Book Review: What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick

3/5 stars

(Finished reading 18/7/17)

Easy, summery, swoon-worthy.

What I Thought Was True follows Gwen Castle, a half-Brazilian teen who lives and works on an island off the east-coast of America, a popular holiday destination in the summer for the rich families across the sea in Stony Bay. When Cassidy Summers returns to the island for the summer to work, despite his wealthy heritage, Gwen is forced to deal with the events of last summer even though she’d really rather forget them. On top of this, Gwen begins to question everything in her life that she thought was solid as she watches it crumble around her.

This book had a lot of potential, it sounded intriguing and mysterious but also romantic and summery. I did enjoy this book, I definitely didn’t hate it, I just didn’t love it in the way I felt I could have. For me, the plot lacked substance. Simply based on the title and description, I went into it suspecting twisted lies and forbidden secrets, a bit like We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (which I adored) but nothing particularly scandalous actually happened. It was basically just a summery beachy contemporary read, which was fine, because I happened to read this on the beach whilst on holiday so this fitted my needs perfectly. However, if you want to read this expecting a thriller or mystery, don’t bother. Maybe I completely misinterpreted what this book was about because I suppose I knew it wasn’t a mystery or thriller but I was just wanting a lot more from it! The premise of the book had lots of scope for something shocking and unexpected which I think would have worked really well. But there’s no lies, or secrets or big revelations as such, only a summer romance.

Having said this, there was a lot I actually really loved about this book. For starters, I thought Gwen was such a great main character! I like how this book avoided or clichés of a shy and innocent girl-next-door type main character. Gwen was fearless, confident and had a fiery tone to her. I loved reading her internal dialogue as it was witty and often funny at times. For once, rather than having the guy as the one who sleeps around, it’s the girl who sleeps around and the guy whose the inexperienced one. I found it very interesting reading about the other characters reaction to Gwen as the girl whose unafraid to sleep with who she likes as she’s seen kind of as a slut. This contrasts greatly to the cool and admired reputation of ‘the bad boy’ or ‘the player’ in the majority of YA books. It certainly reflects attitudes towards sexuality in real life and I admired Huntley Fitzpatrick for exploring this. I don’t think I’d recommend this to a younger audience but at the same time I think it’s kind of important young readers, particularly girls, get the opportunity to read about more diverse female characters rather than just the stereotypical YA heroine.

I also really loved the setting of the book on the island. We have some lovely descriptions of the water and the beaches on this island. I read this while I was actually abroad on an island in Greece, lying on the beach, so I found this the perfect setting for reading in that circumstance! But despite this, I found myself really immersed in this small island, especially as it was narrated by a character who’s lived on the island all her life and wishing to get out. I think the fact it was set on a small island also avoided the whole concept of unrealistic and ‘coincidental’ encounters which many romance novels fall into. Gwen and Cass did have a fair few ‘chance encounters’ but I found I wasn’t bothered by this because I knew it was a tiny island where everyone bumps into everyone! So the island setting definitely made the romance more believable.

I really liked the romance between Gwen and Cass, particularly how it didn’t take too long to get going because I am way too impatient when it comes to how long it takes the couple to get together. Cass was so sweet and dreamy as a love interest. The history between the two of them certainly added depth to their romance unlike typical boy-meets-girl romances. I did quite like the contrast between past and present events as you don’t often get YA contemporary that has a plot mostly reliant on events that happened before the beginning of the book. However, it sort of became unnecessarily confusing in places. I personally felt as though the writing could have made it a little more clear when Gwen was having a flashback as a few times I had to flick back a page or two to clarify what was going on. But I did think it was nice having these flashbacks in the story to discover Gwen and Cass’s history, I just think they could have been executed a little better.

To summarise, if you’re into romance novels where not a lot happens except cute little scenes between the couple, I think you’ll really enjoy this just like I did. However, if you’re an adrenaline junkie or even if you just require a little more action or substance in the books you read, then I don’t think this will be your cup of tea! But the book really did have good potential to be a lot more than it was, it just didn’t meet my particular expectations. Regardless of this, I’d still recommend to someone looking for a really easy book that requires very minimal brain power because the romance is super sweet.