Author: Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Source: Bloomsbury via NetGalley
Goodreads
From the author of Letters to the Lost comes a heart-wrenching story of two teens with big secrets and a love that could set them free.Review by Nara
Rev Fletcher is battling the demons of his past. But with loving adoptive parents by his side, he’s managed to keep them at bay...until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back.
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 must-read story will once again have readers falling for Brigid Kemmerer’s emotional storytelling.
More Than We Can Tell focuses on one of the side characters from Letters to the Lost, Rev Fletcher. You can definitely read this novel without having read Letters to the Lost, although I would recommend you read both because they're both quite good, and if you are going to read both, definitely go with Letters first because there are some spoilers for some aspects of that book in More Than We Can Tell.
I have to admit, Emma had a lot of unlikeable aspects to her character, especially in how she treated her best friend and her mother. On the other hand, I did like how her story was used to explore things like women in gaming (as a gamer myself, I must admit there is a lot of gender stereotyping, and there are many, many stories of women for example not joining voice chat on online games because of the very valid fear of being attacked for being female). I also found it really cool that she had coded her own game.
Rev was actually so precious, and his backstory was heartbreaking. You can understand why he makes many of the seemingly stupid decisions throughout the novel because of how his upbringing has shaped him as a person. I loved his development arc, especially the development of his relationship with his foster brother.
Overall, I thought this was a very good companion novel to Letters to the Lost. While it may not have the most likeable female lead, the development arcs of both protagonists are quite compelling, making for an excellent novel overall.
Really liked it
RatingsOverall: 8/10
Plot: 4/5
Romance: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 2/5
