This Young Adult novel, similar in theme to Room, is a harrowing and desperately sad read. It grips you from page 1 and won’t let go. Though as it is a YA book, despite it hinting at atrocities which Ele suffered through, there is little graphic disturbance.

However, I felt I needed to stop myself from analysing the story too much to get more out of it. I initially questioned the realism of Ele’s knowledge given her circumstances, and the reactions of the people who found her once she escaped her captor were a little hard to believe. It needs reading with an open mind in my opinion or I would have become too frustrated to enjoy the book.

But enjoy the book I did, and it got into my dreams - always a measure of a good read,
A very satisfying ending too.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

#netgalley #outside #sarahannjuckes #proofotheoutside

Despite its dark subject matter I found this book extremely sensitively handled..

Reminiscent of “Room” it builds a convincing picture and has a satisfying conclusion.

It is clearly a book aimed at children and young adults but doesn’t suffer for this.

3.75 stars

I found the first part of this book frustrating...What was going on? Who were the others? Where were they? 
Nothing was clear.... was any of it even real? How old was she???

The frustration of being slow drip fed information was actually a great tactic,as I raced through the book for some answers.
Ele was an interesting and unique narrator... though I question the actions of the people that find her.
By the time we got to the end of the book,I was pleased to have the majority of my questions answered and a lot clarified .
Definitely something different...in a good way.