All The Things We Never Said book review

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

All The Things We Never Said by Yasmin Rahman
Published by Hot Key Books on July 11, 2019
Pages: 448
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads

16-year-old Mehreen Miah's anxiety and depression, or 'Chaos', as she calls it, has taken over her life, to the point where she can't bear it any more. So she joins MementoMori, a website that matches people with partners and allocates them a date and method of death, 'the pact'. Mehreen is paired with Cara Saunders and Olivia Castleton, two strangers dealing with their own serious issues.

As they secretly meet over the coming days, Mehreen develops a strong bond with Cara and Olivia, the only people who seem to understand what she's going through. But ironically, the thing that brought them together to commit suicide has also created a mutually supportive friendship that makes them realise that, with the right help, life is worth living. It's not long before all three want out of the pact. But in a terrifying twist of fate, the website won't let them stop, and an increasingly sinister game begins, with MementoMori playing the girls off against each other.

A pact is a pact, after all.

In this powerful debut written in three points of view, Yasmin Rahman has created a moving, poignant novel celebrating life. ALL THE THINGS WE NEVER SAID is about friendship, strength and survival.

All The Things We Never Said was a book that I was a little dubious about going into it, only because of the subject matter it deals with. Finally a book that isn’t romance based, check out my review of What She Found in the Woods if that’s what you’re looking for.

I have to warn anyone reading this that it deals with suicidal thoughts, sexual abuse and self-harming. We follow three different characters using a website that creates a suicide pact with each other. I had a few issues with this story, one main one was the lack of understanding how technology, such as fingerprint scanners. I will say that the way that mental health is dealt with within the plot line, however some of the plots were tied up a little too easy. I don’t want to spoil anything for you but I just think it wasn’t particularly realistic. Overall I enjoyed reading the book, it offered a good insight into mental health and how vulnerable you really are but I just didn’t think the ending was satisfying.

There are three main characters in All The Things We Never Said and they each have their own storylines, with things that they are all dealing with. I think each of the characters were really unique but I really didn’t like Cara, her chapters were exceptionally hard to read and I found her irritating. I did think she had one of the more cliche storylines and also thought that her ending was a little too well thought out. I loved Mehreen’s chapters I think the author really captured what living with anxiety really feels like with the scrawled out letters and the doubting everything. I related to her the most and I really appreciated her story.

I think the best bit of All The Things We Never Said would definitely be anything to do with Mehreen and her chapters. I think she made this book ten times better than it would have been without her. I also think that the way that this book dealt with sexual abuse was definitely an eye-opener and I think it was written about in a very well-constructed way. I also liked the way that they grew together and became fast friends. I really enjoyed the different styles of writing throughout and how vastly different each chapter was from the last one. It made for very interesting reading.

I have mentioned this above but anything to do with Cara to be honest, her anger was really hard to swallow and her reactions made her really unlikeable as a character. Also going to say it again the ending was really unsatisfying and I think there was no real closure in the story or for the characters. I know that stories can’t go on forever but this one definitely needed something more about it.

I would recommend All The Things We Never Said, it dealt with some really difficult themes in a really unique way. I thought the story was really well done and I enjoyed learning more about the characters even if I didn’t like them all equally!

Have you ever read a book that dealt with really difficult themes in a good way? Let me know what they are in the comments!