Book Review – Nobody Knows But You

I was sent an ARC of Nobody Knows But You by Anica Mrose Rissi from Harper Collins / Quill Tree earlier this year, and somebody (looking at my husband here) moved it from my TBR shelf to the bookcase where I keep the books I’ve read. There is a system in my madness. I found it Friday afternoon, and finished it Sunday morning; this really is one to sit down and binge on.

Maybe a killer only looks like a killer in the moment just before, during, or after.
Maybe a liar, a good one, never shows it.

Kayla is still holding on to Lainie’s secrets.
After all, Lainie is Kayla’s best friend. And despite Lainie’s painful obsession with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, and the ways he has tried to come between them, friends don’t spill each other’s secrets. They don’t betray each other’s trust.
The murder at the end of the summer doesn’t change all that.
Besides — Kayla knows that the truth is not the whole story.

Review
This is a very unusual book, in that it is told in the form of letters and other snippets from the media, rather than a standard ‘story’ format. Through the letters that Kayla writes but can’t send, we gradually gather pieces of a distorted puzzle, putting them together slowly, as much as Kayla will allow us to. Entwined with the other extracts, we’re steered in different directions along the way, in a book that is full of surprising truths, and more surprising lies.

At just over 250 pages, this is a short but engaging read, one where your full attention is devoted to the book as you read it, and your emotions cover a full range at zero to sixty. It really is a high impact book.

Throughout the twists and turns, you are vividly aware of the role that youth plays in this book. The intensity of first love, the feeling of ‘this person will be my friend forever’, the binding oath of secrets… As an adult, it’s reflective, and as a teen I imagine I would have related to it strongly. The fact the author manages to balance the writing so that it works for both adults and young adults in this way is a skill.

Many thanks to Harper Collins 360 for my copy of the book.