All You Never Wanted

Sisters Alex and Thea are the personification of the Cinderella story: essentially rescued by their mom’s new billionaire husband, the girls live in a mansion in Greenwich. They have little supervision, everything they could ever want when it comes to clothes and cars, and are both totally miserable. Each girl deals with the change in their circumstance in a different way: older sister Alex restricts her enjoyment of their opulent lifestyle in the same way she restricts what she puts in her body while younger sister Thea attempts to reinvent herself, using whatever lie she needs in order to make it into the top of the social stratosphere. One night and one party will alter the girls’ lives forever.

Adele Griffin is a National Book Award finalist, and with her most recent offering, it’s easy to see why. Filled with gorgeous prose and characters who feel uncomfortably real, Griffin offers a gripping story about two sisters who are self-destructive in very different ways. Oftentimes hard to read because of its unflinching honesty, this is a novel that will resonate with readers who like their YA raw, a little gritty, and totally real.

There’s the fact that Griffin manages to get into the heads of her characters in a way that few authors can. Griffin has an unparalleled skill when it comes to getting at what makes her characters tick. Both Alex and Thea have incredibly distinctive, authentic voices. Both girls carry a great deal of pain, and neither one knows how to deal with it. The increasing absence of their mother only adds fuel to the fire, and the result can be painful to read about.

It’s not just the characters themselves that propel this novel forward. Griffin manages to get the details exactly right. Her descriptions of the ridiculously luxurious lifestyles that these teens live are pitch-perfect. Griffin’s ability to contrast the girls’ past with their presence is particularly astute, making this novel not only entertaining but also thought-provoking when it comes to issues of socioeconomic status.

Highly, highly recommended. This is excellently written, beautifully characterized, and well-paced. There’s particular appeal here for teen girls who like their YA stories a little grittier.

All You Never Wanted is out today.

All You Never Wanted by Adele Griffin. Knopf Books for Young Readers. Electronic galley accepted for review via NetGalley. ( )

Over the past year, I've been discovering a love for realistic fiction, my home base having always been fantasy novels for pretty much all of my YA-reading past. When I was an actual teen, my favorite genre to read was chick lit: humor, sexy times, and a hot man for every woman; I pretty much hoped that would be my future. As I've gotten older and seen that this would not be my future, these happy novels have failed to move me most of the time, seeming much less realistic than their depressing counterparts. With Adele Griffin, I have found another author who writes books full of broken characters and feels.

At its core, All You Never Wanted is the story of two sisters, Thea and Alex. Both are broken, unable to exist comfortably in their own skins. They used to be happy, even after their parents' divorce and father's abandonment. What undid them was their mother's remarriage. Interestingly enough, the problem was not Arthur, the mother's new husband, who treats them well and would do anything for them. The issue is his wealth, and that he travels so much on business, taking their mother with him.

During the time where they had very little money, both girls working to help the family scrape buy and pay the bills, the three of them were a tight family unit. They were close and happy. With the money and resulting luxury, the three have grown apart. More separate and free, the two girls find it hard to figure out who they are or how to behave. The fact that both are classic 'poor little rich girls' is made less obnoxious by their acknowledgment and distaste of that fact, as well as by the fact that they have not always been this way.

Alex speeds toward hermit status, afraid to leave Camelot (the name of their immense house) because of a traumatic experience she had during her internship at a fashion magazine. She withdraws more and more, skipping school, shutting out her boyfriend and sister, refusing to eat, and only barely managing to continue tutoring at Empty Hands, a volunteer center. This last may seem the least important, but her work there, kids like Leonard who count on her, are the only tether keeping her from closing herself inside permanently.

Thea has always worshipped her prettier, older, better-liked sister. Before, Thea was a nerd, who delighted in essay contests and winning trophies for academic achievement. As Alex disappears, Thea overcompensates for the loss of her idol by trying to become Alex, single white female style. No longer caring about her grades, she throws herself into a web of lies in an effort to entertain the highest echelon in her high school, to become one of the popular kids. On top of that, Thea wants Alex's boyfriend, Joshua.

Griffin uses an interesting narrative style to accomplish this tale: Thea's perspective is first person, and Alex's third person limited. This can be a tricky technique to pull off with multiple perspectives, but Griffin does so marvelously. Thea's personality fits a first person narration perfectly, since she's such a storyteller. She wants to be able to tell the audience what's going on in her life her way, put her spin on it and make it a better story. Alex has no desire to be known, feels foreign even to herself.

I ripped through this brief novel, caught up in the drama and pain of their lives. My biggest issue with the book is that I just could not believe the truth of Alex's trauma once I heard it. Call me a terrible person, but I definitely laughed, though it does allow for a nice joke at the end. Also, complex and real as they were, I never bonded with Alex and Thea. Of the two, though, I liked Alex best, despite her weird issue, especially since she has a touching romantic story line.

From what I've heard, this is not Griffin's best novel, but, even so, I can tell that I need to read more Griffin. Her writing has a unique flair and she does not turn away from darkness. Given its brevity, this is well worth a read if you find the concept intriguing or have enjoyed Griffin before. This would make a great readalike for Denise Jaden's Never Enough or Sarah Wylie's All These Lives. ( )

Dark, but compelling. Thea and Alex share the narration of one week in their moneyed, messed-up lives. Thea wants everything and wants to glory in the power and excess that their mother's marriage to noveau-riche, somewhat tacky, but kind Arthur has brought. Alex doesn't know how to handle going from a middle-class striver to a rich girl who's handed everything on a platter, so she tries wanting nothing - including food. Both miss their newly-absent - emotionally and often physically - mother. As the week progresses the girls move on their separate trajectories - Alex towards hope and healing through caring about others and Thea towards somewhere much darker helped along by the outrageous lies she fashions. The two girls are perfectly wrought as are most of the characters (Joshua and Arthur), but Xander is a wee bit too exactly what Alex needs and the mother remains a cipher. Also, now that I think about it, where are Thea's former friends? Alex has friends who at least try to be supportive although they are only somewhat successful, but Thea's friends are all gone once her one boyfriend moved away? Consequences, actions and reactions are cleverly illuminated so that both girls' journeys seem inevitable. The mystery of what happened to Alex at her Haute internship is tense and built up to seem horrible and the choice of incident is perfectly banal and humiliating and horrifying. The love, tenderness, competition and jealousy between Thea and Alex are well-balanced to show the complexity of their relationship. This is good stuff; the more I think about it, the more I like it, particularly because it could just be read on the level of a Gossip Girl novel, but holds so much more. ( )

Adele Griffin is one of very few authors on my automatic-read list. After reading and being entranced by her novel Tighter, I knew that Adele was magic and that I must get my hands on everything she writes. She did not disappoint with ALL YOU NEVER WANTED. This book was indeed a story of sibling rivalry, on speed, just like the synopsis says. I couldn't put it down. It was this crazy tail-spin, nose-dive, downward spiral, bottlenecking story that just didn't stop.

Alex is wasting away. Ever since that terrible thing happened, she's been starving herself. She is little more than a shell of who she used to be. She was once the queen of the school, pretty, with the most popular friends and most sought-after boyfriend. But then that thing happened. And she's never been the same.

But underneath that Barbie-doll exterior, there is something more to Alex. She is kind and thoughtful. She loves deeply. She is hurting, from her father's abandonment and her mother's remarriage. And even though most days she can't even pull herself out of bed (or her car out of the driveway) Alex is still hopeful.

Thea is crazy, though. She envies her older sister like any younger sibling would, but she takes it way, way too far. She spun the craziest lies and a web of stories, for no other reason than to get attention from Alex's popular friends. She spreads nasty rumors about innocent classmates. She makes up wild and incredulous stories about herself, always making herself the hero. Even though I was in Thea's head, I couldn't tell where the truth ended and the lies began. So when she took it too far, it was hard to say whether it was true or not. You didn't want it to be true, but it would crush you to think she lied about something that serious.

ALL YOU NEVER WANTED was emotionally exhausting. Trying to wade through all of Thea's lies, to get to the bottom of her character and what make's her Thea. All the while rooting Alex on in her struggles to face her past and move toward her present. It hurt to read this book, but that doesn't take away from it in any way. Adele Griffin's writing is beautiful and bold and her characters are true to life and pop right out of the pages. ( )

All You Never Wanted takes you on a dark journey into sibling jealous, a dysfunctional family. Griffin delivered a unique disturbing contemporary unlike anything I have ever read. This tale takes you on a journey dealing with the effects of instantly having money and emotional issues. It gives you a dark and sinister look at sibling rivalry. While I certainly became entangled in the tale, it left me wanted more.

The tale takes place over the course of a few days and is told from the perspectives of each sister. Thea is the youngest sibling and parts of her personality could have been conceived by Stephen King himself. She is a pathological liar and determined to finally outshine the shadow her older sibling, Alex. Alex has had a melt down and feels as if her life is spiraling out of control. She is living in a state of severe anxiety. Thea is planning a party, spreading lies and secretly coveting Jason who is Alex’s boyfriend. The tale that unfolds gives us unique insight into each sister and I found myself swept up in their tales.

Thea immediately captured my intention. She has this dual personality, is a compulsive liar and you never knew what she was capable of from one moment to the next. I began to question whether or not she was psychotic. Let’s just say I would never turn my back on her. Alex on the other hand, I felt sorry for. She definitely needs help and her absentee Mom and new stepfather certainly didn’t win any of my love. We often see this theme of absentee parents in YA to develop the story line. Here it’s quickly obvious that this family is seriously dysfunctional. During the time period this takes place Daddy Warbucks is at a big meeting out of town and Mom accompanies him leaving Alex in charge. Alex!! Who sometimes is so anxiety ridden that she cannot leave her room for days on end. GRR!

The world building was both engaging and frustrating for me. I was captivated by both sister’s and certainly could not stop reading. However things didn’t fit or fell flat for me. I certainly question the parents, and school where Alex was concerned. While her problems were psychological they manifested themselves in very physical ways. Thea seemed to waiver between being concerned for Alex and being angry at her. The reasons for Alex’s breakdown when revealed left me feeling like I missed something. Perhaps there were underlying problem but it wasn’t adequately revealed. Thea's perspective stole the show as far as keeping me enthralled, I felt like I was in the mind of a future serial killer. An unexpected insta-love threw me for a loop as it seemed to come out of left field. While, the ending seemed to offer an escape and a ray of hope for one sibling it left things open for the other. When I closed the book, I was left feeling like I wanted more.

Do I recommend All She Never Wanted? Absolutely because despite all of the issues I noted, this dark, disturbing tale engaged me and was so unique I think it’s worth the read.

I want to thank Random House for providing this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review. Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer ( )