Little Do We Know by Tamara Ireland Stone // Book Review

Title: Little Do We Know
Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Published: June 5th, 2018
Pages: 416

Synopsis:
Lifelong best friends and next-door neighbors Hannah and Emory have never gone a single day without talking. But now its senior year and they haven’t spoken in three months. Not since the fight, where they each said things they couldn’t take back. They’re aching to break the silence, but those thirty-six steps between their bedroom windows feel more like thirty-six miles.

Then one fateful night, Emory’s boyfriend, Luke, almost dies. And Hannah is the one who finds him and saves his life.

As Luke tries to make sense of his near-death experience, he secretly turns to Hannah, who becomes his biggest confidante. In Luke, Hannah finds someone she can finally talk to about all the questions she’s grappling with. Emory just wants everything to go back to normal–the way it was before the accident. She has no idea why her relationship is spiraling out of control. But when the horrifying reason behind Hannah and Emory’s argument ultimately comes to light, all three of them will be forced work together to protect the one with the biggest secret of all.

---

TW: rape

I'm not going to lie. I was going to DNF this book. That third or fourth chapter where Hannah is at school at her Monday sermon almost killed it for me. I'm not a religious person and I cannot stand it when people try to force their religion on you. I won't tolerate that with a book either. Luckily, for me, I gave this book another chance and realized that this book is not like that. (THANK YOU)

Little Do We Know follows two girls, Emory and Hannah. They were best friends their entire lives. Until hurtful words are said after something serious happens to Emory. This book really follows how these two girl's lives come back together after Emory's boyfriend almost dies and Hannah is the one the finds him and saves his life.

After Luke's experience with death, he questions everything he's ever know. His family wasn't super religious, it wasn't necessarily stated whether or not if they even believed in God. He turns to Hannah and her family to help him figure out what he experienced when he was dead for three minutes.

On top of that, Hannah is also questioning her faith because of the hurtful things that Emory told her. Does she only believe in God because that's what her family believes in. She dapples in meditation, finding that it really helps her. I just wish we would have gotten more from Hannah and finding more about her faith.

This book is filled with serious topics. There's talk of faith, the unknown and rape. I hate that I'm throwing this into this review because it is technically a spoiler. But it's definitely someone should know about before going into this book. This book was absolutely beautiful. The friendship dynamics in this book is inspirational. Heck, this book even had me questioning my beliefs a little bit.

The thing that made me rate this book a four star instead of the five stars that I was going to give it was Luke. I really liked him throughout most of this book. I understand that he's working on figuring out who he is now that he went through his experience. I understand that people have the right to question their faith. I just really hate how Emory went through all that at the end of the book and then he breaks up with her. WTF?

4/5 Stars