‘More Than We Can Tell’: Book Review

It was like… a less depressing All The Bright Places

Name: More Than We Can Tell

Author: Brigid Kemmerer

Published: 2018

Every day, Rev Fletcher struggles with the memories and demons of the time before he was adopted. He’s always managed just fine, until a letter from his birth father brings the hellfire, fear and danger back into his life. Emma Blue spends her time perfecting the computer game she built from scratch, rather than facing her parents’ crumbling marriage. She can solve any problem with the right code, but when an online troll’s harassment escalates, she’s truly afraid.

When Rev and Emma meet, they both long to lift the burden of their secrets and bond instantly over their shared turmoil. But when their situations turn dangerous, their trust in each other will be tested in ways they never expected.

This was a very very good book 🙂 For background, it’s a YA standalone novel set in the same world as Letters To The Lost about this character, Declan. Similar to the Anna and the French Kiss series or some of the Love Creekwood stuff, characters from Letters To The Lost popped up in this – the main character was Declan’s best friend, Rev. Check out my review for Letters To The Lost here! Probably one of the best male friendships I’ve ever read, I loved Declan and Rev’s relationship in this book. They talked out loads of their problems together. Although, especially at the start, a lot of the problems could have been solved if the characters just talked to their parents/friends (it was *that* kind of book). But I guess their unwillingness to do so… was the entire plot.

This book is quite heavy in religion which I’m not normally a fan of, but it’s not too weighty and all tied in with these ideas of trauma and forgiveness. So much time was spent building up Emma and Rev separately that they’re not physically together that much. It meant strong characters and the interactions they do have are brilliant, but I was trying to think if getting together was realistic. Some of the dialogue between Emma and Rev was a bit unrealistic to how teens talk – I think Brigid Kemmerer is better at writing email/text messages. Thats how quite a lot of it was structured, in both this and letters between Declan and Juliet in Letters To The Lost. So I think she thinks it too!

“We all push sometimes, just to make sure someone is on the other side, pushing back.”

– More than we can tell

Fast paced writing style kept me really engaged, whilst flicking between Emma and Rev’s pespectives. I think more time was spent on Rev than Emma but I guess it was building onto his character from Letters To The Lost. But whilst Declan was a featured character (his girlfriend not as much) but you could 1000% read this without reading any of Kemmerer’s other books. Speaking of her other ones, I kind of want to read the A Curse So Dark And Lonely books because of how much I’ve enjoyed these ones. Have you read them? Let me know in the comments!

To finish, I really like how the author wrote grief and trauma. There’s no iM bRoKeN moments, it felt like a realistic and not romantising approach. Surprisingly, the book addressed some pretty dark stuff. I wasn’t expecting the turn that it took (I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE SIGN ON THE BACK. oops) but Rev’s adopted family were gorgeously written. I really enjoyed it.

Definitely not the right word to describe the plot, but the overall feel of the book was… sweet. The themes addressed were anything but; however, it was a brilliant romance. A gripping, gritty story combined with a dareIsay… cute couple. I’d thoroughly recommend it for fans of Jennifer Niven

because it was like… a less depressing All The Bright Places 🙂