Review: Tell me Everything by Sarah Enni

I loved this book. I was worried I was not going to love this book (because I love Sarah Enni, First Draft Podcast is fantastic, and I am always concerned I won't love people in a different medium) but I did.

I loved Ivy. I love that Ivy did bad things and she was wrong basically the whole book. Despite her being wrong I could see why she was doing what she was doing, and I was able to see my behavior reflected in hers. I too would use VEIL as a mystery to solve. I think. I also thought she was such a thoughtful portrayal of social anxiety and isolation.

I really liked that we got to see the contradiction in Ivy. She intensely wants VEIL to be this perfect pure place where everyone is anonymous because that makes her feel safe, but she also wants to make peoples posts into a mystery to solve because that makes her feel special and connected to people in a way she cannot do easily in real life. I have seen a few reviews that seem not to think this was intentional, which is confusing because this is basically the thesis of the last 50 pages?

I thought the social media critique was engaging, you can really see how much Enni loves the internet, but she also shows how the internet is not a perfect pure place. If VEIL were real than the list of bad things her dad gives at the end would almost certainly have happened within the first few days and probably everywhere. But I see the use in the way VEIL was used in the book. And I found the idea of VEIL very endearing. Like snapchat and that dead secret-sharing app had a baby?

I loved Harold. He was an excellent best friend and love interest. I 100% know Harolds, and their laser focus is wonderful and worrying. I liked how he was a bit of a foil to Ivy, classic opposites attract situation.

I found Ivy's relationship with her parents deeply touching. I cried during the part where you are meant to cry. I love a YA with good parents.

Nate was also an interesting character. Through him, I was able to see the ways in which I related to Ivy. I was guessing he was the zine person for a minute (this was VERY unfounded) and was continually trying to match him (and Harold to a lesser extent) up to a VEIL user.

I liked reading a book where the main character does things wrong and learns from them. I also love that reading this didn't feel like being lectured; Ivy felt real to me.

tl;dr I love this book. It felt very special to me, and I am so glad I finally read it.

I gave this book 5 stars on goodreads and finished it on April 24th, 2019.