The novel in your hands is a piece of “creative nonfiction” that Normandy is writing as a project for her junior year of high school. In the beginning there were a lot of footnotes, which I found distracting. The YA reader (to whom this book is geared towards) may not. Besides the amount of footnotes – which do lessen as the chapters go on – I liked the perspective of the book and the way the story is told through her project.

Normandy and her two best friends (Neil and Dusk) form the Truth Commission, whose mission is to ask someone a question and get an honest answer. The book takes an interesting spin when someone states, "I must have got that wrong. I thought that spiritual practice involved asking yourself the truth." At this point, the novel changes.

Normandy has got some hard questions to ask herself about the truths going on in her life. The main piece of that involves her sister, who has mysteriously returned home from college with a secret that she’s not sharing with anyone. Once Normandy turns the questions and the truth discovery onto herself, things really start to get interesting. As Oscar Wilde states, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” As Normandy begins to peel the onion away to get to her sister’s truth, she discovers how accurate Mr. Wilde’s statement is.

This was a fun young adult novel with interesting characters. Not everything ties up neatly into a bow at the end, which felt right.

For my full review, please visit my blog, Hidden Staircase.

Thanks to the First to Read program for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The quote in this review comes from the copy I received, which was uncorrected text.