Although this was advertised as a teen/ya (which I certainly am not) I was intrigued by the cover. I found it to be a very strange 'coming of age', teen romance story. Very much a scenario that every teenager fantasizes about at some point.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in order to provide an honest review.  

Although this isn’t a genre I would usually choose to read, the blurb sounded intriguing so I took a chance. I’m glad that I did - it’s an unputdownable novel, with a flawed, relatable protagonist in Ella Black.  Written in the first person, you get a real sense of Ella’s teenaged angst, and her confused feelings towards her parents.

One criticism I had is that whilst most of the novel is realistic, and has a good sense of time and place, her first experiences of love aren’t particularly realistic, and the explanation of how she is tracked down seems far-fetched.  However, I was willing to let that slide because of how absorbing Ella’s journey throughout those forty days was.

There is an interesting subtext relating to the nature versus nurture argument, particularly in the context of Ella and Fiona Black.

I would definitely recommend this book!

Ella has a dark side to her personality that she calls Bella.  As Ella reaches towards her 18th birthday she feels Bella becoming stronger and harder to hide from her friends and family. One day she is whisked from school by her parents and fly to Rio, a place which has always fascinated  Ella. Whilst in Rio Ella discovers some disturbing secrets and her whole life is turned upside down.
This is a story for mature readers which although lost my attention in parts, still made me read to the end.

Ella Black is seventeen, artistic, slightly shy and insecure. She is a girl that tries to fit in at school but suffers from some bullying and some condescension. Ella, however, has a darker side which she can struggle to control. She calls her other side Bella – bad Ella and she is violent and angry. Ella has two special friends, Jack and Lily but even they don’t know about Bella. 

During one normal day at school Ella is suddenly whisked away by her parents on the pretext that her father has to go to Brazil. She finds herself in Rio. Her parents are reluctant to explain to her why they have had to leave the country so quickly but she soon establishes that it has nothing to do with her father’s job and more the fact that they are not her natural parents and she is adopted. 

The story continues with Ella finding love in the form of a Cuban America called Christian but also with her running away and hiding out in one of favelas in Rio whilst she tries to find out who her natural parents are. It is pretty obvious that the discovery is not going to be a good one.

The story is written in the first person but the narrative is a little inconsistent. Ella sometimes sounds more like a sulky fourteen year old than a girl who is shortly going to be eighteen. The novel attempts to cover a host of teenage issues: peer pressure; mental health; self-harming; first love. It does this quite well but I felt a similar inconsistency in the handling of the Ella/Bella issue as I did with the language used. It also attempts to be all encompassing with Ella’s friend Jack being gay and Lily is mixed race. 

This novel is classed as a YA publication and that is accurate. Being a little older than that I’m not sure whether today’s YAs would find it patronising or not; that is a question for them. It was a good story and I raced through it in a day.  

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

I was a huge fan of The One Memory of Flora Banks so I was quite excited to read this. I had loved Flora and her character touched my heart and stayed with me long after I finished the book. This book however was a bit disappointing, as the main protagonist was a lot whiny and sounded like a 12 year old rather than 17.

Probably more like 2.5 stars. Hit and miss.

I was a huge fan of The One Memory of Flora Banks so I was quite excited to read this. Flora touched my heart and is the kind of character that stays with you. Unfortunately this time not so much with our main protagonist who frankly was a little bit entitled and a lot whiny.

Anyway though - there were good things and bad things.

The Good: The portions of the story where she's alone in Brazil, the life there - it came alive on the page and made you feel that you could actually go anywhere and do anything and life didn't have to be a static, mundane thing. That portion too dealt with the pure good hearts of some of our fellow human beings and had the theme running through that outward appearances don't necessarily reflect personality or intent. This was a lot of the central part of it and I banged through these bits wanting to live like Ella was living...

The Bad: Ella is supposedly 17 but reads more like a 12/13 year old, for no real reason. She didn't have an issue that would make her read this way, in fact to all intents and purposes she had a normal upbringing mostly and was an intelligent girl. Her reaction to the central secret read more like a toddler throwing a tantrum than a clever girl who has had her whole life fall apart. Supposedly explained away by her alter ego "Bella" (and please for the love of GOD stop explaining that Bella = Bad Ella we got it already around page 4) it didn't really ring true. Although it did mean she ran off and had an adventure, which was the bit I liked. And please with the "I'm in love with you even though I met you yesterday" - seriously young adults don't really do that as far as I know but it seems to be a thing in Young Adult novels.

So yes hit and miss. It didn't have the depth and sense of feeling that Flora Banks had - which doesn't mean it isn't a fairly good read if you can get past the annoyances and is worth it for the bits in Rio.

I'll continue reading Emily Barr but Ella Black can be resigned to the "not really going to remember this tomorrow" pile.

Ella Black’s life is turned upside down when her parents reveal secrets they have kept hidden from her for all of her seventeen years.
I am neither a fan of nor an expert on YA fiction, but I enjoyed this novel and imagine it might appeal across all age ranges. Emily Barr’s strength lies in her story telling, and her ability to keep the reader on board regardless of how unlikely her plots become, and there are many unlikely events in this one. There is also a shortage of likeable or credible characters, and even though difficult circumstances usually turn out for the best rather than the worst, and that the ending is difficult to get to grips with, The Truth and Lies of Ella Black still works as an entertaining read.
With thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House UK

I found this book intriguing, there are lots of contrasts, good and  bad, darkness and light, truth and lies.   I liked it because I liked the construction of Ella as a character.  As the story develops so does Ella, her issues within herself resolve as her life develops and changes.  It is an unusual story and perhaps stretches credibility a bit but it is worth pursuing to the end.  There were points where I thought do I want to continue but was interested to know where it was going.  One thing is true, it is certainly different.

I want to start by saying thank you to NetGalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this book in advance in exchange for an honest review. I’d like to apologise in advance for how long this review is going to be, and that it will not be spoiler-free. There were far too many things I wanted to discuss to keep it short and spoiler-free. I’d also like to give some trigger warnings for self-harm, animal abuse, violence and some mentions of rape (at one point, the main character is grabbed by a man who tries to drag her away). If you do decide to read this book, please be careful if any of these things are potentially triggering for you.

Putting my thoughts into words for this book is harder than I thought it was going to be. A lot of people had trouble with the book a few pages in after Ella (or “Bella”) kills a bird with a hammer. This was, of course, a difficult scene to read. The whole point was obviously to show how bad Bella (“bad Ella”) is and what she could do. At this point, I was already intrigued by the premise and willing to continue reading. I can totally understand how some readers wouldn’t be able to get past this. The book chapters are counting down in days “until she dies”, which had me instantly captivated. Who is “she”? Bella? Ella? I wanted to know, so I kept reading. After this, it was pretty much all downhill from here. 

I have so many issues with this book. I didn’t like the way body image was spoken about. When Ella saw a boy she found attractive, she remarked that she was glad she’d eaten healthily and exercised and stressed about food without knowing it so that she’d look good enough to impress the boy. Later on in the story, when she’s basically starving, she says “We used to withhold food from ourselves to make ourselves thin. That feels like a joke now”, which didn’t sit right with me. I didn’t like the way self-harm was talked about and at times almost felt glorified? Ella was all over the place. To me, she must have had some form of personality disorder, so maybe that was the point. But she was also incredibly immature for a seventeen/eighteen year old girl. Towards the end of the book, there were moments where Ella said she was now realising how hard life is and how nobody’s life is straightforward. Yes, she’d been incredibly sheltered in her upbringing, but this still seemed such a ridiculous thing to only just be realising to me. 
Honestly, the worst thing about this book for me was the instalove. Usually, instalove isn’t a huge deal to me. It can be cute and in the right book, that’s fine. But the instalove in this story was probably the most ridiculous I’ve ever read. I don’t know where to start with this. Get comfortable, I’ve got a lot of feelings about this. So we first meet Christian in the hotel in Rio as he’s on his way to breakfast. Ella is now in love. Another day at breakfast, Ella arranges to meet up with him and his friends later on. She’s practically forgotten about being pulled out of school halfway through the day and dragged to Brazil by her parents at this point. She sneaks out of the hotel and goes to meet them at a bar, where she gets drunk with them and reveals that she’s still in high school. One of Christian’s friends is shocked by this, but Christian doesn’t seem bothered. It’s never mentioned how old Christian is. So anyway, Ella runs away and Christian tracks her down. She tells him everything. He agrees not to tell her parents. What the fuck, Christian? He spends another half a day or so with her so obviously they’re madly in love. She continually proclaims that she loved him as soon as she saw him. She then runs away from Christian too, thinking he’s too good for her after she discovers the truth about her birth parents and she’s so “heartbroken”. So he eventually tracks her down again, when she’s been gone for nearly a month (this clearly mentally ill teenage girl with anger issues and violent tendencies) and STILL DOES NOT TELL HER PARENTS. Ella’s main worry when she sees him again is (apart from him revealing her identity) is that he’ll be annoyed that she doesn’t look the same. It’s okay though, he still loves her! He tells her he’s leaving the country but he just had to find her and see her one more time. He then invites her to leave the country with him, or at least visit when she’s able to get a new passport. I’m not sure of the exact number, but I’m pretty sure you could count on one hand the number of days they’ve actually spent together at this point. So now we fast forward to the end of the book. Christian has MOVED TO RIO to be with her and they’re getting a flat together. Seriously?

Having read Barr’s previous book, The One Memory of Flora Banks, she seems to have written the same kind of main character over again. Flora was equally immature, equally infatuated with a boy upon first sight and also ran away from her parents, who’d also been lying to her for years. But in The One Memory of Flora Banks, this actually worked for me. Flora was unable to make new memories after an accident and was effectively ten years old in her own head. She was extremely coddled and given pills which made her compliant. You could understand why she was immature. Ella really had no reason to be. Both characters were extremely repetitive, which again, worked for Flora but was just kind of annoying in Ella. 

I also had issues with the fact that Ella got a job at the school, teaching English to children. Despite being told when she arrives that this isn’t how things work around here, Bella takes over and talks her way into a job. Of course, she’s not Ella or Bella at this point, but Jo. She’s given a form to fill in with her passport number (which she doesn’t have because her things were stolen) and references for the other school she claims to have taught in. She makes stuff up for the form and then we never hear about it again. Ben, who seems so strict about this kind of thing, never seems to actually check up on any of this. And then she’s just allowed to work with the kids? That was quite alarming for me, considering Ella’s history. At one point, she gets so angry at a child, she has to get him to leave or she’s scared she’s going to hurt him. But apart from that she mostly gets on great with them and finds them just as helpful to her as she is to them. I have no issue with people with mental health problems working with children, so long as they’re in a position to do so. Ella who has been hiding her violent tendencies her whole life, who has killed animals, who tried to attack her adoptive mother with a broken glass bottle and accidentally injured a waiter instead, should not have been allowed to work with children, at the very least not at this stage of her life. But it’s okay because she just never mentions this to anyone. She’s a new person now! The one person who does know all this - Christian - never mentions it either when he finds her working at the school, not even to ask Ella if she thinks it’s a good idea. 

Later, at the end of the book, in Ella’s letter to her adoptive parents, she mentions that she’s been seeing a councillor who has helped her to understand the “bad” part of herself. But you see, “Bella” isn’t all bad, because her strength helped her when she needed it. It’s not always easy, but finding out the truth has helped her “to pull the two sides of herself together” and she feels like herself now. Surely it’s not that simple? The words “mentally ill” are never mentioned throughout the whole book. Ella never seems to seek (or not to the reader's’ knowledge at least) actual help or a diagnosis. Talking to the councillor and feeling herself now is all the closure we get on her mental state. 
Then - strangely - on the very last page of the book, set nineteen years earlier and told from her adoptive mother’s perspective, we find out that her adoptive mum also had problems with a “dark voice” that tells her to do bad things. This was fixed when they decided to adopt a baby though. Lucky, eh? It was never once mentioned or alluded to in the rest of the story. Just the final page. I’m not sure what the point of this was. Ella somehow got this problem from her adoptive mother? To show that it wasn’t just Ella things like this happen to? Was it supposed to be relatable (oh well but obviously we all have that little voice that tells us to do bad things sometimes, but you can get past it) or heartwarming? For me, it was just confusing and pointless. 

This isn’t to say that this is a bad book. Like most things, books are subjective and just because I personally didn’t love this book doesn’t mean you won’t. What I will say is that it was never boring and it kept me reading, so there’s something to be said for that.

I have seen some negative reviews and was unsure what I’d think if this. I have read all of the author’s adult fiction and enjoyed them. 
I think people who left negative reviews were adults and forgot this is aimed at teenagers. 
It’s a good read. A good story and I enjoyed it in the main. It’s not as detailed as her adult books but it is aimed at younger people hence the book being a bit more simple.  
I’ve bought a copy for my goddaughter who is 16.

I really enjoyed this book - its about a girl called Ella who is 17 , lives at home with her parents and apart from the demons in her head appears to have a 'normal' life - One day her parents take her out of school and to Rio and here she discovers that her parents have been keeping secrets about who she really is for the last 17 years. I found it a little hard to get into at first especially about Ella/Bella and thought it was going to be a book all about mental health problems but happy to say that it had me gripped . I wasn't really happy with the ending but overall I enjoyed this book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

Everyones lives have their ups and downs, filled with truth and lies.. but this is something else! Brilliant read!

See review at: https://beechieriveroracle.com/2017/11/19/review-the-truth-and-lies-of-ella-black/

I'm normally a pretty fast reader. I procrastinate quite a lot so it's not too hard for me to steal a few moments (or a few hours, you get the idea) here and there to progress on my latest novel. Most of the books I've given 5 stars are the ones I finish in less than 24 hours, because they have what it takes to keep my eyes glued to the page/screen despite having schoolwork to finish. You get where I'm going with this? It took me ten days to finish The Truth and Lies of Ella Black. Ten days.

Ten

fucking

days.

Oh, did that seem a bit over-dramatic to you? Because that's exactly how this book is written. The author seems to think she's pulled off a feat of stylistic genius by typing the protagonist's inner monologue one word at a time, separated by line spacing. Spoiler alert: It's god-awfully dumb. I remember when I was 12 and decided I would be the next Veronica Roth and laugh my way to the bank writing a Divergent/Hunger Games rip-off. The manuscript I ended up vomiting out was around the calibre of Ella Black, complete with the Dickens-level skill of Writing. Your. Mentally. Ill. Protagonist's. Thoughts. Like. This.

This really reads like it was written by a 14-year-old at most, which baffles me because last I checked, Emily Barr is a grown woman who's been a novelist for over 15 years and a professional journalist for even longer than that. Spastic writing style aside, half of Ella Black's plot beggars belief, while the other half that does make some sort of sense from a realistic perspective is about as interesting as watching paint dry. (She got orange juice for breakfast! That could realistically happen in real life, so you've gotta at least give it that, right? Right?)

The book might at least have been more readable if every character wasn't so damn unlikeable. The protagonist Ella, while thankfully not as stupid as she could have been made, is frustratingly immature and self-centred, not to mention she has an alter ego nicknamed Bella for 'Bad Ella' inside her head, acting as the devil on her shoulder. I have nothing against mental illness or portrayals of it in literature, but the way it was handled here was just so clumsy that I wanted to bang my head against a wall every time Bella started talking in HER SIGNATURE ALL-CAPS. It doesn't help that Bella's inauspicious name makes me think of Ana Steele's Inner Goddess every time she pops up.

Christian, who I might mention Ella meets once and instantly knows he's The One, gives off a creepy vibe the whole novel thanks to his constant persistence in tracking her down. Who even does that with a girl they've known for less than a day? I was expecting him to reveal himself as a rapist/drug dealer/serial killer any moment, but unfortunately it never happened--that would have been a much more interesting story than the one we got. Ella's parents take helicopter parenting to a whole new level, which is the reason I can sort of excuse Ella's completely irresponsible behaviour later on. Jasmine is alright aside from being a little entitled and doesn't incite my hate, but there's nothing about her that makes me like her as a character either. Nobody else in the cast is developed enough to have an opinion about one way or the other.

Somehow, Ella Black has a few redeeming qualities that make it less of an eyeball-gouging read than it had the potential to be. Disregarding the chapters and chapters of seemingly aimless meandering, the book arrives at a statement by the end, a point that it wants to make, which is a task that every contemporary coming-of-age novel should accomplish. It's a surprisingly clear point too: Unearth your past to discover your future. Figure out who you are and go and live life as that person, to the fullest. It's great that Ella comes to discover a purpose and seems comfortable with who she is. It's great that Bella calms down as the novel progresses and there are less of the spaced out thoughts. It's great that the narrative voice matures somewhat as Ella comes into her own. If there's anything that Barr's writing style should be given credit for, it's her ability to use comparisons related to mundane experiences that everyone "gets" but nobody ever brings up. Such as:

"I felt like you do when you think you're at the bottom of the stairs but actually there's another step to go, and you step off and panic, feeling as if you've just stepped off a cliff."

An elegant, creative and accessible way to describe Ella's trepidation. If only the rest of the prose could have been that crisp and thought-out, this would have been a much more enjoyable novel. As it is, the whole draft is in need of a serious edit.

I loved this book. It was not what I was expecting at all but I was quickly hooked and read it in one sitting.

I liked Ella and having adopted, could understand her feelings of anger and betrayal. I could also understand the idea of separating your character as I have experienced that at first hand. The book felt real and the story - if far fetched at times - was carried off well.

I liked the fact that the story ended on a hopeful note - not all beautifully tied together but a workmanlike solution - like read life.

I will be recommending this book to my more mature readers.

I was looking forward to reading this book as I had enjoyed a previous novel by this author. The blurb had me intrigued and I was expecting an exciting and emotional read. 
If I were to recount the events of the book, then you might say it delivers on drama but whilst an interesting read, it did not have me completely hooked. I never got a real sense tension and didn't really invest in the characters. Ella was full of teenage angst even without the issues that unfold through the book but I didn't really feel the sympathy to her that I felt I should and consequently read it in a slightly detached way. The love interest didn't quite work for me and took away from the more pertinent parts of the plot whilst the mental health issues felt like they needed to be more connected to events in the story. There was lots of themes running through the book, all interesting but perhaps 'less is more' and less themes may have allowed for more focus on a connection for the reader.
It was an ok read but not one that will live long in the memory; I would like more depth to the character build up and a little more build up of tension to engage with what has the potential to be a compelling plot. However, since I have enjoyed work by this author in the past, I would read her work again in the future.

More a 3.5

I wasn’t sure where this book was headed as the original description did not prepare me for the strange rollercoaster ride this story embarked on. 

Seventeen year old Ella Black is not very popular in school has two friends, Jack and Lily, and overprotective parents. In addition to this she has a psychological alter ego she calls Bella (Bad Ella) who surfaces from time to time making Ella do abhorrent things she cannot control. One day whilst at school Ella’s mother shows up and takes her out. The next thing Ella knows is she is headed to Heathrow and boards a plane to Rio. Once in Rio a dark family secret, eventually, is uncovered and Ella finds herself unable to be around her parents who kept it from her. 

I would say this is probably the most unusual story I have inadvertently picked up this yet and after finishing it, I’m still not sure how I feel about this book. I found Ella a difficult protagonist to connect with and the plot was not easy to buy into, apart from that it was well written and I did finish it.

Did not finish. I couldn't get along with this one. The narrative was confusing and constantly jumping, the narrator just annoying.

I had to give up on it because it just wasn't my sort of book and just a bit plain.

Both the premise and cover of this book made me curious; Ella Black has 40 days to live, but she is not aware of this. And the cover shows a strike through of the name “Ella Black”. These two things alone pulled me in and I wanted to know more.

This story begins with a 17 year-old girl living in Kent, studying for her A-Levels, and considering subject choices for university. Straight away,  our protagonist – Ella – introduces us to her other self – Bella. Bella is Bad Ella and is taking over the controls with increasing frequency as Ella gets older, forcing her to do violent and out of character things. Ella has two important people in her life (other than her parents), her pretend boyfriend Jack, and her best friend Lily.

Ella attends an all-girls school, but is often the target of mean jokes and low-key bullying. After dying her hair from striking blonde to purple – a compromise with Bella to prevent something worse from happening – this issue only gets worse. However this is not what the story concentrates on, as Ella is soon whisked off to Rio by her parents taken in the middle of the school day with no warning. She has always wanted to go to Rio, but turning up in her school uniform is not the entrance she had in mind. This out-of-character behaviour from her parents leads Ella to think that she may have some kind of illness, and that this is some kind of bucket list holiday. After digging o try to find the truth, she uncovers something much more shocking.

The beginning of the plot moves along at a fast pace and provides a real twist when the action begins – it is far from what I expected but then I didn’t read the blurb prior to reading…! I also felt that soon after the beginning the book I knew our protagonist well; the narration providing a clear and rich insight into Ella and her split personality. Despite first-person narration, Barr is still able to paint a good picture of Ella’s parents, Fiona and Graham. In my opinion, they are the two most loving parents possible, providing Ella with a beautiful home, wonderful life opportunities and support, and endless love and care. Fiona is the most self-less person in the novel; she would clearly give or do anything for her family.

Ella can sometimes come across a little selfish and bratty – increasingly so towards the end of the book. But given she is a 17 year-old girl, eager to maker her own life, this could be seen as an accurate representation of an adolescent girl. Though I known that much of this behaviour is due to Bella outbursts, and there are some outpourings which result in much more horrific consequence. Ella does not share Bella with anyone, not ever her parents, which means Bella’s increasing appearances are becoming more and more difficult to conceal or explain.

The middle of the book trundled along at a good pace, though I found myself getting really frustrated with Ella at times for being – in my opinion – narrow-minded and childish. Whilst I realise the impacts of the real reason her parents took her to Rio is likely to shake anyone, she sometimes wildly overreacted even without the presence of Bella. Upon reflection, there was a lot of going back and forth without a huge amount happening, but it did provide a good insight into other characters in the story, as well as making a nice point about the reality of favelas.

The finale I felt was a bit rushed – when I realised I was coming to the end of the book, I couldn’t quite believe it since I did not think is was near complete nor tied up. There was a bit of a cliff-hanger ending (annoying for stand alone books), though it did skip ahead a year at the end to tie up som loose ends, but in general I felt the ending had potential to be stronger. It was a good ending, just kind of appeared out of nowhere and I thought it could’ve been built up more.

I do feel that this book gets some unnecessary hate online – from previous reviews I have seen, it hasn’t been hugely popular. But I felt the story moved along at a decent pace, it kept the reader engaged, and provided some really unexpected twists. It related back to itself well – small, seemingly insignificant, parts playing a much more major role later on in the book. Upon reflection there was no strong message (IMO) surrounding mental health, it was just a recurring theme throughout the story. Clearly one which has huge impacts on the direction of the novel, but still not forefront enough to develop Ella until the very end.

Personally I was unable to truly relate to any of the characters, not did I find many (other than Ella) very in-depth. Of course this is often the case from single-POV, first-person narration. A good job was done in creating a 3-dimensional Fiona, and conversations between Ella and Christian provided a fairly decent insight into him – though it was more his actions which spoke, indicating his selfless and caring nature. In terms of persona, I felt some of the characters were a bit too brief.

Barr’s writing style is super easy to read, it does not overcomplicate matters, and is a style suiting the target audience. The plot is not hugely complex making it more accessible to younger readers (though I am unsure some of the themes are entirely suitable for younger ages), and it provides a simple entertainment to older readers of the genre.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an easy to read YA, contemporary fiction novel. And I think based on the clever and concise writing style and overall feel from the book, I will be reading her previous novel: The One Memory of Flora Banks. I am awarding this book a 3.5*/5 for an entertaining read and good global insight. I was not a huge fan of the simplicity of the pot, nor lack of point to some parts of the story but I did enjoy it overall.

An artistic teenager with dreams struggles to keep her inner demons hidden. A charmed life she wants for nothing.
Until one day her parents whisk her off to Rio somewhere she has dreamt of but does not understand this sudden departure. She has to find out what their big secret is and when she does her life as she knows it has been nothing but a lie.
She runs away determined to make it on her own and finally understand what the truth about her real parentage is. Life in Rio is far tougher than she realises but with many ups and downs she is determined to make it on her own.
Thank you to netgalley and the author and publisher for an advanced copy of this book.