Title: More Than We Can Tell
Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Pub. Date: March 6, 2018
Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
With loving adoptive parents by his side, Rev Fletcher has managed to keep the demons of his past at bay. . . until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back.
Emma Blue’s parents are constantly fighting, and her only escape is the computer game she built from scratch. But when a cruel online troll’s harassment escalates, she not only loses confidence but starts to fear for her safety.
When Rev and Emma meet, they’re both longing to lift the burden of their secrets. They connect instantly and deeply, promising to help each other no matter what. But soon Rev and Emma’s secrets threaten to crush them, and they’ll need more than a promise to find their way out.
Brigid was once again kind enough to allow me to read her next book early, and oh my god, it was…no is amazing.
I finished the book last night, and I’m still thinking about it. She never fails to create these characters that feel so real that every action and every word that they do and say pulls at my heart.
If you loved Letters to the Lost, (I wrote a review last year) then you are going to love this book, and you are going to want to buy it when it comes out next year, I know I am. It is so worth the anticipation.
I’m sitting here trying to find words other than “Oh my god, it’s such a good book” but my brain isn’t cooperating. It just wants to fangirl. If you want to see my reaction, I live tweeted my reactions during the end of the book. But here goes…
More Than We Can Tell focuses on Rev and Emma’s story. Two characters with their own internal struggles, come to rely on each other. Sometimes it’s easier to tell a stranger your problems than someone you are close with. Rev is dealing with issues from his past, while Emma is dealing with an uncertain future. The book is split into alternating points of view between Rev and Emma. Rev tends to keep people at arms length, his past weighing heavy on him. He’s constantly in hoodies with the hood pulled over his head, and projecting a ‘don’t-mess-with-me’ attitude, which gives him the nickname “Grim Reaper”. Declan and Juliet act as Rev’s support through most of the book, even when Rev is struggling hard with all his emotions. Rev’s emotional journey through this book is so well written. There were more times than I can count where I became so wrapped up in what Rev was feeling that I felt like I was feeling it too.
Rev’s past has literally come back to haunt him, and because of the trauma he endured when he was younger, he doesn’t know how to respond or react around those he’s closest with. It isn’t until Rev meets Emma, a girl going through her own struggles, that he starts to open up.
Emma is dealing with her own issues at home. Her passion lies in coding and creating games, something her mother doesn’t seem to understand, and this causes Emma to throw up walls. Feeling misunderstood and attacked, she starts to shut people out of her life, as her conversations turn into biting one liners. Besides Emma’s relationship with Rev, I loved reading about her relationship with her mother and Cait (her best friend) – everything that passes between them felt so real, and I could definitely relate. Teenagers tend to make enemies where there might actually be none, and Brigid, in my opinion, hit that right on the nose.
Rev and Emma’s relationship felt so real, because neither of them were perfect, they both made terrible mistakes, but they found ways to apologize. They worked perfectly together in my opinion. It wasn’t insta-love or even insta-lust but the gradual getting to know one another, the I’ll tell you my problems if you tell me yours, that made me fall in love with them. I loved seeing Rev open up and let someone besides Declan and his parents into his life.
There was one other element to this story that I loved, and wouldn’t mind a book sometime in the future. That element is Matthew. He’s a character that I didn’t expect to fall in love with. Just like with Declan and then Rev, Matt has his own traumas he’s dealing with after bouncing from foster family to foster family, and his emotions feed right into everything Rev is feeling. The emotion and tension between Rev and Matt create this energy where as the reader you don’t know if good or bad is going to come out of it. Just like with Rev, I loved seeing Matt open up as the story progressed.
These characters all have their own issues and personal traumas, but when it counts, they are there for each other. None of them are perfect, and I think that’s what I love about this book. That none of these characters end up healed, but are healing, have and are learning to rely on each other when it matters most. Brigid created a story with such heightened emotion, and an ending that I didn’t see coming, that even as I sit here writing this review, my brain still just wants to scream “Oh my god, such a freaking good book”.
Definitely put this on your TBR, Pre-order it and read it the moment it comes out. Rev’s story isn’t one to miss. Coming out March 6, 2018, More Than We Can Tell is a book about letting people in when it counts the most. And even though the official release is about six months away, this book is one of my favorite 2017 reads.
Writing The Universe 