BOOK REVIEW: Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson @JoshilynJackson @WmMorrowBooks #neverhaveiever #audiobooks #bookreview

Diabolical! One of the best books I’ve read in 2019 without question, Joshilyn Jackson’s Never Have I Ever is intelligent, expertly-plotted, twisted, and with a dash of dark humor that makes it a masterpiece in my opinion. This is a keep-forever book if I’ve ever read one!

About the Book

In this game, even winning can be deadly…

Amy Whey lives a simple, ordinary life and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Amy doesn’t particularly crave excitement or novelty. She’s happy with what she has—a devoted professor husband, a fifteen-year-old step daughter who she loves dearly, a newborn son, and her best friend Charlotte. She gets to teach diving lessons—a passion that pulled her out of a self-destructive spiral on more than one occasion back in her youth—and help her friend Charlotte run a book club for other moms in the area. Amy is happier than she ever though she could be.

Until a new neighbor moves in. Angelica Roux is beautiful, magnetic, and drives a flashy car. When Angelica arrives on Amy’s door one evening for book club, she begins a game that will set a series of events in motion that may unravel everything Amy has built.

The game is simple. Share the worst thing you’ve done this week. Then the worst thing you’ve done this month. And eventually, the worst thing you’ve ever done. As Amy’s neighbors begin to spill their secrets, Amy knows this isn’t simply fun between girlfriends. Angelica Roux knows Amy’s greatest secret, one that she has kept buried from everyone including herself.

May 28, 1991 was a night that changed Amy’s entire life. The events from that night have led Amy to crave the simplicity and pure ordinariness she has. The only way Amy could pull herself out of the spiral of despair that began that night was diving. Now it appears that Angelica knows about that night. But how?

Amy could lose everything if her secret is revealed, so she does the only thing she can—she begins to play Angelica’s game. As their game escalates into a matching of wits, hidden pasts, and unearthed secrets, Amy knows that she needs to beat Roux at all costs, even if winning means losing everything important to her.

Reflection

I barely know what to say about this book because it is so well-executed, it feels like it doesn’t need my commentary! The book is narrated by Amy, and she’s a fantastic character. Amy seems so simple at first, and that’s part of what makes her incredible. Amy has worked so hard to be, quite simply, ordinary. She is your next door neighbor, your kid’s friend’s mom, a member of your book club. She’s someone that it feels like you could know. But because of her seeming ordinariness, Amy is able to hide in plain sight.

Because deep down, Amy is anything but ordinary…

The reveal of Amy over the first part of the book, as you learn that she’s more clever than she seems, more diabolical, more interesting—it’s literary delight! I underestimated Amy at first, thinking she’d be the eyes through which we saw the diabolical Roux enact her game. And Amy is that. But Amy is also perhaps the only person in the story who can match wits with Roux. Amy has gone to great lengths to hide her secret and reinvent herself, and she will continue to do everything she needs to in order to keep her secret buried.

Roux is another amazing character. I found myself liking and hating her at the same time. She is something else! I wanted to know more about her, and I wasn’t disappointed when I learned her back story. I loved the way she and Amy interacted—it wasn’t the dynamic I expected but it was incredible to read!

As I side-note, I listened to the audio of this book and then got a copy. After listening I found out that the author was the narrator. She did a fantastic job, and it is no wonder the characters came straight to life, she knows exactly how she wanted their dialogue to play out. The converstations between Amy and Roux are amazing and really came to life through her narration. If you like audiobooks, I strongly recommend listening to this on audio!

I don’t want to spoil so I’m going to cut my review here and say I highly recommend this book! It’s a story about guilt, love, secrets, betrayal, deception, making amends, surviving, and revenge. Who could turn that down??

About the Author

New York Times and USA today bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of NEVER HAVE I EVER and eight other books, including gods in Alabama and The Almost Sisters. Her work has been translated into more than a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, three times been a #1 Book Sense Pick, been the Target Book Club Pick, and three times been shortlisted for the Townsend prize. A former actor, Jackson reads the audio versions of her novels; her work in this field has been nominated for the Audie Award, was selected by AudioFile Magazine for their best of the year list, and garnered two Listen Up Awards from Publisher’s Weekly.

She lives in Decatur, Georgia with her family.

Thank you to William Morrow for my copy. Opinions are my own.