[Blog Tour] Review & Guest Post: #16 Things I Thought Were True

Friday, March 28, 2014


Title: #16 Things I Thought Were True
Author: Janet Gutler
Series: Standalone
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Paperback, 283 pages
Release Date: March 4th 2014
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Source: eARC received from publisher in exchange for an honest review

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This guest post is about a Girls Only road trip! I want to thank Janet for writing this!

One of the only “girls only” road trips I took was when I was 21. I lived in a Canadian city, Winnipeg, and our closest border “town” was Grand Forks. Not very big, not terribly glamorous, but it was the US of A baby. Something you might not know about Canada, we have lower drinking ages than the States.  But when everyone turned 21, it was kind of coming of age thing to pile people into the car, cross the border and shop and party in the States.

Something else I should mention. I was 21 a long time ago. I was on my own and I was BROKE. Things were different. The US had way more interesting restaurants and shops than Canada back then. Target was a big hairy deal for us Canadians. Even tiny places like Grand Forks seemed kind of fabulous.  We have pretty much the same stores on both sides of the border now. For the most part. But back then, it seemed so different than us. 

The other thing the US had. Cheap booze. Cheap cigarettes.  And this was in the day when people smoked everywhere. Gross. In shopping malls, in the office, in restaurants and the bars. And yes. Back then, I was a smoker. So it was a big thrill to head across the border and pick up cartons of “cheap smokes.” Did I mention, gross?

I shudder to remember. Anyhow. There we were. 21 year olds. It was the late 80’s.  We had neon clothes. Big hair.  Achy Breaky Heart was our theme song.  Four of us.  
Windows open, feet outside. Music blasting. Blowing smoke rings.  Eating sunflower seeds and diet coke. 

We thought we were hot stuff.  And we did the kind of crazy things, only the young can get away with. We crashed a couple of Frat House parties. We drank too much, flirted too much, stayed out too late and ate greasy hang over food for breakfast. 

Decadence personified.

The good old days.



Heart attacks happen to other people #thingsIthoughtweretrue

When Morgan's mom gets sick, it's hard not to panic. Without her mother, she would have no one—until she finds out the dad who walked out on her as a baby isn't as far away as she thought...

Adam is a stuck-up, uptight jerk #thingsIthoughtweretrue

Now that they have a summer job together, Morgan's getting to know the real Adam, and he's actually pretty sweet...in a nerdy-hot kind of way. He even offers to go with her to find her dad. Road trip, anyone?

5000 Twitter followers are all the friends I need #thingsIthoughtweretrue

With Adam in the back seat, a hyper chatterbox named Amy behind the wheel, and plenty of Cheetos to fuel their trip, Morgan feels ready for anything. She's not expecting a flat tire, a missed ferry, a fake girlfriend...and that these two people she barely knew before the summer started will become the people she can't imagine living without.



I am always weary of books that include social media into their stories because I always think that it will only date the story faster than necessary. And 16 Things I Thought Were True was one of those books I thought It would happen to. But honestly, after reading the book I think it will be relevant for a very long time.

When I read a book I always love to relate in some way to the main character and this case I related a lot more than I thought I would. Morgan has grown up not knowing who her father was, and struggled with the fact her mother hid him from her for all of those years. And in this book Morgan goes off to try and find her Father and get answers. For me, I grew up not knowing who my father was either. Although my life was far less dramatic than Morgans, it was not any less painful. Growing up without one of my parents was not something I thought about growing up. I was luckier than Morgan and had a mother who was completely honest with me the moment I was old enough to ask questions. I met my father for this first time when I was 16, and I am happy to say that to this we have a very healthy relationship. Will it ever be the way it should be between father and daughter? no. But I am okay with that. And it is Morgans story of finding closure to a question she has had for years that made me relate the most to her.

Morgan was a great character to narrate this story because she was candid and open about all her issues, and yet you still felt like she kept so much of herself hidden inside. I do think that her character and the secondary characters could have been fleshed out a little bit more because there were times when I wanted to feel what they were feeling but couldn't. I just didn't feel the strong connection I wanted to feel.

I love YA books that deal with tough sugjects such as bullying, family issues and sickness but when you put them all into one novel? It gets a bit overwhelming and that is what I thought about this book. I loved that these subjects were touched upon but I though each deserved more page time. There was just soo many different things happeneing in this book that it was hard to get a grip on my emotiond and I felt very distant from the stpry and the characters by teh end of the nbook.

Although this book was not my absolutely favorite, I did love many aspects of this story, and I do believe it is story that should be read by many. Morgan is a great main character and the message of being strong in the face of horrific circumstances and something that needs to be seen.

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