ABOUT THE BOOK
How do you live your life if your past is based on a lie? Find out in this “satisfied and moving story” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) in both verse and prose from #1 New York Times bestselling author, Ellen Hopkins.
For as long as she can remember, it’s been just Ariel and Dad. Ariel’s mom disappeared when she was a baby. Dad says home is wherever the two of them are, but Ariel is now seventeen and after years of new apartments, new schools, and new faces, all she wants is to put down some roots. Complicating things are Monica and Gabe, both of whom have stirred a different kind of desire.
Maya’s a teenager who’s run from an abusive mother right into the arms of an older man she thinks she can trust. But now she’s isolated with a baby on the way, and life’s getting more complicated than Maya ever could have imagined.
Ariel and Maya’s lives collide unexpectedly when Ariel’s mother shows up out of the blue with wild accusations: Ariel wasn’t abandoned. Her father kidnapped her fourteen years ago.
In bestselling author Ellen Hopkins’s deft hands, Ariel’s emotionally charged journey to find out the truth of who she really is balances beautifully with Maya’s story of loss and redemption. This is a memorable portrait of two young women trying to make sense of their lives and coming face to face with themselves—for both the last and the very first time.
BOOK EXCERPT
YOU KNOW MY STORY
TO BEGIN
Oh, to be given the gifts
of the chameleon!
Not only the ability
to match the vital façade
to circumstance at will,
but also the capacity
to see in two directions
simultaneously.
Left. Right.
Forward. Backward.
How much gentler
our time on this planet,
and how much more
certain of our place
in the world we would be,
drawing comfort
like water from the wells
of our homes.
WILL I WALK
Four letters,
one silent.
A single syllable
pregnant with meaning.
Home is more
than a leak-free roof
and insulated walls
that keep you warm
when the winter wind screams
and cool when summer
stomps all over you.
Home is a clearing
in the forest,
a safe place to run
when the trees shutter
all light and the crunch
of leaves in deepening darkness
drills fear into your heart.
Home is someone
or two who accepts you
for the person you believe
you are, and if that happens
to change, embraces the person
you ultimately find yourself to be.
the monster.
REVIEW FOR THE YOU I’VE NEVER KNOWN
REVIEWS FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:
Once again tackling difficult subject matter through elegantly crafted free verse, Hopkins (Traffick) tells the story of 17-year-old Ariel; her father, Mark; and Maya, also 17, who jumps into a relationship with an older man to escape her mother. Mark is an alcoholic drifter, prone to angry and violent outbursts. He has finally settled down long enough for Ariel to finish an entire school year in Sonora, Calif., where Ariel has allowed herself to develop real friendships and even consider the possibility of finding love. Hopkins uses spare yet poignant language to convey Ariel’s simultaneous joy and fear as she begins to explore her sexuality (“the need to embrace/ this part of myself/ is escalating”) while dealing with an abusive, homophobic, and controlling parent. Maya, whose chapters are written in first-person prose, intersects with Mark and Ariel’s lives in an unexpected way, deepening the story’s exploration of identity. Hopkins creates a satisfying and moving story, and her carefully structured poems ensure that each word and phrase is savored. Ages 14–up. Agent: Laura Rennert, Andrea Brown Literary. (Jan.) —Publishers Weekly