All of This Is True

by Lygia Day Penaflor

Overview

“Devious, delicious, and gasp-worthy.” (Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces)

In this genre-defying page-turner from Lygia Day Peñaflor, four teens befriend their favorite YA novelist, only to find their deepest, darkest secrets in the pages of her next book—with devastating consequences.

Miri Tan loved the book Undertow like it was a living being. So when she and her friends went to a book signing to hear the author, Fatima Ro, they concocted a plan to get close to her.

Soleil Johnston wanted to be a writer herself one day. When she and her friends started hanging out with her favorite author, Fatima Ro, she couldn’t believe their luck—especially when Jonah Nicholls started hanging out with them, too.

Penny Panzarella was more than the materialist party girl everyone at the Graham School thought she was—and she was willing to share all her secrets with Fatima Ro to prove it.

Jonah Nicholls had more to hide than any of them. And now that Fatima’s next book is out in the world, he’s the one who is paying the price...

Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying—and told as a series of interviews, journal entries, and even pages from the book within the book—this gripping story of a fictional scandal will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062673657
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	65,900
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.70(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Lygia Day Peñaflor is the author of Unscripted Joss Byrd, which was inspired by her work teaching child stars on movie sets, and All of This Is True. Lygia lives with her husband on Long Island, where she rides horses and watches reruns of everything. You can visit her online at www.lygiadaypenaflor.com.

Editorial Reviews

03/19/2018
Miri, Penny, and Soleil, best friends since seventh grade, are obsessed by YA author Fatima Ro’s debut novel, Undertow, and plan to befriend her when she shows up at a local bookstore for a signing. As the three girls and their new friend, Jonah, get closer to Fatima, she uses their lives and secrets to create her newest literary hit, The Absolution of Brady Stevenson. Everything surrounding Ro’s book, including the three girls and the author, become sensationalized when Jonah is beaten unconscious in retaliation for something Ro reveals about him in her book. Peñaflor (Unscripted Joss Bryd) uses interview transcripts, diary entries, articles, and excerpts from Brady Stevenson to slowly reveal why Jonah is in a coma and what he was hiding. Seamlessly moving among narrative devices, Peñaflor keeps the tensions high and the pacing swift while giving each of the three young narrators a unique voice and perspective. She addresses the extremes of fan fervor and raises intriguing questions about authorial responsibility in this suspenseful and smart novel. 13–up. Agent: Molly Ker Hawn, the Bent Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

The unusual construct is highly effective and has the same addictive quality as sensational tabloids but with thoughtful themes and content.

Booklist

[A] thrilling, twisty story that will have you flipping the pages at warp-speed.

Bustle

★“This twisty exploration of contemporary teen culture is as original as it is disturbing.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

Flat-out addictive, devious, delicious, and gasp-worthy, All of This Is True is your next binge-read. Underneath a mesmerizing plot, Peñaflor weaves a satisfying tale of class, revenge, privilege, and lies.

Kathleen Glasgow

Sharp, edgy, and intensely electric, All of This Is True is a study in obsession and art, betrayal and forgiveness, and the web of connections they spin. This book is not afraid to shock its readers.

Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

Peñaflor has created a delicious, addictive puzzle that readers will gobble up. I had to read it twice, once because it had me by the throat, then again to really savor the wit, sarcasm, and absolute humanity of these characters. An unbelievably creative undertaking, beautifully executed.

Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

This book is sure to keep you up late into the night—don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Spring 2018 Must-Read YA Bookish

★ 06/01/2018
Gr 10 Up—In her latest, which cleverly combines multiple perspectives, Peñaflor provides a psychological study in how the shallow and the profound coexist within the human psyche to foster self-deception. The story unfolds in a series of face-to-face interviews, personal journal entries, and excerpts from a newly released novel. High school juniors Soleil, Miri, and Penny provide their personal accounts of events leading up to the savage beating of their friend Jonah, who remains in the hospital in a coma. They also explain how their formerly favorite author's just-published book tells a remarkably similar story, but with a very different ending. Newly arrived in Long Island, the attractive and mysterious Jonah begins attending the same exclusive private school as the girls. YA author, Fatima Ro, is also new to the area, where she plans to crank out her second book before a fast-approaching deadline. After meeting the four students at a book signing, Fatima takes them under her wing, intimately involving herself in their personal lives, and she enlists the besotted Soleil to discover the reason for Jonah's secrecy about his past. Taking to the Internet, Soleil uncovers a hazing incident at another school that involved sexual abuse. Even with its addictive, soap opera-esque intrigue, Peñaflor's characters remain distinct and believable. Deliciously sordid yet thought-provoking, this will be eaten up by teens. VERDICT A must-have for YA collections.—Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

School Library Journal

★ 2018-02-20
Four privileged Long Island teens befriend their favorite YA author with disastrous results.Soon after their first encounter at a book signing, the bewitching and charismatic Fatima Ro—23-year-old author of Undertow—takes four of her teenage worshippers under her wing. Snobbish Miri Tan is the self-proclaimed leader of their school's Undertow Society, giddy fangirl Soleil Johnston carefully documents every one of her interactions with Ro, ditzy Penny Panzarella kindly helps out around the author's house after being given a key, and socially isolated Jonah Nicholls harbors an emotional attachment to Ro's story. But when she very obviously writes them into her next novel, The Absolution of Brady Stevenson, the teens' rose-tinted glasses are shattered, painful truths are uncovered—and, most shocking of all, Jonah is attacked and ends up in a coma. The story is related via a mixture of formats, including video interview transcripts, magazine articles, and passages from Ro's second novel, with each providing insight into the characters' individual relationships with the author. The weight of grief, authentic human connections, and whether life offers do-overs are all explored here. A lack of physical descriptions requires readers to speculate about characters' ethnicities based on the diversity of their names.Utterly addictive and psychologically delectable—Peñaflor's (Unscripted Joss Byrd, 2016) second novel will shock at every twist and turn. (Fiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews

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