This is a great read. I hadn’t realised that it was “young persons” fiction until after I’d download, and I certainly do not fit that category, but I decided to give it a try and boy was I not disappointed. This is an excellent read. You can feel, see and smell Rio and Ella, the main characters, desperation too.
Excellent plot and an unique story. Definitely worth a read, for all ages!
The Truth & Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr. #NetGalley

Ella Black is an outcast at school with one friend and a a boyfriend that’s not really her boyfriend. One day her Mim comes and rushes her out of school and takes her to Brazil where Ella finds out some shocking news and runs away to live in the Flavela. A really brilliant fast paced boj that you don’t want to put down.

Erm. (Spoiler Alert)

Yeah; so I did enjoy it. Mainly because I've been in a major reading slump and so I needed to bang out a couple of books to get me on a smooth ride again, and this has helped with that. 2nd boom of the Year *Go Me 🤘*

I enjoyed the first 50% of the book, I was like "yeah, this little biatch is on the run, she's gonna get kidnapped, maybe work as a slave and then escape many years later and reunite with her Adoption Parents!"

But NO!

I'm sorry but wtf?

Like I say, her messed up personality worried me a bit. Like I understand people (I know I do) want to lash out when upset, or hurt themselves when depressed (selfharm etc) but smashing a Birds head with a Hammer 😷 no. Sick.

So thats the point when I didn't want to carry on, but due to my Insomnia I though...Hey, don't be selfish, NetGalley sent me this! and so I carried on.

Well, the ending was just unrealistic, I was hoping her Birth Mother would atleast hold her hostage or something, or put up a fight with Bella/Ella as she just seemed rude, wouldn't even hear her B.Mother out, yet wasn't the whole point in her doing a Runner in the first place to find her B.Mum?

Then what? I'm guessing the B.Mum died? did Ella get in trouble for lying to her employees? "It's ok Jo, we know you're on the run and that you've stolen things, and attempted to slice your adopted Mum's throat, shaved your head in hope to not be found, aswell as claimed to be 3 different people, so what we will do, is keep you here with us in Rio, working with children of all ages to teach them English"

Are you having a Giraffe? Jesus Christ Almighty...

what a load of Dogs Poo.

Anyway, as I've said, I did enjoy the first half, after finally getting over the killing of the Bird.

and that's why I've gave it a 3
star. it would've been two stars if I had paid for this, but thanks to NetGalley, I didn't.

So here's my review.
Happy New Years Goodreads and NetGalley 😊

I've been lucky enough to meet Emily Barr at her book signing at YALC 2017! I'm so glad I did because I truly loved The One Memory of Flora Banks, so I was eager to start reading this new novel from her. I enjoyed this book. However, what I will say though is that it follows the very stereotypical YA trope of 'I'm not who I thought I was, so I must rediscover myself' which was the whole premise of this book essentially. On the other hand, I do love the representation of mental illness in this book.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I’m somewhat ambivalent on this one. On the one hand I actually finished it, (I barely got 20 pages into the last book I read by the same author) the plot was interesting enough, but at the same time repetitive and unbelievable. Yet there was something in the story telling that made me interested enough to want to know how it all ended.

Will be spoiler filled as there is so much in this plot that I want to rant about.

It’s a UKYA novel. Ella lives a pretty normal life, goes to school has good friends, but has a secret darker side of herself, a voice in her head that she sees a separate personality that takes over from time to time she calls Bella who makes her do bad things. Get violent, talk back to authority figures, etc. The Bella side of her personality seems to be getting worse and coming out more and more and nice docile Ella seems to have a hard time controlling Bella.

Then one day while she’s in school she’s pulled out of class and into the Head Mistress’s office where her mother is there, and her mother is pulling her out of school for a few weeks without much of an explanation, the grownups seem to know something they’re not saying. Ella’s mum is taking her to Rio for an extended vacation. It’s always been a dream of Ella’s to go to Rio. And everyone seems okay with just going. Her parents don’t tell her anything, just whisk her off to the airport and to a hotel in Rio. They’re worried and suddenly very protective. Ella wants to explore.

Naturally she wants to know what the hell is going on. Why now? They’ve taken her phone, her passport, and locked them away in a safe in the hotel room. She’s confused. Who wouldn’t be? Exploring and doing touristy things with her mum and dad Ella catches sight of a gorgeous boy, Christian, in the lobby of her hotel and after several passes at making gooey eyes at each other they finally meet.

And it’s a very annoying case of instalove. After one night of partying together Ella’s obsessed with the boy, she knows nothing about him, just that he’s gorgeous and fun and can make her forget about her weird circumstances of being in Rio. It’s eye rolling and irritating. Ella gets herself alone in her hotel room and manages to open her parents safe and finds a shocking secret that her parents had kept from her.

Spoilers but a huge part of the plot.

Ella is adopted. There’s a letter from a lawyer going about legal changes for adopted babies when they turn 18. (Ella’s 18th birthday is coming up very soon). Her birth mother is looking for her.

She freaks out. She doesn’t know how to handle this information at all. Her reaction to me seems a little over the top, drama for the sake of drama to add to the plot. I can imagine it would be a bit of shock discovering something like this type of secret and you would most definitely have all sorts of questions. I can understand being angry that no one actually told you this secret. There is probably a valid reason for it. In the heat of the moment and anger Ella is clearly not thinking logically. The angry Bella side of her personality is coming out. In a fit of rage she breaks a beer bottle and attacks her dad and a waiter, cutting the waiter. So she runs.

She’s confused, angry and frightened. She has her phone, her passport and a credit card she helped herself to from her parent’s safe. She figures out the PIN and can get cash to start. Her thoughts are going round and round in circles as she tries to escape from them and loose herself in the depths of Rio. There are some wonderful descriptions of Rio and you really do get a great sense of place and Ella’s confusion as to who she is. She’s lost her identity and has no idea how to react and what to do. Unfortunately, it’s so repetitive, it’s the same worries over and over again.

Ella can be quite manipulative, she’s charming when she wants to be and works out quickly how to use people to get things she needs when she starts running low on cash. She’s not stupid, she know that her parents will be looking for her, and possibly the police as well. (And of course while all this drama is going on she’s moping over Christian who she’s still desperately in love with). She sweet talks her way into borrowing a boy’s laptop where she looks up some of the info she found hidden in her parents safe. The name in the lawyer’s letter.

And the plot gets even more ridiculous.

Ella’s real parents are serial killers. Her father was the killer, her mother used to chat up the victims, young women, befriend them and lure them back to her boyfriend who tortured and killed them. Her mother never actually killed anyone, but was convicted as an accomplice and is now out of prison. She was pregnant when she was arrested. Ella is horrified but sort of makes sense to her as to where the nasty, cruel Bella side of her personality comes from.

She can’t face anyone. She decides to lose herself in the slums of Rio, where no one will look for her. Her passport and credit card are stolen. So she resorts to a little self-help. She learns to take advantage of people’s kindness to a struggling young girl. After sleeping rough a few nights she talks her way again into finding places to say and sees her picture on the news. She can’t speak a word of Portuguese but knows she needs to run again. Eventually she finds herself at a school teaching English to local children and adults. She makes friends and finally starts to develop a sense of self again.

The second half of the novel I found to be stretching the sense of belief a bit, this 17 year old going around Rio with no funds of her own. The school she starts working at is a volunteer organization where people come from all over the world to work and help but they pay the school. Ella has no funds, no identification. She got into the programme because one of the residents found her sleeping on the step and was kind to her. Ella managed to talk her way into a position there, despite having no experience. Then all of a sudden her fees are paid off. And another ridiculous twist – the birth mother shows up and has been watching her the whole time Ella has been in Rio. The woman who just got out of prison for helping her serial killer boyfriend find his victims. Urg.

To be fair, while it’s stretching my sense of belief, there was a quite uplifting feeling when Ella starts settling into a regular routine at the school she starts teaching at. She’s making friends and you get the sense she loves the job, she’s teaching art which she has a knack for and is really good at working with the children. She’s making friends and learning the local culture and language. Definitely something she could make a future and a career out of. She’s starting to feel grounded again after so much running around and drama.

Then the drama starts again. Oh, and Christian, the boy Ella’s still pining for is the only one from her old life who can find her and is completely understanding when Ella tells him everything that happened.

The plot was interesting enough even though a little silly in parts. And in some parts the writing as weird and repetitive as Ella falls apart. The descriptions of Rio from party town to beaches to slums was brilliant, very atmospheric and easy to picture. The romance with Christian and Ella was just annoying instalove. I did have trouble connecting to the characters. Too much over the top reactions and drama with Ella and everyone else seemed very one dimensional. Something was missing from this one for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK Children’s books for approving my request to view this title.

Thought provoking subject. Well explored characters.

I really wasn't a fan of this book, I ended up DNF'ing it in the end, it just wasn't pulling me in, the repetition in this book was ridiculous.

I only got 25% through this book, and that was it I gave up, I really didn't want to know why her parents had taken her to Rio, and I didn't really care in the end why either, that's how much I wasn't a fan of this.

I also wasn't a fan of the instalove, I only read where she had locked eyes with him but I just knew from the writing I wasn't going to be impressed with it.

I do feel guilty that I dnf'd the book as I do hate DNF'ing anything (see House of Furies, I persevered with that), but for the sake of my sanity I really couldn't. When I requested this I was so intrigued by the premise I was really hoping it would be great but it just really fell short of the mark on this one.

The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr was a book I had been anticipating for a while
I was so very excited to get started with this one as the blurb sounded fantastic.
Unfortunately, this was not quite what I was expecting.
I'd go as far as to say this fell massively short of the mark in terms of what I expected this to deliver, I am so disappointed.
It was like a tale of two halves, the first being super exciting.
Do you remember that old 1956 film The Bad Seed, super movie.
Well, this is where I was at rubbing my hands together in glee especially when we got the big reveal I could just picture where this was taking us.
Then nothing, this book just sank like a damp squad and It was all highly unlikely scenarios and teenage drama and angst.
I kept reading expecting something to happen only to end up deflated.
And to top it all off Ella herself was just not that likeable of a character.
Now if we had got evil Ella instead of just bratty angsty Ella I could have totally digged her.
But no The Truth and Lies of Ella Black is just Ella being a major cow to her parents, I mean total obnoxious I hate everyone teen, so over this.
This is well written and I did finish so this has those plus points in its favour but overall for me this was just an OK read.
So, in conclusion, this just wasn't quite what I was expecting at all, the book really didn't match its killer synopsis, a real shame indeed.
Thank You to NetGalley for proving me with an ARC of The Truth and Lies of Ella Black by Emily Barr of which I have reviewed voluntary.
All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

The central plot of The Truth and Lies of Ella Black is a great one – Ella is a teenage girl on the edge of adulthood, and as well as having unaccountable, uncontrollable rages and destructive emotions, she also has a secret past about which she knows nothing. Her parents, with the knowledge of what that past is, take her - suddenly and inexplicably - out of school and away to Rio. The big questions are: what is wrong with Ella, and why was it so important that her parents get her far away from her comfortable life in England so quickly? The answers to these questions are revealed slowly, and amidst the dramas of her late teenage life a darkness unfolds; a darkness with roots in very disturbing events from long, long ago.

What didn't resonate with me was the rich, spoiled, apathetic protagonist, who is written a little too inconsistently, often acting, thinking, and behaving more like a child than a young adult. I also blanched at the contrived nature of many of the plot twists and turns: whilst the main thread (which I won't spoil by revealing) is fairly solid and shocking, there is also a lot of contrived wish-fulfilment going on – a bit too much luck falls into Ella's lap at key moments, so that any miss-steps she takes are caught and fixed without her lifting a finger or having to grow and change and take responsibility.

The Truth and Lies of Ella Black was a bit of a 'miss' for me. Taken at face value it is a fun, pacey and intriguing novel that carries the reader to a satisfying conclusion, so I think many readers will enjoy it as a fairly light read – me included! But there is little to really make us think, and little insight into any of the characters beyond the observation that an injection of (sometimes stolen) cash will help us overcome most of life's hurdles.

Ella Black seems to live the life other 17 year olds would kill for. Until one day, her parents whisk her off to Rio De Janerio. Determined to find out why, Ella searches through her parents things and realises her life has been a lie. They are not her parents. So Ella runs away with to the favelas. But she learns a terrible secret, the truth about her real parents and their past.

I really thought this was going to be a good read after reading the blurb but unfortunately it wasn't. I did not like the animal abuse at the begining.. There was just no need for so much detail.. Ella is quite an annoying character. I know teenagers can be messed up but Ella was just too messed up for me. The writing was a bit bland. Sadly, this book was not my cup of tea.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Random House UK, Children's and the author Emily Barr for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ella Black is an average teenage with a secret side to herself that no one knows about. One day she is pulled out of school by her parents with no explanation and they board a plane to Brazil. The truth and lies of Ella Black promised excitement and thrill and whilst there are moments where it is fast paced, I found that I didn’t really like the main character. The situations described felt mostly far fetched and somewhat fantasy, and I did find myself predicting what would happen. Its worth a read but not one I’ll read again.

I really struggled to know how to rate this book. On the one hand I definitely couldn’t stop reading which is a huge positive, but the reality really jarred with my expectations thanks to the book being marketed as a psychological thriller. I can see why, there are certainly thriller elements. The countdown at the beginning, the switch between Ella and Bella – and Bella’s behaviour, the flit to Rio all pointed the way to a twisty thriller. And therein lies the problem. It doesn’t really work as a thriller, there are just too many questions – SPOILER – why isn’t Ella’s adoption anonymous? How did her mother get a passport and the money to bail her out so quickly? How did she find her so easily? What was her mother’s motivation back then? Was she a victim too or equally culpable? Why did Ella’s parents not just tell her esp when she is nearly 18? All these questions nagged away at me. As did the instalove which added nothing to the story but a nagging concern as to why Christian has fallen so hard so quickly for a younger, immature and mentally unstable young woman?! And there’s the very sudden ending..
However. I couldn’t put it down, and the book stayed with me long after I finished it… So I put my initial expectations to one side and considered the book on its own merits (and stopped comparing it to Flora Banks!). When I ignore the instalove and don’t view the book as a thriller but look through Ella’s eyes then it shifts into a powerful account of a mental breakdown. Ella has been kept very young, by her parents as well as by her own need to be good and to conform. She’s already beginning to crack when she’s taken away from everything she knows and thrust into a strange situation. Her parents are behaving oddly, her surroundings are unfamiliar, all the patterns of her life have shifted and then she discovers something that blows her life – and her sense of self and worth – apart. The cracks that were already beginning to show splinter and Ella falls apart. The rest of the book follows her trying to work out who and what she is as she has to grow up all too fast.
The setting is absolutely wonderful – it made me want to jump onto a plane to Rio immediately – and the local colour is vivid and authentic. Ella is also authentic. She’s not always nice, not always easy, often immature and difficult and the novel conveys this consistently in her voice. And that’s fine. Main characters don’t have to be nice and sweet, they can, should be flawed. The plot may not always feel consistent or plausible but Ella herself is even when you want to shake her, hug her or send her to her room! And I think it’s important we don’t sugarcoat YA protagonists into perfect beings.
I’m still not sure what I think about this book. It’s not an instant 5 stars like Flora was. But it has stayed with me in the weeks since I read it and for that, and the way it fearlessly showcases an imperfect heroine, it gets a four.

I wasn't too sure if this was going to be my kind of book when I first started reading it however I quickly got hooked in and thoroughly enjoyed it. it is well written and heart felt

Frankly I was a little puzzled and somewhat disappointed by this book.

The main character is something of a whinger (to say the least), despite not appearing to have anything to whinge about (other than a dark side).

The plot takes a dramatic twist not too far into the book, and from then onwards becomes increasingly unbelievable. I couldn't fathom why the character's parents would have acted in the way they did, when a more rational approach would have given the results they set out to achieve (ie safety and anonymity). I couldn't fathom why Ella would have continued along her path once she knew certain facts (no, I'm giving nothing away even though I didn't enjoy the book as you, Dear Reader, might enjoy it!). The ending seemed rushed and somewhat abrupt given the levels of detail we'd had previously.

All things considered, it's a no from me (as they say).

Still, thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Addictive and mysterious, The Truth and Lies of Ella Black had a certain intrigue which kept me reading on. It was a fast, easy read for me and I enjoyed the secretive element of the plot.

Unfortunately the rest of it just didn't do it for me. I found the protagonist difficult to empathise with and even understand her reactions. The relationships between her and both her romantic interest and her parents felt undeveloped. The romance was rushed and a little bit weird (underage, alcohol, love at literal first sight). Recommended for contemporary YA fans, particularly teenagers, who may be able to find more to relate to in it than I did.

This is a YA book so it needs to be read with that in mind. We are told that Ella has only 40 days to live. This sets you up for some form of horrific death; however, the book is not that simple. This is a book about the ties that bind us as family...you really can’t pick your family. It has a dose of the horrific, a love story and an adventure thrown in. The main character, is teen, Ella Black, who has a good life with doting parents, but all is not as it seems. At times the story stretches belief and it can be slightly rambly but this is from an adult perspective. I can see teens loving this book, for its horror, adventure, love interest and fraught relationships. I particularly liked the descriptions of Rio

I’ve loved the other books by Emily Barr that I’ve read, but this didn’t quite work as I’d hoped.
The premise sounds great. Seventeen year old Ella has a perfect life. There’s hints of a dysfunctional personality when she refers to herself as Bella (Bad Ella, the one who says what she really thinks) and some details that are given to make more credible what is revealed later. One day she is taken out of school and whisked off to Rio by her parents. There she makes some pretty startling discoveries, and it launches a rather incredible series of events.
Ella seemed a little caricatured initially, and this split personality is part-explained later but it doesn’t really fit together. Once in Rio she doesn’t really push for answers, being more content to pursue the hot American staying in her hotel. Of course, they fall in love and he supports her in spite of the kind of chaos that would have most people running a mile! There’s a few near misses, but nothing too awful happens and Ella just happens to bump into kind-hearted characters who all help her out.
I can’t understand why so many reviewers have said they didn’t finish this, but it isn’t a particularly believable story and there isn’t enough detail about the characters of most interest to me.
Still, thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication.

As much as I enjoy this author's ability to get into the mindset of young adult this book was really lacking compared to her first book. It was repetitive and slightly long-winded in parts. I enjoyed it to a certain extent but I felt that this was nowhere near as good as Flora Banks.