Review Detail

Alma knows that if good girls were girls with no questions, she wasn't a good girl. She has SO MANY questions. Most of them revolve around her dad. All she's been told is that he died when she was a baby, and no one will even tell her where he's buried.

And so Alma searches. She enlists the help of her best friend, Julia, and the two girls comb the cemeteries that surround their homes--though Julia is adopted, and she has questions of her own.

Alma's mom isn't helpful at all. She insists that Alma isn't old enough to know/understand/deal with any of the truths that Alma craves, and as a result Alma becomes more and more frustrated and desperate.

ONE SPECK OF TRUTH by Caela Carter is a story of family secrets, big and small lies, and the importance of truth. Alma and her mother are both messes, and my heart ached for both of them through the pages of the book. I confess that I felt less bad for Grace, Alma's mother, since she was making all of the decisions for both of them and could have stopped the pain at any point. That said, their challenges made for a terrific book about family relationships and friendships. Alma is a wonderful protagonist, and readers will root for her to get the answers she so desperately craves.

The ending of ONE SPECK OF TRUTH isn't as messy as life often is, but that's okay. There's plenty of mess leading up to it, and the message of truth as an important foundation for a good relationship is both subtle and powerful.

My thanks to YA Books Central and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.