The Truth and Lies of Ella Black 
Author: Emily Barr
Publisher: Penguin Teen Australia
Release date: January 2nd 2018
Pages: 345 pages
R.R.P: $17.99
Ella Black seems to live the life most other seventeen-year-olds would kill for. But she hides who she really is from the rest of the world...
I call her Bella because she is the dark side of me.
It's Ella but not. It's bad Ella. Bella.
One day, telling her nothing, her parents whisk her off to Brazil. Determined to find out why, Ella uncovers a terrible secret- and, on the run in Rio de Janeiro, she finds the truth about the deepest darkest side of herself...
My review
Thoughts on the book: The Truth and Lies of Ella Black tells the story of 17 year old Ella Black, a seemingly normal girl on the outside, but in the inside is a completely other story. Ella has a dark side, which she tries to hide so hard from everyone, and her name is 'Bella' which stands for bad Ella. Ella normally gets a feeling that Bella is coming on and so she hides herself away from everyone so that she can't do anyone any damage or so they don't witness what happens. She is coping fine until suddenly her parents pull her out of school and take her on the journey of a life time, her bucket list dream apace Rio de Janeiro. But something is up and Ella thinks her parents have discovered her secret, little does she know that it is way worse than that. Upon discovering what this secret is, Ella runs away and starts living life on the run. But it's a lot harder than she thought and what happens when the secret her parent's tried to hide from her all these years finally catches up to her?
I received a suprise copy of The Truth and Lies of Ella Black from Penguin Teen Australia late last year. I hadn't heard much about the book before but upon reading the back of it I thought it sounded really good and couldn't wait to dive into it. So I finally started it this year and thought it would be a nice quick read but upon reading the first couple of chapters I was not really get into it at all. I think it was because it wasn't really what I was expecting the book to be about at all. When I was about halfway through I was still struggling and thought I would look on Goodreads to see what others thought about the book and found that a lot of people were in the same boat. I don't normally do that but I just had to see if it was just me. However I preserved and kept going and eventually finished it a couple of days later.
The things I did like about the book was the setting. My sister went to Rio de Janeiro two years ago and a lot of the places they talked about she had been so I could see them as I was reading which made the story more interesting for me. The instant love she had for Christian is not something I believe in but I loved that once he learnt everything about her he still liked her for who she was.
The things I didn't like were really a lot but I'm only going to mention a few. For starters who really can easily guess their parents safe number and crack into it and know their parents PIN number for their credit card. Surely after the secret that her parents have been hiding from her they would have learnt to be a bit more careful. I also think the whole idea of running away in a foreign country at 17 was just a little too unbelievable and how lucky Ella was to get by the way she did just seemed to easy. No 17 year old would really be left alone in a country to roam around at their pleasure and not be questioned by anyone. Just seems to unreal for me.
Even though I didn't like The Truth and Lies of Ellla Black very much I would still read more books by Emily Barr including her first book, The One Memory of Flora Banks which I am yet to read.
Rating: 2.5/5
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