Stronger Than You Know

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Pub Date 01 Sep 2014 | Archive Date 31 Jan 2015

Description

After police intervention, fifteen-year-old Joy has finally escaped the trailer where she once lived with her mother and survived years of confinement and abuse. Now living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in a comfortable house, she’s sure she’ll never belong. Wracked by panic attacks, afraid to talk to anyone at her new school, Joy’s got a whole list of reasons why she’s crazy. With immense courage, Joy finds friends and grows closer to her new family. But just when hope is taking hold, she learns she must testify in her mother’s trial. Can she face her old life without losing her way in the new one? Will she ever truly belong in a world that seems too normal to be real?

After police intervention, fifteen-year-old Joy has finally escaped the trailer where she once lived with her mother and survived years of confinement and abuse. Now living with her aunt, uncle, and...


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Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780807531556
PRICE $16.99 (USD)

Average rating from 40 members


Featured Reviews

Stronger Than You Know is about issues you know exist so it makes it a bit difficult to read at times, only difficult because you know that kids are going through things like this and not all are lucky enough to get through it with such strength and good results as Joy. You learn that at the end with Jolene Perry's note, unfortunately. Difficult situation aside this book was very good. I wouldn't really consider this a romance book and that is what was put on Goodreads for this. There is romance in it but, it isn't the full focus of the story.

Joy has been through a lot in her life and she has a lot of growing to do. She's been abused by her mother and her mother's friends and boyfriends. She has been kept inside her whole life for reasons she didn't know but it was not something she questioned much of. Thankfully, she was taken from that situation and placed with her Aunt Nicole and Uncle Rob. She had one conversation on the phone with her Aunt so they were pretty much strangers and Joy has a lot of issues to deal with. She doesn't like being in the same room as many people and especially men due to her past.

Through out this book we get to take the ride with Joy on her working through these issues, getting better with them and making big leaps and bounds with her progress. We also see set backs and how certain things affect her even still. You slowly find out what happened to her when she was with her mother and can definitely see why she has the issues she does. I felt horrible for her but she was a really strong character. She pushed herself to overcome and she pushed herself to find new ways for her to do certain things, make friends and open up to people. This is a story that makes you proud of the main character and enjoy the time you spend with them in their story.

What I liked the most about this story was that we get the jest of what happened to Joy. She tells a few people and then at the end you get some from her testimony against her mother. We get what happens but we don't relive it through Joy at all. She is focused on moving forward and although it haunts her dreams and affects every aspect of her life we aren't given the horrid details that some books think they have to give for the reader to truly understand. It was well written and you still felt every bit of emotion that Jolene Perry wanted to convey.

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When I first saw this book I knew it'd be amazing, moving and inspiring. After reading it I realized it was a whole lot more. It was of a girl coming-of-age in spite of a horrid and inhumane upbringing. It was about healing past scars that you thought would never go away. It was about renewal and a second chance at a better life.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to do a full review of Stronger Than You Know but just had to put in my two cents. Kudos Jolene Perry!

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Stronger Than You Know tells the story of a fifteen year old girl who has dealt with things she never should have had to deal with. It also tells the story of how she learns to navigate the challenges that come along with trying to figure out who she is and where her place is in the world.

I have to admit, when I finished this book, my first thought was that I would never ever do this story justice with a review. This always happens to me when I read something that I absolutely love and Jolene Perry has catapulted this story onto my favorites shelf by creating characters I loved and a story that made me go through just about every single feeling.
Joy grew up with a mother who neglected and abused her and she allowed her boyfriends to treat her horribly as well…in every single way you can imagine. I was immediately pulled into Joy’s story and while she is adapting to living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins, they are also adapting to living with her. Their lives are impacted just as greatly as Joy’s is and I thought it was wonderful how much they were willing to do in order to help Joy.

While every single one of these characters just made me want to climb into this book and give them all hugs, I have to call out her Uncle Rob. While at first Joy struggled to be comfortable with him, he completely understood he needed to give her time and space. I loved seeing their relationship change and grow until she realized that he really was there to make sure she was safe and he would do whatever he could to provide that security for her. Admittedly, he was one of my favorite characters and this was one of my favorite parts of the story.

As Joy faces her fears and setbacks, she begins to build relationships with not only her new family, but also people like Daisy and Justin. These characters both played different roles in Joy’s growth and change and were critical to her moving beyond her issues. They both showed her she has strength, feelings, and friends no matter what happened in her past.

Since this story is from Joy’s perspective, we go through the highs and lows right alongside her and that is the piece that made this story so impactful for me. While Perry doesn’t go into a lot of detail of what happened to Joy, enough is revealed for us to know that she went through hell and through a twist of fate, ended up with a loving and caring family that treated her like their own sister/daughter. The good times had me grinning like a fool for her and the bad times had me almost in tears for the pain and suffering she was feeling.

Now, I know some people are saying that they didn’t think a lot happened in this book and I have to disagree. I think the challenge here for some is that this is very much a character driven story (which I LOVE) and all of the things that happen are linked to the growth and change in Joy and those around her.

Hopefully my rambling isn’t horribly distracting and helps you realize that this is one of those stories that make it impossible for me to do it justice. Just trust me and check out this book when you can as this is a moving story that pulled me in and even now has me thinking about everything.

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This one is actually breathtakingly beautiful. Joy is amazing. I want to be friends with her and give her a huge hug.

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What a heart wrenching read. Joy is a 16 year old girl who has had a hard life. Raised in a trailer with her Mom and her Mom's string of boyfriends. Joy was not allowed to go outside and was sometimes locked in her room for hours and days at a time. She was abused by her Mom and her boyfriends. Joy is now living with her Aunt and Uncle and their two children and life is better but she still has flashbacks of the life she was living in before. She also doesn't trust men at all and has a hard time looking anyone in the eye. A hard read at times, because of all that Joy had to go through.

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What I liked: This book paints an honest picture of what it feels like to be a survivor of abuse. I was impressed with the first person POV and brutal honesty of the MC. I loved getting to know Joy and going on her journey of self discovery with her! Joy sees many of the actions of boys as sinister and later learns that she doesn't need to fear all men. This book is thought provoking, well written and poignant. As a therapist, I know that this type of book is important--a story that needs to be told.

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Sometimes a book like Stronger Than You Know is exactly what I'm looking for in a read. I thought the synopsis sounded intriguing and moving, so I went with it and requested this book. It didn't take me long to read. I also appreciated how the author tackled mental health and anxiety. As a long term sufferer of anxiety, I could relate to the main character, even though I am lucky enough to not have experienced what she had. I think it's really important that mental health is tackled in Young Adult literature as it is so common yet so rarely tackled. The story isn't perfect, but I still think it's a decent, quick read.

I loved Joy as a character. I couldn't begin to understand how she felt after suffering such abuse at the hands of her mother and her mother's terrible boyfriends. It's characters like this, and people like this in real life that I find admirable. They nearly always find that inner strength in order to move on with the rest of their lives. I also loved how honest she was a character. She knew she wasn't quite right yet and had a mountain to climb with her fears, but she started to move on and she was strong enough to acknowledge that it was going to take some time to find some normality. She kept fighting because she wanted to move past her horrible upbringing and move forward with her new family. I just love that strength of character. She grew so much throughout the book. I love characters that develop so well.

Joy's family, her Aunt, Uncle and her cousins, that she was placed with were also incredibly well written. I adored the pure love that her Aunt and Uncle gave her, despite not knowing the full story about what happened to them. It was lovely to read about someone placed with a family member and actually getting on with them. I also appreciated how the rest of the family had their flaws too. It was realistic!

Being ultra critical, healing and growing is all the book is really about. Therefore if you're looking for a story with a bit more of a plot then this isn't it. Stronger Than You Know is about healing after terrible incidents and finding out who you are with the love of family to guide you.

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“I’m still in shock over the things that happened to me. The things I didn’t know weren’t normal. And now that I know what normal can be, I’m amazed I survived.”

When I started I knew it would be emotional but I had no idea what I was getting into. Joy didn’t just have a bad home life, it was awful. She was abused, both emotionally and physically by everyone she had meet until she was finally taken away at the age of 16.

She moves in with her Aunt Nicole, Uncle Rob and their two kids, Tara and Trent. Joy goes from being with awful horrible family to a regular American home. It was so well written that I understood everything she was going through… well to a fault.

For example when she got there she felt as if she was a nuisance, someone they had to take in not someone they wanted. As the story evolved and Joy’s self esteem went up, she realized they didn’t have to take her but they wanted her there. Even if she was a little crazy and broken.

Her story broke my heart so many times but the absolute worst was when Joy tried to be around her Uncle the first few times: “He was a man I didn’t know in a house I didn’t know, and maybe certain things were going to be expected of me. A lot had been expected of me in the past. I had no reason to believe that Uncle Rob was any different.”
I mean how awful is that she can’t even trust her own family! Joy still tries to live a normal-ish life, she goes to school but she doesn’t think things can get better until she meets Justin. For the first time since she can remember she is able to face a guy and not need a pill.

Justin was such a sweet guy, I mean of all the YA studs he definitely takes the cake. He’s sweet and understanding with a lot of love and patience. He never pushed Joy but was waiting for her to make a move. He wasn’t the only adorable person, there was also Daisy. She was a homeschool Karate pro who became Joy’s best friend. She was as wild as Joy was cautious and they helped each other.

Overall this was a fantastic story of a girl who suffered awful tragedy and learned to overcome it with people who loved her. Its true and realistic and one of my favorite books of this year.

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Stronger Than You Know is a superb YA novel. My heart broke for Joy and all that she had dealt with at the young age of 15, Perry does a wonderful job of providing us enough information to know what happened to Joy in the past, without having to experience it. And then it was wonderful to see her overcome that past. As she tried to adjust to her new home with her aunt, uncle, and cousins, I felt for Joy and all she was going through. This story was told through Joy's eyes, making every emotion that much stronger. As she struggled, it felt as if I were struggling too. When she excelled, my heart was filled with awe at the strength of this young girl. I liked seeing how her relationships with her family changed over time, especially with her Uncle Rob. Stronger Than You know is all about Joy and her journey, there’s no over the top drama or unnecessary conflict, which made it all that more enjoyable and real.

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I received a free ARC From Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I throughly enjoyed this reading this book. While the topic of rape, neglect and abuse is depressing- the overall theme of the book was empowering. We get to experience the evolution of joy when she is taken out of her abusive mother's home and placed in her loving Aunts home. Joy is suffering from severe panic attacks and is even fearful or her own uncle, even though she knows he is a kind and gentle man. I loved this book because as they reader we can see joy slowly getting stronger and making advancements with her treatment, even when she does (and resents herself for not making more progress).

I was on Joy's side when she gets upset with her aunt for sharing her personal history with Justin. That was not he place. Especially when her cousins don't really know about her past. I also got really frustrate with Trent, but the. I realized that he was a typical teenaged boy. Overall, I really enjoyed this book as a YA novel and highly recommend it!

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I received this novel from NetGalley.

Id like to say, I loved this novel, butI didn't. It is too confronting, emotional, and way too real to love this tale of pain, horror, family and love. This novel is amazing, it takes the reader on a journey that never truly ends, even after the last word is read.

Cleverly written, this novel is not for the faint hearted. a great read.

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This is a heartbreaking story about a girl who was abused by her mother and the men that her mother allowed into their home and how she was able to recover from that once she was rescued and went to live with her aunt and uncle. I read the story in one day and it really made me think about how difficult it must be for abused children to learn how to get along in the world after so much suffering. I received this book free to review from Netgalley and I highly recommend it.

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This book is the best I have read in a while. I have put it on my list of favorites.

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