I recently had the opportunity to read "Everything We Never Said" by Sloan Harlow, thanks to a free e-book ARC from NetGalley.

The story follows Ella, who is grappling with guilt and grief after the tragic death of her best friend, Hayley. The aftermath of this senseless loss is vividly portrayed by Harlow, capturing the complexities of Ella's emotions as she returns to school, haunted by memories and the presence of Sawyer, Hayley's boyfriend.

What stood out to me was Harlow's skill in depicting Ella's journey through grief, isolation, and the unexpected romance with Sawyer. The emotional turmoil felt authentic, I appreciated the accurate portrayal of the impact of such a tragedy on young lives.

The inclusion of trigger warnings highlights the book's willingness to address sensitive topics, making it a valuable read for young audiences.

I did however find the narrative somewhat dragged out, making it challenging to fully engage due to the excessive wordiness and dialogue.

Despite not being my typical read, I recognize that "Everything We Never Said" caters well to fans of thrilling YA novels, especially those who appreciate a mix of romance and mystery. While the book may not have been my cup of tea due to its somewhat verbose nature, readers who enjoy the nuances of teenage emotions and the suspense of unraveling secrets might find it to be a compelling addition to their bookshelf.

"Everything We Never Said" by Sloan Harlow is a haunting exploration into the heart of darkness, where I could not help but be pulled into the tangled webs of secrets and desires. Throughout this book, I felt like venturing into a labyrinth of emotions, each twist and turn revealing layers of hidden truths that I never saw coming.

Ella's anguish and guilt were palpable. She grappled with the weight of her feelings for her best friend's boyfriend. The intensity of her emotions and the gripping turmoil of her inner conflict struck a chord in me that made me ache with empathy as she navigated the murky waters of her own guilt and love.

The mystery drew me in. It teased me with fragments of secrets buried within Hayley's journal and Sawyer's identity. I was constantly on the edge of my seat, questioning the characters' motives and actions, trying to piece together the puzzle of their tangled relationships.

Harlow unveiled the complexities of grief and desire. The story was hauntingly beautiful yet unsettling. The book's intensity was similar to that of a silent whisper that left me haunted by the lingering question: How well do we truly know the ones we love?

"Everything We Never Said" is a journey into the shadows of human nature, where secrets lurk in the darkest corners of our hearts. You just might find yourself questioning the depths of friendships and the haunting power of the unspoken.

"A riveting dive into the dark depths of forbidden love and hidden secrets."

"A haunting exploration of guilt, desire, and the unseen facets of friendships."

"An emotionally charged thriller that unravels the tangled webs of the heart."

"A gripping rollercoaster of suspense and unexpected revelations."

"A tale of love, loss, and the eerie shadows of unspoken truths."

"A mesmerizing journey through the labyrinth of shattered friendships."

"A spellbinding narrative that investigates the haunting aftermath of tragedy."

"A portrayal of grief, guilt, and the allure of secrets."

"A darkly atmospheric story that peels back layers of hidden desires."

"A hauntingly beautiful narrative that probes the complexities of love and betrayal."

This story explores the darkness that you struggle through after the death of your best friend, especially when you feel that you are to blame for the accident. It tells the tale of those left behind - the broken family, the forlorn friends, and the adrift boyfriend. Each person's individual guilt and loss can compound that of others. Introduce a surprise diary in code in Hayley's belongings, and you see Ella unravel more as she tries to determine what was going on in Hayley's life that she was oblivious to. It is no surprise that Ella and Sawyer spend more time together as grief commonly binds a victim's best friend and boyfriend - who else can understand the depth of loss?! As Hayley's diary points to domestic violence, Ella realizes that she may be in danger also ... but who can she trust with this information? Will Ella finally remember what happened the night of the accident? Can Ella overcome her guilt and loss? This is a compelling dark mystery.

Set your calendars for June 4, 2024, people! That is the date of publication for this amazing, fun, young adult quick-read. Part mystery, part teenage angst, part BFF love story, and throw in a hot boy-friend with a bit of a temper too. I love books that encapsulate today's technology and this book did that with text messages popping up here and there, but then we also had the old-school diary entries, which I also love. Let me have a quick peek into someone's private thoughts that no one was supposed to ever read! Yes, please!
Great book! Thank you to NetGalley & PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for allowing me the pleasure to read an arc in exchange for my review. Excited to see what Sloan Harlow comes up with next. :)

This is my first book by Sloan Harlow. I enjoyed it, very fast read and the storyline is engaging. It's the perfect book for a YA.

Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC.

"Sloan Harlow's 'Everything We Never Said' is a poignant exploration of love, loss, and redemption. The novel follows Ella, haunted by guilt after her best friend Hayley's death, as she navigates an unexpected connection with Sawyer, Hayley's boyfriend. Harlow skillfully unravels the complexities of grief and forbidden love, delving into the secrets hidden beneath seemingly perfect relationships. The characters are well-developed, and the incorporation of Hayley's journal adds an intriguing layer to the narrative. With evocative prose, Harlow creates a tense and atmospheric thriller that will captivate and keep you turning the pages till the end.

Ella is grieving the loss of her best friend Hayley. In that grief, she also finds connection with Hayley's boyfriend Sawyer - and she starts to have feelings for him. Then, Ella finds Hayley's diary, and she realizes there was a lot she didn't tell her. I'll be honest that I figured out the twist of this one halfway through, BUT I wanted to keep reading to see if/when the other characters might, too. There was also still one unexpected twist at the end. This was a quick read that fit nicely in that YA thriller box. I will say that this is a thriller that comes with some feels of the sad variety, but still also has that thrill-y vibe, too. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this June 2024 release.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy. This book is fantastic! The grief of losing your best friend and the heights of first love. Then everything is not as it seems. I look forward to reading more from Sloan Harlow!

I enjoyed this book. I thought I had it figured out at one point, but I was wrong. It is definitely for older teens and young adults and not for young teens. There’s mystery, forbidden love, and heartbreak. Trigger warning: there is domestic violence included in various parts of the story.

WOW. This was an intense romantic young adult thriller. First off, I didn't even know it was a thriller but I was not disappointed! It was very fast paces, with a LOT of depth that I honestly wasn't expecting.

There's grief, there's forbidden romance, and there's quite a few twists.

I personally loved the diary entries, and the multiple POV's. I felt like this book flowed perfectly and it was super easy to get into! I read most of it in one sitting.

If you are looking for a fast paced, romantic thriller than this is the book for you!

____

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Group, and Sloan Harlow for an Advanced Readers Copy! Everything We Never Said is released June 4, 2024.

Everything We Never Said by Sloan Harlow broke my heart at the very beginning. High school kids and death should never go together. Harlow’s artful description of the aftermath of a tragedy hooked me right away.
Summary
It’s the first day of her senior year and Ella is blaming herself for the death of her BFF Hayley four months ago. Worse, it seems like everyone else is blaming her, too, including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. But Ella doesn’t remember anything from that night and she’s not sure she wants to.
What I Liked
Harlow does a wonderful job of showing Ella’s grief, her isolation, and her uncertainty. I taught high school for many years and experienced the absolute horror of losing students to car crashes. The death of a young person in such a senseless manner leaves a gaping hole that Harlow describes perfectly.
The story charts Ella’s progress as she deals with complicated feelings and the budding romance with Sawyer, despite the guilt this causes both of them. Missing her friend, Ella reads Hayley’s journal to find solace but instead finds disturbing details of Hayley’s life just before her death. Images from that night resurface as Ella’s faulty memory begins to heal and those images lead her to suspect more than just a car crash led to Hayley’s death.
The story moves along at a nice pace most of the time (see Minor Criticisms) and I was never bored with it. I’m all for twists and turns and unreliable narrators and I got all those things in this book.
Trigger Warnings—but also stuff I liked.
In addition to a pretty good story, nicely told, Everything We Never Said touches on several serious issues: domestic abuse, manipulation, abusive relationships, and anger issues. I have to mention trigger warnings concerning abortion and violence as well as the situations mentioned. A little of what we used to call heavy petting occurs.
The title, it turns out, refers not only to the unsaid things between two friends when one dies suddenly but also to the way abuse and manipulation occur in a vacuum when the victim doesn’t confide in trusted friends or seek guidance from adults who care for her/him. Silence and secrecy play right into the abuser’s hands.
Everything We Never Said presents valuable discussion points for young readers along with a twisty story.
Minor Criticisms
My only criticisms are with sometimes stilted dialogue and occasional wordiness, but that’s the editor in me. Some situations might have been condensed and some excess verbiage pruned. Dialogue—especially the adults—began to sound like it was all the same person instead of used to build these characters—even though they are minor characters. Otherwise, character building was essentially good, and the high school setting struck a realistic chord with me.
Overall…
I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to high school kids and their families. Harlow’s bubbly style and her exploration of the complexities of the teenage mind make for an engaging read.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked the characters and the plot of the story was good. However, some things didn’t quite make sense, such as reading the diary one entry at a time and over a long period of time, especially when there are disturbing entries. Maybe that’s being nitpicking but it did irritate me. Like I said though I still enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it

Grief is a hard topic to flush out, and basing a book on such fresh loss set the bar quite high, but Harlow succeeded in a unique way. Other aspects of the novel felt less developed, or more cliche, such as twists that were easily picked up, or a fast paced romance that had less development than the mystery. However, all things combined, Everything We Never Said was a gripping novel that I finished in one sitting. It brought up emotions from loss that even four years out are still fresh in my mind. For a quick, fast-paced read, it met its mark.

2.5⭐ The mystery of this book wasn't terrible. I was drawn in, eagerly waiting to learn what actually happened. None of that matters,though. I had to skip through this YA book bc it made me so uncomfortable. If this was different, focusing solely on mystery, I would have liked it. It has the capability of being a good book, and that plot twist was great, but there were parts that weren't needed. This just wasn't it for me..

So this was a really quick read. Umm, I don’t think the execution was fully there because the last half felt all over the place and didn’t make sense. It was kind of like a YA version of Verity in the sense that it switched between POVs and we get parts of Hayley’s diary that make us try to figure out whether Sawyer is as bad as he seems.

The writing itself wasn’t something I’d normally continue reading, and the whole “I’m in love with my dead best friend’s boyfriend” tagline is a little bit misleading because it wasn’t that wild, but ultimately I pushed through because it was the kind of book you can finish in one sitting.

DNF at 15%
While the premise for the book is good, I found almost all of the dialogue to be cringey and difficult to read. For a YA book it felt like it was trying a little too hard to appeal to a gen z audience. Within the first chapter there are references to Pedro Pascal and “Mercury in Retrograde” that come across as an adult trying to appeal to teenagers based on what people say about gen z on twitter. Overall I think this book had a lot of potential, but I just couldn’t get past some of these quotes and references.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

I'm typically not a fan of unreliable narrators, but this was definitely a fun one! Intense and mysterious, it kept me guessing the whole time, though I did figure out some of the mini twists. It's the perfect read for a rainy day or the beach!