unread, curiosity takes over and Ella begins a dark descent into a journey to find the truth of Hayley and Sawyer's relationship and what happened that night. As Ella learns that Hayley was keeping dark secrets about her relationship, she begins to fear that Sawyer is not who she thought her was. Worse, she worries that perhaps Sawyer played a much larger and more sinister role in Hayley's death than Ella ever could have imagined.
Many thanks to NetGalley, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, and Sloan Harlow for this ARC and the opportunity to read and review it.
I enjoyed this book it is about YA friends and an accident which leaves one dead.
While leads you to believe it’s all about their friendship, loss,grief but alon* the way it turns into a dark suspense thriller. The author did a great job in writing this.
This is a young adult novel that focuses heavily on grief and trauma, with a side of romance. Don't get me wrong, the romance was good and it was cute, but the book was a little heavier than I assumed it would be from the premise and that's probably on me.
Ella feels extremely guilty and auto resorts to blaming herself for pretty much everything that goes wrong, Sawyer is a golden retriever who is terrible at words sometimes and would have had 75% less problems if he didn't say the vaguest things in response to serious questions or when needing to provide an explanation, Hayley.....Hayley is kind of a bada** and i'm glad we got to see into her mind with her diary entries. I appreciated the back and forth POVs between Ella an Sawyer, though it did make it a little more obvious what direction the story was going. While obvious, it was still enjoyable and there are parts that I didn't guess at.
This book has a decent amount of romance, some heartache, a lot of thrill, and a huge scoop of EVERYONE needs therapy.
Random notes from my read:
-Poor Seema
-Damn, Hayley. Kind of messy, girl....
-"Ella. That's messed up.". I DIED laughing
-Seema is my favorite character from the whole book. She wins at everything.
Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with the DRC and allowing me to provide my honest review
3⭐️
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC of this novel.
Wow, what a fun ride! I devoured this book in one day because I just couldn’t put it down. The characters were so relatable and Ella’s grief is felt throughout. This was twisty, dark, mysterious and overall a compelling read. I guessed the one of the twists right from the start, and another before the ending. Still fun to read!
Where do I even start with this one? I was 100% sure I knew what I was getting myself into and with every plot twist I was proven wrong and wrong again that I had an idea of what awaited me. Everything We Never Said was such a powerful novel of grief and friendship that will grab at your heartstrings and not let go. When I first started the novel, I was pleasantly surprised by the incredibly realistic portrayal of the grief process and the complexities of being a teenager on top of that. The different POVs add another layer to the book because you get inside their heads, but at the same time, it misleads you on what really happened. 🔎
This book had a major plot twist that I thought I had guessed (S - iykyk) and was completely baffled when I found out I was wrong. The same with its conclusion! I was at the edge of my seat for the last 60 pages, not knowing how everything would play out and I’m so satisfied with how it do did! 🤯 This YA thriller romance was right up my alley and I devoured it in a sitting!